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OAS Permanent Council Received Director of the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today received the Director of the United States Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske, who spoke on his country’s experience and policies with regard to the treatment and the fight against drugs, in follow-up to the Declaration, adopted by the OAS General Assembly at its meeting last June, entitled "For a Comprehensive Policy against the World Drug Problem".

Director Kerlikowske said his country “is fully supportive of this drug policy reform debate” and added that he personally participated in the General Assembly in La Antigua Guatemala, which launched the debate on the Report on the Problem of Drugs in the Americas (Analytical Report and Scenarios Report), prepared by the OAS in follow-up to a mandate it received from the 2012 Summit of the Americas.

In his presentation, Director Kerlikowske praised the report presented last May. “Under Secretary General Insulza’s guidance, the OAS put together a thorough and expert analysis of the challenges our Hemisphere faces, as well as an exploration of evidence-based policies that can help us address these challenges.” “The report makes clear that in spite of the many difficulties and challenges, there are many approaches that, when funded and executed, can help us reduce the problems of drug use, gang activity, violence, and drug trafficking,” he added.

The U.S. official, who participated in the meeting of the Council at the invitation of the Delegation of Guatemala, said, "Our Hemisphere needs to invest more in public health initiatives, such as drug prevention, screening and brief intervention, as well as behavioral and medication-assisted treatment. We know that gang activity and youth drug use can be curbed through low-cost, community-based multi-sector coalitions.”

“Our efforts to support public health interventions and–as highlighted recently by Attorney General Erick Holder–to promote alternatives to incarceration and reduce excessive mandatory minimum sentences–show how seriously we take evidence-based reform,” added Director Kerlikowske, and he recalled that when he took command of the National Drug Office four years ago, he promoted the removal of the traditional Washington’s term "war on drugs," because it "would no longer define our country’s approach to the drug problem”.

The so-called "drug czar" said U.S. President, Barack Obama, does not agree with the legalization of drugs, but added that his country supports the view of the public health solution to treat drug-dependent people and alternative policies to incarceration, such as drug treatment courts.

For his part, Secretary General Insulza expressed his support to the change in the traditional U.S. stance of "eliminating the idea of ​​the war on drugs" from the official language. Similarly, the OAS Secretary General expressed his support for U.S. policy on "prevention and demand reduction. We are not only following this policy very closely, but we are also seeing its effects," he added.

Secretary General Insulza also praised the U.S. Attorney General’s policies regarding alternatives to the incarceration of people through the Drug Treatment Courts and other measures, and he recalled that the OAS Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) supports these initiatives.

The head of the OAS indicated that he spoke recently with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the matter and added that the OAS will work closely with the UN to prepare for the debate that the global organization will hold on the subject in 2016.

In addition, the Permanent Council elected by acclamation Hernán Salinas Burgos of Chile, as member of the Inter-American Juridical Committee and also elected by acclamation the Permanent Representative of Honduras, Leonidas Rosa Bautista, as member of the Board of Directors of the Justice Studies Center for the Americas (CEJA).

Furthermore, the Council approved, at the request of the Mission of Mexico, the change of date for the holding of the meeting of the Subsidiary Technical Working Group on Police Management of the Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA), which will take place on October 8 and 9 in Mexico City.

The Council also welcomed the new Permanent Representative of Grenada, Angus Friday, and congratulated Brazil on the occasion of the anniversary of its independence tomorrow.

During the session, the representatives of Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago (on behalf of CARICOM), Panama (on behalf of SICA), the United States, Colombia, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Bolivia, El Salvador, Uruguay, Dominica, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil, took the floor.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

The audio of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-330/13