The plan for a National Strategy for the fight against addiction and its pillars were presented on Tuesday by the President of the Cyprus National Addictions Authority (CNAA), Dr. Christos Minas, and his colleagues, to a delegation of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB).
Members of the Board will be in Cyprus until Thursday and in this context, meetings have already been scheduled on behalf of the CNAA with the competent bodies of the Republic of Cyprus in order to discuss the implementation of the international drug control conventions and possible ways to improve the policy framework in the field of illicit drugs of dependency.
The President of the CNAA, Dr. Christos Minas in his statements to journalists said that the International Narcotics Control Board, the INCB, was created by the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961. He added that the purpose of this Board is to implement all international conventions related to drugs, monitor implementation and make recommendations for improvement of these conventions to all states.
He noted that after 25 years, the Board is paying Cyprus a high level visit with Commission Council Member Cornelis P. de Joncheere and Ha Fung Cilla Ng, on behalf of the Secretariat of the Commission.
He further added that the CNAA, as the highest national coordinating body for drugs - not only illicit drugs, but also licit substances in Cyprus - has coordinated and organised the visits and dialogue that the INCB will have with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Justice, the Pharmaceutical Services, the State Chemistry Department, the Customs Department and various NGOs working in the field of addictions.
He also said that the Authority will present and discuss with the Board the framework of the National Strategy, the plan and the pillars of action, while at a later stage INCB will send the suggestions and comments with the sole purpose of improving and bringing Cyprus into compliance, which, as Minas said, "is already at a high level with all the international drug conventions."
On behalf of INCB, Cornelis P. de Joncheere said that the INCB is a Vienna-based body established to maintain oversight of the global drug problem. He pointed out that addictive substances are a global, difficult issue adding that as a Board "we are working with all countries to see what we can do through cooperation to reduce this problem but also to see what we can learn from experience in terms of prevention."
He added that part of this work is that visits to countries are made on a regular basis and that in the coming days there will be discussions at local level with the authorities to look at all the different aspects of the drugs problem.
Source: Cyprus News Agency