Washington D.C, August 17-18. This meeting was organized in the context of the joint program between the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD/OAS) to support CICAD's Demand Reduction Expert Group's project for "the development of guiding instruments to implement drug demand reduction policies with a public health perspective." PAHO presented a methodological proposal for discussion and analysis, which included the development, implementation and evaluation of public health policies for addressing the use of psychoactive substances.
The working group is made up of specialists from PAHO's and CICAD's technical areas, as well as representatives of national institutions such as the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente Muñiz (Mexico); Argentina's Secretariat for the Prevention of Drug Addiction and Fight against Drug Trafficking (SEDRONAR); Chile's National Service for the Prevention and Rehabilitation of Drug and Alcohol Use (SENDA); the Alcohol and Drugs Research, Intervention and Evaluation Reference Center (CREPEIA) of the Federal University "Juiz de Fora", Brazil; and the Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
The conclusions and recommendations resulting from the meeting, as well as the subsequent contributions of the working group, will serve to support technical cooperation initiatives with national agencies responsible for addressing the drug problem from a public health perspective.
