War without frontiers

The war on drugs is always an uphill battle. The member states of the EU are seeking new measures to combat a phenomenon that “is by its very nature changeable and dynamic”. The EU treaties recognize the need to regulate the problem also at the continental level, especially as regards the fields of public health and of justice and security. But the data constantly furnished by the national authorities and by the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction, directed by Wolfgang Götz, confirm a very worrying situation.Drug consumption and narcocriminality. “Strengthening cooperation in terms of the war against narcocriminality” and “reducing the repercussions of drug consumption”: these are the two main objectives of the four-year action plan (2009-2012) against drugs adopted by the Commission last week. It is the second part of the “anti-drug strategy” that the European Council had adopted in 2004 for the whole period 2005/2012, it in turn incorporated in ‘The Hague Programme’ (justice, liberty, security). Before formulating the new four-year plan, which will now be taken into consideration by the Council of the 27 before being adopted by the end of the year, the Commission drew up a balance sheet of all that has been achieved so far. Some objectives have been achieved – according to the documents presented by the Executive -, including a “greater convergence of the policies of member states in terms of drugs”. Still too many deaths. Yet the figures presented by Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, Commissioner for Justice, Liberty and Security, are shocking. “In the EU it is estimated that the total number of regular or occasional drug users amounts to 70 millions for cannabis, 12 millions for cocaine, 9.5 millions for ecstasy and 11 millions for amphetamines”. “At least half a million” EU citizens, aged between 16 and 65, “officially” receive substitute treatments for drug consumption. Some 2 million people have “serious problems of drug addiction”, while 7,500 die of overdose each year. Barrot emphasized the need to “raise the awareness of vulnerable groups, young people in particular, to the risks linked to drugs”. Five main objectives. The approach of the EU strategy against drugs, Barrot explained, is “aimed at reducing both the demand and supply of drugs”. The action plan drawn up by the Executive pursues five “main objectives”: reducing the demand for drugs; heightening the awareness of public opinion; mobilizing citizens in a preventive perspective; improving international cooperation; and facilitating a greater understanding of the drugs phenomenon. “The proposed actions include measures aimed at improving the quality, availability and funding of programmes of treatment and reduction of the harmful effects aimed at drug users and the adoption of customs and police operations aimed at improving intelligence to combat the criminal groups that operate on a wide scale”, both in the EU and along the main narcotrafficking routes, from the Mediterranean to Afghanistan and as far as Latin America. Monitoring Centre in Lisbon. The European Union established, fifteen years ago, its own specialized agency on this front: the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is based in Lisbon. Its role consists “in the gathering, analysis and publication of objective and comparative information on drugs, so as to provide a uniform picture of the phenomenon at the European level”. Its remit is to furnish the national and European authorities with data and instruments (statistics, analyses, recommendations) aimed at the preparation and formulation of laws and policies to combat or prevent the phenomenon. “Other beneficiaries – explains a briefing of the EMCDDA – include professionals and researchers and, more generally, the mass media and public opinion”. The Monitoring Centre is due to hold an international conference on the problem of drug addiction in Lisbon in the spring of 2009. Seminar at Toulon. Meanwhile a seminar on ways of combating drug trafficking in the Mediterranean, sponsored by the current French Presidency of the EU, is due to be held in Toulon from 24 to 26 September. The meeting was decided in April, when leading authorities in the fight against drug trafficking through the Mediterranean met in Paris; the delegates came from many countries (Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Mauritania, UK, Spain, Tunisia) and from such institutions as Europol, Interpol and the European Commission. The main proposal that came out of this meeting was the setting up of an “operational centre”, to be based in Toulon, for “the analysis of maritime information relating to drugs in the Mediterranean”. Its purpose is to “reinforce the operational links and exchange of information between the partner countries”.