Vienna, 15 mar ( EFE).- The programme cooperation between Latin America and the EU policy on drugs (COPOLAD), who leads Spain, will draw up a pioneer “White paper” on Narcotics to serve as a reference to both sides of the Atlantic.
The book, which will be developed by experts from both continents, will analyse the effectiveness of policies on drugs with the “scientific evidence” available, today explained to Efe Francisco de AsÃs BabÃn, delegate of the National Plan on drugs of Spain.
Aims to help State policy-makers to make decisions, added the Spanish officer.
“How much good can have, to make decisions, information on what was or was not what worked”, said BabÃn, to emphasise that pioneer, is a project because there is no “white paper” on drugs more than national sphere.
COPOLAD, born in early 2011, with headquarters in Madrid and funded by the European Union, is a structure consisting of Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay.
Also collaborate, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador, Romania and Poland, as well as the European Observatory for drugs and drug addiction (EMCDDA) and the Inter-American Commission for the Control of the abuse of drugs (CICAD), among others.
Spain proposed the development of the document to their partners at a meeting during the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations in Vienna, but the reception was so good that it was decided to adopt the initiative without delay.
“While we do not intended in any way that at the meeting of yesterday a decision, the case is that all members strongly supported the project.” “Therefore, we can say that we came with an approach only to expose it and we’re going with the conclusion that we are working on this,” said BabÃn.
For his part, Teresa Salvador-Llivina, Coordinator of COPOLAD, stressed in statements to Efe: “At the moment it is very interesting to review what we know and what we have to know where the situation points” policy on drugs.
“Hope will be a reference point, because no one has done this exercise so far and is therefore an important contribution in the framework of a consortium of agencies public”, he stressed, and noted that they expect that the document is published at the beginning of 2014.
The objectives of COPOLAD among the coordinating agencies and the national observatories of drugs, as well as promote the creation of a bi-regional dialogue on policies of narcotic drugs, both in the fight against drug trafficking and the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Salvador-Llivina said one of the tasks in which has worked in the first year of the Consortium is to begin to harmonize with the Latin American partners a set of indicators to evaluate drug policies evenly.
“Is a process of complicated consensus,” said the expert, but he is expected to be achieved complete harmonization of indicators between the two regions before the completion of the programme of COPOLAD in mid-2014.
