Drug Demand Reduction

 

Our commitment

Compulsory drug treatment centres are the dominant approach to dealing with people with drug problems in the region. Some of the practices recorded in such centres challenge drug dependence treatment principles endorsed by UNODC and WHO. Providing evidence-based treatment and care for drug-dependent users is a priority of the RPF.

The RPF will provide a framework that will address not only ATS and opiates, but also attempt to respond to emerging drugs of dependence, presently being produced and trafficked into the region.

  1. Prevention: Support government and civil society to plan, implementation, monitor and evaluate a range of evidence-based interventions for the prevention of drug abuse for at-risk youth in school settings, among women and in the workplace.
  2. Treatment: Identify, develop and sustain centers of excellence for training on drug treatment and care, establish community-based treatment programmes, establish drug
    treatment networks to identify and exchange best practices and finally, develop and implement minimum standards of treatment and care
  3. Reintegration: Sensitize the criminal justice systems in Member States to needs of drug users through appropriate community-policing and criminal justice strategies and improve the criminal justice response in this manner. Establish community-based reintegration and aftercare programmes. Help to de-stigmatize recovering drug users through implementation of an integrated communication strategy.

As part of its communications strategy, the Regional Centre will also support provision of the following services:

  1. Collect and manage data on prevalence, emerging trends and programme effectiveness.
  2. Serve as a regional forum for information exchange.
  3. Develop broad-based partnerships for demand reduction and drug control.

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Our main achievements in 2010

  • Opening of the first methadone clinic in Cambodia, with support from UNODC on methadone procurement.
  • Reduction in drug use relapse rates at UNODC-supported project sites in Viet Nam.
  • Reduction in numbers of opium addicts at UNODC-supported project sites in Lao PDR.
  • Increase in the momentum, advocacy and communication with governments to shift away from detaining people who use drugs in compulsory centres for drug users (CCDUs). The alternative being advocated for by UNODC is for the expansion of evidence-based, voluntary, drug treatment services in the community. Increased interest and willingness by some governments in the region to explore voluntary, community-based drug treatment approaches, evidenced by the study visits requested by some governments to visit and observe the new Cure and Care clinics in Malaysia. This follows the high-level Inter-Governmental Regional Consultation on Compulsory Centres for Drug Users organised by UNODC, ESCAP and UNAIDS in December 2010.

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Our main achievements in 2009

  • Establishment of baseline information on ATS use in Viet Nam, to help inform evidence-based responses.
  • More effective capacity for the treatment of drug dependence in Cambodia, Myanmar and Viet Nam, through initiation of the Treatnet II project.
  • Establishment of 14 drug counselling clinics in Viet Nam and 10 Commune Counselling Teams in Cambodia.
  • Piloting of a community-based drug dependence treatment programme in Cambodia.
  • Support to the reintegration of drug users back in to the community in Viet Nam.
  • Development of a position statement by the UN Country Team in Cambodia advocating a shift from using compulsory centres for drug users to voluntary, community and evidence-based drug dependence treatment.

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