The National Drug Abuse Control Council, the Ministry of Health and a team from the CARICOM Secretariat is hosting a three-day work shop, July 8-10, 2009, in the Conference Room of the National Sports Council to discuss the continued growth in the misuse of illegal substances such as marijuana, cocaine and alcohol, most obvious among teenagers in Belize.
The team comprises of technical officers from the CARICOM Secretariat and Members of the Technical Advisory Body for the Regional Drug Demand Reduction Strategy to provide in-country technical support for institutional strengthening to the Belize NDACC. Members of the team are Beverly Reynolds, Program Manager for Sustainable Development in the CARICOM Secretariat; Ester Best, Vice-Chair Technical Advisory Body and Responsible for Institutional Strengthening; Deborah Thorton, Administrative Assistant, Illicit Drugs; Howard Gough, Manager, Richmond Fellowship Jamaica; Michael Tucker, Executive Director, National Drug Council Jamaica and Arnulfo Kantun, Program Coordinator, Illicit Drugs, CARICOM.
Director of NDACC, Esner Vellos, said that the intervention comes at a perfect time because NDACC is in a recovery stage and the workshop will boost the process. He said that NDACC hopes to focus on “Primary drug prevention, prevention education, alternatives to incarceration; development of anti-drugs plan and data collection/information systems.
He said the exercise also represents an effort to strengthen the country’s capacity to fight drug abuse and also to provide rehabilitation facilities with standards of care for drug users in a bid to reduce the demand for illicit drugs.
Beverly Reynolds, Program Manager for Sustainable Development in the CARICOM Secretariat, said, “The CARICOM team will be assisting the NDACC in the area of institutional strengthening and will provide guidance to enable the adoption of a more strategic approach to drug demand reduction through several initiatives.” She said that the team is scheduled to meet with members of government and the education sector to sensitize them about best practices in regional primary prevention programmes and to advocate for the provision of resources to establish government-run rehabilitation programmes and establish minimum standards of care in non-government facilities.
According to a press release from the Government of Belize, Belize is one of the first CARICOM countries targeted for in-country technical support in drug rehabilitation and prevention initiatives under the 9th EDF Caribbean Integration Support Programme.
