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VIENNA / DRUG CONTROL
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STORY: VIENNA / DRUG CONTROL
TRT: 2.52
SOURCE: UNODC
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 MARCH 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
11 MARCH 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
1. Wide shot, “M” building of the Vienna International Centre
2. Close up, poster of the meeting
3. Wide shot, meeting
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director UNODC:
“If we want to control the drug problem we have to apply law enforcement to reduce supply but equally to reduce demand, and there health plays a key role. What we have in mind for health is recognizing, and member states are doing so growingly but not all yet, that drug addiction is a health condition, a vulnerable condition, it is physical, psychological, emotional, perhaps contextual, due to low income, being a the margin of society, family conditions, etc. It has to be dealt with as an illness, and therefore it has to be dealt with by doctors and not by policemen.”
4. Cutaway, media covering meeting
5. Cutaway, Costa at podium during meeting
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director UNODC:
“All of these countries are suffering, they are not the cause of the problem, they are being attacked by traffickers with a very serious destabilizing impact on the economic situation, on the political situation, and generally speaking on the ability of these countries to progress as we were hoping in the trajectory of the millennium development goals.”
7. Cutaway, photographers
8. Wide shot, drug test kit
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Alan Campbell, Home Office Minister, United Kingdom:
“We think the situation has changed quite significantly. There are fewer people smoking cannabis now, but those that are tend to be binging on cannabis, and it also tends to be ‘skunk’ a particularly virulent form [of cannabis]. The medical evidence on that is mixed, but we think that in the absence of that definitive evidence, we should do the safe and right thing, and reclassify it to send out a very strong message, to young people in particular, that they should not start smoking cannabis. We are also concerned about the role of the cannabis farms and the arrival of organized crime in cannabis production. Those things together make us believe that the time was right [to reclassify cannabis]. ”
10. Wide shot, portfolio with examples of different types of drugs
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Ovchinnikova, human rights activist:
“I think that the recognition of the problem first is one of the most important things, and also seeing people using drugs not as criminals, doing something which is against the law and which is not supported by society rules, but seeing them as ill people who really need some help and support. If every person in society would feel that he or she would have some responsibility about what is going on around them, they can see that if someone is using drugs, probably they are lacking something- maybe attention, maybe he is a difficult situation, maybe he needs my help and support. It is for society in general and the government first of all, to see drug use more as a medical problem rather than a criminal case.”
6. Pan right, examples of drugs in bags
The United Nations’ policy-making body for drug-related matters, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), will today (12 March) conclude a two-day session in Vienna to review the effectiveness of drug control measures over the last decade.
In an interview for UNifeed, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa said that in order to control the drug problem there was a need to apply law enforcement to reduce the supply, but equally to reduce demand for drugs. There, he added, there was a need to recognize that drug addiction was a health condition. Costa stressed that drug addiction had to be dealt with “by doctors and not by policemen.”
The UNODC chief also pointed out that while drug trafficking used to be relatively predictable, and coming from well established routes, today a number of very vulnerable countries were being attacked by drug traffickers, citing as examples West Africa, with drug trafficking of cocaine destined for Europe; the Caribbean caught in a “crossfire” between the Andean producing region and a major consumer market in North America; and Mexico. He said that all those countries were suffering although they were “not the cause of the problem”.
UK Home Office minister Alan Campbell said during a separate interview that the situation in the UK regarding cannabis consumption had changed “quite significantly”, with fewer people smoking it, but usage dominated by a stronger type of it now. Campbell said that the UK was also concerned about the role of cannabis farms and the arrival of organized crime in cannabis production, and that those things together made the government believe that “the time was right” to reclassify cannabis.
The British government recently implemented a change in cannabis classification bringing it up to the stricter ‘class B’ after a former home secretary had downgraded it to a ‘class C’ drug in 2003.
Over 1,400 participants from 130 countries, NGOs and international organizations took part in the CND session.
One of the human rights activists participating in the meeting, former drug user Maria Ovchinnikova said that seeing drug addicts not as criminals, but as ill people who really need help and support was one of the most important things.
