CANADA’S SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO EXAMINE CURRENT DRUG POLICIES

David Beall

 1.         What is the role of CICAD in relation to illegal drugs? 

            CICAD’s role was conceived by the Program of Action agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1986.  CICAD was created to be the expression of states working together against the abuse of and illegal trafficking in drugs. 

            In 1986, there were 8 countries working within CICAD—that number is now 34, all the countries of the hemisphere. 

            CICAD’s purpose was to provide help where needed, and that is a principal role today.  It works through mutual assistance—the transfer of technology and/or experience to countries wishing to have it.  The purpose is, of course, to avoid the painful and dangerous repetition of experience.  Thus CICAD has a primary role in direct assistance, and Canada, through its agencies (for example RCMP) has contributed much to the sharing of knowledge.  Whether in control of the movements of commercial light arms, in assistance for demand reduction efforts via counseling or via programs for training nurses, or in assistance for effective liaison among enforcement agencies via the RCMP, the role has been both substantial and leading. 

            The 2^nd role of CICAD is to serve as a policy forum for the countries of the hemisphere.  In this role CICAD becomes a crucible for policy, and in this sense the action of CICAD’s expert groups which establish, through debate and discussion, the Model Regulations which then become national law, is a first example. Another is the negotiation, in response to the first Summit of the Americas, of the Hemispheric Anti-Drug Strategy.  And the current prime example is the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM), created by open negotiation among the partners as a result of the 2^nd Summit of the Americas, held in Santiago in April of 1998.  The MEM in the time since 1998 has been designed and negotiated, put into practice and completed, with the first evaluations delivered to the 3^rd Summit of the Americas at Quebec City in April of 2001. 

            Since then the recommendations arising from those evaluations have been acted on by all the countries of the hemisphere, with a follow up report on progress made in implementing them in January of 2002. 

            These 2 roles—assistance and policy development—for the transnational phenomenon of drug abuse and illicit trafficking are the primary responsibilities of CICAD. 

2.         What are the organization’s means, tools and resources? 

            The organization’s most basic means are the gathered wills of its members.  Though not a financial “calculable”, this factor of will, even “goodwill” in a business analogy, is the mainspring that drives CICAD forward. 

            CICAD’s second means are the talents and accumulated experience of its members, and it is more and more apparent that this resource is not—and cannot be—a monopoly.  The work is varied because behavior, techniques, and materials  are not the same anywhere at anytime, but communicate themselves to other places all the time. 

            And the final means is resources in the sense of budget. CICAD is funded firstly by appropriations from the Regular Fund of the Organization of American States (OAS).  In addition to these funds, which constitute about 35% of CICAD’s working budget, contributions from member states, from permanent observer states and from other partner organizations provide the other 2/3 of CICAD’s budget. 

            Our tools are firstly the law, which originates and directs all actions.  They are also the common methodologies which countries adopt for various operations, and in this sense for instance, anti-money laundering techniques are basically replicable throughout our operating area.  They are the Inter-American Conventions and their implementing regulations.  They include our communication networks as well, and an illustration is the network operating against the diversion of precursor chemicals.  They are also the national master plans or strategies which have now been achieved throughout the hemisphere.  The MEM itself is explicitly a tool, a diagnostic whose purpose is to quicken and to produce action. 

            Resources already mentioned touched human qualities before finances.  In fact the best knowledge, the useful information, is worth more in the context of useful outputs than simply attempting to crush everything into money terms.

3.                  What is the organization’s assessment of the illegal drug situation in the Americas?  

Our assessment of the situation has been electronically delivered for your use.  It consists of evaluations of the state of efforts being made by all 34 countries on a national basis as well as an evaluation made hemispherically.  That first assessment is followed by national reports on implementing the recommendations made to individual countries, thus completing the full two-year cycle.  It consists of evaluation, recommendation, response on implementation and then, to close, reports on progress made. 

The assessment is made on criteria negotiated by the members.  All participate. 

It is carried out by experts appointed by the countries for the purpose.  They follow procedures that are also negotiated by the states themselves.  They work on the basis of information supplied officially, in a standard format, responding to indicators that are also the result of negotiations and also applicable to all equally. 

Thus the assessment for the years 1999 and 2000 is available to you, with recommendation implementation follow-up in some considerable, yet easily located detail.  Beyond being specific assessments, they are to the point. 

            For the purpose of this hearing I would add on a personal basis that the situation in the hemisphere is a mosaic, better characterized as an assembly than a situation.  Overall, I would say that progress is being made on consumption on some key drugs in certain regions.  Specifically, there is progress on cocaine and heroin, to a lesser degree, in North America.  But also in North America, the use of synthetic drugs is rising, while in South America and the Caribbean consumption is appearing and causing concern in regions that were either free of such consumption or had experienced consumption at low levels.  And all of this is in flux.  Attention is increasing throughout the hemisphere to the misuse and the ensuing damage that occurs with legal substances, which by any measure in any place is far more costly to national economies than are the familiar illegal substances.  For the future, concern with these items, particularly alcohol and tobacco, is like to keep rising as their costs to society both become larger and become more of a strain for medical systems.  Diversion of or misuse of medically controlled substances is common, rising, and capturing more attention. 

            As for supply, I believe it is safe to state that practical judgment indicates that there will be, in all of our futures, a readily available product or substance whose effects, whatever their attraction in the moment, will damage consumers and those around them.  I would add that the reality with which responsible authorities have to deal has increased their commitment to intercept illegal substances and those that are illegally diverted.  They will not desist, but this alone will not suffice to save people.  In other words, there is more complexity by far than any given set of measures can be expected to overcome.

4.                  What are the policy orientations of the organization? 

CICAD has policy preferences and orientations stated in the Hemispheric Anti-Drug Strategy.  Thus, the organization proceeds from an emphasis on balance between supply and demand efforts.  Within this policy, addiction problems are viewed from a health policy standpoint.  CICAD’s operating philosophy is founded on the need to confront what is a transnational network with a cooperative response.  CICAD and CICAD member countries apply the same outlook beyond the region by means of active partnerships with U.N. organs, with the European Union, with countries such as Japan and Korea, and with many functional and regional organizations.  CICAD’s overall policy is designed to enable the most useful and germane information to be applied directly to problems, and to do so efficiently.  At the present time that means a particular focus, on finding and using the best information available from local sources in the first instance and from likely regional correspondents through national observatories.  This concept is new in practice, but offers real promise.  Member countries are raising attention given to National Drug Commissions, whose structural strength, budget dependability, professional preparation and continuity of personnel policies are all fundamental to real-world success.