29.06.2012
World League "Mind Free of Drugs" had held “A new look at combating drug addiction problem, and innovative prevention methods" conference of unprecedented scale, scope, and list of the conference audience. The event was dedicated to the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking - June 26, and gathered more than 200,000 people from around the world.
Honorary Members of the Council of the League have listed 12 candidates for the title of the World Fighters with drugs: Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama XIV, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian politician, Valentina Matvienko, the writer and Nobel Prize winner in laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and others. Each of those who were ranked as the most active humanist and fighters against drugs had prepared their exclusive anti-drug manifestos.
Appeals to humanity have been published on the MayaPlanet.org portal and received over 300 responses of approval. In addition to this, 80 experts competent in solving social, economic and political problems from around the world participated in the conference. The best minds, turned to a single research center at the time of the event, and gave more than 100 exclusive comments on the most pressing issues related to drug addiction. The World League is going to use this information when preparing recommendations for governmental programs aimed at preserving and enhancing social capital.
Words of President Hugo Chavez that "we should all be spiritualized by Don Quixote, a warrior who came into our world to fight against injustice" gave a good start for the discussion. Indeed what else brings more disorder into the world more than drugs and politics built on them?
Nursultan Nazarbayev, great modern politician focused on the geopolitical aspect of the theme: "We are studying and analyzing this issue for many years, and today we are highly concerned about the withdrawal of the collective forces from Afghanistan and the power transition to the local elites. So far, it is unclear what kind of government will rule the country and whether the new government can oppose the increasing problem of drug trafficking. The stability of the region is quite unstable also because of the heated situation in the Middle East. It is not known what would be the result of the confrontation between Israel and Iran and how it will affect the nearby Afghanistan "- he said in his manifest.
Nazarbaev also underlined the priority of the united actions within CSTO and SCO for the maximum reduction of drug trafficking going through Kazakhstan to Russia. However, some participants of the conference reacted to his manifest ambiguously. “This is true, while the world is bipolar - drug trade will exist, “ Cindy ( New-Yourk) thinks.
Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, in turn has addressed national problems: “Today, anyone who supports the drug trade should be considered a criminal. This reaction is logical, since drug addiction problem in Russia is particularly acute. The number of drug users has increased to 1.5 millions in last 10 years. %94 of HIV positive people - are drug addicts and in 44 regions of Russia, there are more than 100 people per 100,000 residents. Valentina Matvienko has repeatedly spoken of this statistics in front of legislative body of the Russian Federation and spoke once more at the site of the World League.
Michelle Obama suggested to use a new approach in the fight against drug addiction in her manifest. What made drugs so popular, will stop their spread. “America stands at the forefront of the social change and progress. The phenomenon such as drug addiction, associated with the '60s culture and medical discoveries of that time, today drained its potential for the expansion of consciousness and the creation of separate communities, such as hippies. Thus, we can say that external experiments with man and society are over in America and the results are well known for the rest of the world”, she said.
The U.S. First Lady calls to educate responsible citizens and to form the right attitude: "Given the fact that America - is the birthplace of masscult - and with the trend towards globalization it has become a cultural center of the world, the content of the message that we are passing in the products of the world culture largely depends on us. Therefore, the most powerful tool to influence the reality is in our hands."
The Queen of the Netherlands Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard held the most loyal position: “the Netherlands pursue a policy of tolerance. This means that although the storage and sale of soft drugs are considered to be administrative offense, as a rule, they are not followed by the criminal prosecution”, - she says. Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard tried to explain the essence of the non-trivial policy of the Netherlands in respect of the soft drugs. “The idea is that people who use cannabis do not need to illegally buy their soft drugs from a dealer, this will allow to reduce their chances of facing the hard drugs”. However, at the conclusion, she stated: “I am not insisting that the experience of the Netherlands will be equally successful in implementing it in other states”.
Commentators immediately reacted to this. A user from Kazakhstan, Cuba has written that he fully supports the policy of the Netherlands: “It would be nice to adapt it in our country”. Not without sarcasm: “Holland with its drug policies, just like its football team is doing everything right, but still with no results. The score still equals to zero”, - drew an analogy Irwin from Dublin, Ireland.
The distinguishing factor of this event was an absolute plurality of views. If the user Lin from China under the manifesto of the Dalai Lama XIV wrote that he believes the policy of his country (China) is right, but not harsh enough and calls to " punish drug addicts severely, so that others will be afraid of drug abuse", the "Young and Hot" from Australia urged under the same manifesto that, said: "to live every moment of your life as you wish, so that you have something to remember. Without this, what is the point of living? People should not merely exist like trees or stones, we should LIVE."
Presentations by experts were more of the exhaustive answers to such proposals. The former head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service Alexander Mikhailov convincingly told about the changes of the information environment: “Several years ago there was a ban on any mentioning of possible recovery. Like, "you cannot talk about it, because young people will think that if they shoot up a few times now, later they can easily recover!" Today we understand that such theory - is a dead end for the recovery. Every person must have a hope. Diabetes is incurable, but do we reject ill people? Every person has cancer cells - but do we ever destroy the hopes of cancer patients? Or people with epilepsy? It is necessary to radically reconsider such theories. And the only aid can be - the efforts of the society and the state to bring those people back to the society”.
“One of the most important factors of social well-being of the society is the ratio of its rich and poor people, the possibility of human fulfillment in difficult market conditions, level of education and employment, - continues the topic of public relations, the Chairman of the Russian Union of Journalists Vsevolod Bogdanov. - The foundation of human personality is laid in the family. Therefore, the government, its administrative and financial institutions should create modern and sufficient conditions for the harmonious development of their future citizens”.
In the event of the World League, whose geographical coverage was 138 countries of the world, the greatest activity was distinguished by the citizens of the CIS states and Europe, the U.S., Japan and Canada were right behind them. The residents of South America have shown less interest in the problems of drug addiction. The majority of registered visitors were from Russia. About 100 thousand visitors of the largest country have received the latest information about the realities of today's struggle with drug addiction.
The most active participants were visitors from Europe and European countries, CIS, USA, China and Japan. At the moment, the World League is collecting useful tips for the final report, based on the results of the conference.
