|
|
|
 |
|
Holistic approach needed for fight against drugs
8/1/2010
By Karen Alleyne
Addressing his audience during the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) lunchtime lecture which was held at their headquarters on Friday, Pastor Victor Roach, President of the National Committee for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (NCPADD), brought the issue of drug abuse and the need to implement effective treatment to the forefront of public debate.
Eloquently noting that there is a need for Government to take a more proactive approach when dealing with issues pertaining to drug offences within Barbados, he called for a more holistic and integrated approach to be adopted.
Stressing the need for us to be more insightful, he said: “Let me just share with you what the concept of the drug treatment core is. It has been proved that even at the time of arrest, persons are often involved in behaviours that are linked to drugs. I know normally we talk about possession of drugs, apparatus shaped for the drug used and persons who are trafficking in drugs who are transporting in drugs and so on. However, there is another category that Government needs to pay close attention to and that is drug-related offences. This is when the person is behaving in such a way in order to acquire drugs or drugs are in the person’s bloodstream.”
Highlighting alarming statistics relating to the conditions of persons who enter the criminal justice system, Roach insisted that there is a growing need for a drug rehabilitation programme that addresses the issues of substance abuse in a more effective way.
“The Barbados arrestee study of 2003 showed that when people are arrested, they have found in the Barbadian scene that 50 per cent of the individuals arrested had cocaine in their system 30 days prior to their arrests. Then they also found that 17 per cent of those arrested had marijuana in their systems. Therefore, the drug treatment core is a mechanism to help provide treatment for persons who need it to make sure that they get back on their feet.”
Email
us your comments. | Top
|
|
|
|
|
