World Forum back in Stockholm

This Week, May 21-23, The World Forum Against Drugs will once again be arranged in Stockholm. Drug restrictive NGOs and experts will gather, as well as HM Queen Silvia, the U.S. and Russia drug czars and Mexico's secretary of health.

The drug issue is not quite in balance internationally, the meeting is an opportunity to learn about new research and also to stand up for the UN drug conventions.

– There is a need for a global cooperation to create a restrictive and balanced drug policy. The international debate has been dominated more or less by legalization lobbyists. We want to limit the use of illicit drugs and we will never give up working for this, says Per Johansson, program director for the conference, to Drugnews.

It is for the third time the World Forum will be held in Stockholm. After the first meeting in 2008, the WFAD (World Federation Against Drugs) was founded. WFAD is an umbrella for non-profit local movements around the world that work for a drug-free world.

– We put more focus on prevention, targeting the needs for intervention before the problems arise. Today the focus is mostly on treatment. But even addicts should naturally receive care and help, says Johansson, also representing Europe in the organization's board of directors.

The themes of the conference this year are human rights and children's rights to protection from drugs, primary prevention, and the drug situation in Latin America.

In Latin America, increased trafficking and drug-related violence have made well known former politicians and others to advocate the legalization of some drugs. At the meeting in Stockholm this will be questioned. The Mexican Secretary of health, Solomón Chertorivski Woldenberg, participates. In his country gang-fights, drug trafficking and killings have escalated so the stability of the entire Mexican society is challenged.

It is more of an elite position to want to give up to the drug problem: According to the organizers of WFAD, there are several grassroots movements in Latin American countries that say no to legalization. The meeting has also invited NGO organizations from, among others, Peru, Chile, Mexico and Brazil.

• WORLD FORUM/ Several hundred participants are expected to visit the three-day conference in Stockholm. Some 50 lecturers, scientists, experts and people from NGO organizations are expected to participate. The World Forum will be inaugurated by HM Queen Silvia. The opening panel includes Maria Larsson Minister for Children and the Elderly from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the U.S. drug coordinator Gil Kerlikovski, Viktor Ivanov, Russia, and American cannabis expert, Professor Bertha Madras.

Av Drugnews

Publicerad: 2012-05-15 18:35