Drug Abuse In The Philippines
NGOs gather in Myanmar to discuss 'Drug Free ASEAN' YANGON, Dec. 2 Kyodo
The 14th Workshop of the International Federation of Nongovernmental Organizations and ASEAN NGOs on prevention of drugs and substances abuse opened in Yangon on Thursday to discuss strategies for realizing a ''Drug Free ASEAN'' in 2015.
More than 100 participants form seven ASEAN countries, Japan, China and Australia will take part in the three-day workshop organized by the local NGO, Myanmar Anti Narcotic Association and the governmental Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. But Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines were not represented at Thursday's workshop.
Myanmar's newly appointed home affairs minister, Maj. Gen Maung Oo, welcomed the intervention of local and international NGOs in combating drug abuse saying, ''The community outreach approach initiated by NGOs is far more effective than the institutional approach pursued by the government.''
Maung Oo, who is also the chairman of the CCDAC, briefed his government's achievements in combating drugs as indicators of Myanmar's dedication to drug elimination and said Myanmar has been striving toward the realization of the ASEAN Drug Free 2015 objective since it joined the grouping in 1997.
Myanmar is the second largest opium production country after Afghanistan.
Myanmar produced 370 tons of opium this year, down 54 percent from 2003, according to U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
The total area under opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar this year dropped 29 percent from 2003 to 44,200 hectares -- a reduction of 73 percent from the peak in 1996.
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