Cambodia to Mobilize Whole Society to Fight against Drugs

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 07, 2003

Cambodia to Mobilize Whole Society to Fight against Drugs

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Cambodia concluded its first-ever national workshop on drugs Tuesday, determined to mobilize whole society to fight against the drug abuse, which has become a challenge to Cambodia's economic and health development.

More than 500 people from military, police and relevant institute participated in the two-day workshop together with many regional and international experts in the field of drug control.

The participants agreed that the government must place drug control at the top of its list of priorities.

They also urged the government to take a more effective multi-sectoral approach to control illicit drugs, enhance cooperation between the government, NGOs and the private sectors, and mobilizecivil society in a managed, coordinated and systematic approach targeting those at the highest risk, especially the youth.

At the same time, they stressed that the existing provincial drug control committees must be strengthened and that commune drugcontrol committees be established in priority areas of the countrywhere drug use is most apparent.

All participates appealed the mass media, especially TV, radio,newspapers, magazines and cinemas to get drug awareness messages to the public to help people be aware of the harm of drugs and prevent themselves from using them.

Although government's efforts to crack down on the use and trafficking of drugs have been fortified in recent years, a 2002 report conducted by the International Narcotics Control Board noted that Cambodia remains a major supplier of cannabis and a transit country for heroin.

The Cambodian government is also more and more concerned with the increase in drug injections and unsafe sex under the influenceof drugs, which have contributed to the increased spreading of HIV/AIDs transmission, according to a Narcotic official in Cambodia.

"In the last two years, drug abuse has increased among teenage school children, 18 to 25 year old university students, well-to-doyouth, workers in labor-intensive industries, sex workers and karaoke girls," Teng Savong, secretary-general of Cambodia's National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD), said at the workshop, which opened here Monday.

Teng Savong said the abuse has spread to middle-class and poor youth and street children as the prices of Methamphetamine has dropped from one US dollar to 0.60 dollar per tablet. Sometimes the drugs are offered free to youth at first and then they are asked to commit crimes.

Heroin, Morphine and Amphetamine-type Stimulants (ATS) including Amphetamine, Ecstasy and particularly Methamphetamine have been smuggled into Cambodia through the provinces bordering Thailand.

In 2002, the Cambodian authorities arrested 227 criminals on drugs, of them, 24 were foreigners. And in the first semester of 2003, the authorities arrested 81 criminals and seized 56,665 tablets of Methamphetamine. The figure, compared with the same period of 2002, shows a 28.68 percent increase in the seizure of Methamphetamine.

He said that although the Cannabis plantation throughout the country has dropped 80 percent since the government's drug suppress campaigns led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, there have been some indications of spreading cultivation in some provinces along the Mekong river from mid-2002.

In 2002, a total of 11 hectares and 9,525 square meters of Cannabis plantations were eradicated in 11 provinces and municipalities.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Improving Thai-Cambodian Relations in Good Progress

Thailand Sends Envoys to Cambodia to Restore Diplomatic Ties

Cambodia, Thailand Restore Full Diplomatic Relations

SARS -- an Opportunity China Reshuffles Public Health, Disease Prevention System ( 3 Messages)

SARS Virus Genomic Sequencing Raises Vaccine Hopes ( 2 Messages)

70 Chinese Navy Sailors Killed in Submarine Disaster ( 8 Messages)

Iraq War Reshapes Military Landscape: News Analysis ( 9 Messages)

CCTV English Channel Landing in United States ( 2 Messages)