CADCA team in Vienna for United Nations Meeting

I was fortunate to be part of a four-person CADCA team that traveled to Vienna, Austria, last week to attend the annual meeting of the United Nations (UN) Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND), the principal policy-making body within the UN system on drug control issues. Despite cold weather, the CADCA team received a warm welcome from many of the ambassadors and delegates of the approximately 100 nations represented at the meeting, including Mexico, Guatemala, South Africa, Peru, Brazil and Colombia, where CADCA already is working with local groups.

Of particular significance to me was the resolution submitted to the CND by the United States delegation entitled “Promoting community-based drug use prevention.” The resolution, which was adopted by the CND, recognizes the importance of the involvement of multiple community sectors and building comprehensive and effective drug use prevention coalitions. It also calls for countries to include community prevention in their national strategies and support training and technical assistance for community-based drug prevention efforts.

At a CADCA-sponsored a luncheon for approximately 50 people I gave a brief overview of community coalitions, the Drug Free Community Support Program here in the United States and CADCA’s efforts to build coalitions internationally. CADCA has played a key role in disseminating information to countries around the world about the importance of the coalition strategy to achieve population-level reductions in substance abuse rates.

Finally, I am pleased to note that during this meeting, CADCA became an official member of the Vienna Non-Government Organization Committee which represents the interests of a diverse group of NGOs. Leaders of this group encouraged CADCA to become involved in a variety of UN activities, including the observance of the International Day Against Drug Abuse to be held on June 26th. We will announce plans for a U.S. observance in the coming weeks.

You can learn more about CADCA’s International Programs at http://www.cadca.org/international.

This blog post was written by Eduardo Hernández-Alarcón, Ph.D., CADCA's Vice President of International Programs. You may reach Dr. Hernandez at ehernandez@cadca.org