Consultation on drug policy reform underway in Accra
Key stakeholders in drugs control in the West African sub region are meeting in Accra to draft a communique that highlights a common position for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS).
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The meeting is organised by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
UNGASS, a meeting of UN member states that assesses and debates global issues such as health, gender, or in this case, the world’s drug control priorities, is scheduled to take place in April 2016.
Opening the Regional Consultation on Drug Policy Reform in Africa in Accra last Tuesday, the Commissioner for the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD), Ms Christian Kafando, called on the international community to assist West African countries in the fight against the drug menace.
She said drug trafficking was an international issue so West African countries should not be left alone to bear the full burden of the fight against criminal organisations that were often better equipped than the institutions fighting them.
Ms Kafando said the international community must share the burden created by drug trafficking through West Africa from South America and Asia and being sold to Europe and North America.
Illicit drugs
She urged nations whose citizens consumed large quantities of illicit drugs to play their part and seek humane ways of reducing demand for those drugs.
Ms Kafando said African voices were needed to urge countries to not only consider what happened within their borders, but also the countries which bore the brunt of the cost in human lives, in loss of human security and in foregone human development.
Drug trafficking
Ms Kafando urged all to recognise that the violence related to drug trafficking in some countries and regions and the lack of access to those areas, harmed reduction measures and treatment in others and was a problem for all.
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She said since Mr Kofi Annan convened the WACD and tasked President Obasanjo, the chairman, to take a holistic look at the impact of drug trafficking on the region, it had emerged that drug and drug money affected the stability of countries in the region and their development prospects.
“Together we have brought an African voice to the global drug policy reform debate and with our support, drug policy has became an issue taken up by civil society in West Africa. Now we need to ensure that this translates into changes to drug policies in our countries”, she said.
However, Ms Kafando said Africa’s voice should be integrated into the global debate and for that to happen, the continent needed to speak up and act in unity which was not happening now.