United Nations

“Rainbow” Anti-Drug Association and United Nations
To Map Drug Abuse Trends, Review Global Strategy
 
 

VIENNA. 25 October (UN Information Service) --  The individual and social risks posed by drug addiction and “global answers to a problem without frontiers” will be the focus of an international meeting which starts tomorrow in San Patrignano, Italy.

 Organized by “Rainbow”, an international association against drugs, in cooperation with the Vienna-based United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), the meeting will bring together scientific experts as well as prominent figures who support the non-governmental group’s strategies for drug abuse prevention and addict recovery. The therapeutic communities affiliated with Rainbow share the view that drug-taking impacts not only the individual, but also the broader society. 

 The three-day meeting, which has the patronage of the President of Italy, will hear a message from Secretary-General Kofi Annan, read on Mr. Annan’s behalf by UNDCP Executive Director Pino Arlacchi.

 Tomorrow morning, Rainbow will present an award to Queen Silvia of Sweden in recognition of “her unwavering commitment to the fight against drug abuse”.
 
 Rainbow President Andrea Muccioli and Mr. Arlacchi will also address tomorrow morning’s meeting. 

 On Saturday, 28 October, Jorge Quiroga Ramirez, Vice-President of Bolivia, will keynote a Conference on  “Drugs: global answers to a problem without frontiers”, jointly organized by Rainbow and UNDCP. It will  be attended - among others -  by United Kingdom Anti-Drug Coordinator Keith Hellawell; George Estevienart, Executive Director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction; Eva Klamt of the European Parliament; and Sir Jack Stewart-Clark, former Vice-President of the European Parliament.

 Also during the meeting, high school students will attend workshops with experts.
  
 The conference aims at tracing an accurate map of the drug abuse phenomenon, to project probable trends over the next few years and to review international strategies of prevention and demand reduction two years after the UN General Assembly Special Session on drug control.