"The prevention of drug addiction is an integral part of the measures that have been developed by the European Union" and above all "the reduction in demand is an important part of our public health plan for 2003/2008": Markos Kyprianou, EU Commissioner for health and consumer protection, spoke today on the Day against Drugs that has been established by the UN. "But drugs are not just an internal problem of the EU", stated Benita Ferrero‑Waldner, in charge of foreign relations: "International cooperation and the sharing of responsibility are the basic principles of our outward action". "As the world’s first donors, we help the drug producing countries that are outside the EU boundaries to get out of poverty", by offering "the rural populations alternative options to the farming" of plants that are then processed to make drugs. Likewise, Europe "should help some nations to reduce drug use more effectively and limit the health and social damages that are associated with it". Financial aids for these plans "have doubled up over the last 3 years". The plans that have been started "by the member states and the Commission in the third countries have reached 500 million euros in 2005", mostly concentrated in Afghanistan and Latin America: for the latter, the main purpose "is to reduce coke production in the Andean region".
