During the year under review, the Member Countries have attained significant progress in their joint effort against this scourge. In order to strengthen its efforts at combating drug abuse by implementing high-profile projects, the 19th ASOD Meeting identified those listed in Table 30 as ASOD's flagship projects, in the order of priority, for funding consideration under the ASEAN Fund.
With regard to Project (a) and (c), Member Countries have approved and submitted their comments and the project proposals have been forwarded to the ACU for appraisal. Project (b) is being further developed by Thailand.
The first half of 1997 witnessed still greater efforts by Member Countries in combating drug abuse and illicit trafficking with the planned implementation of four projects. After the successful implementation in 1996 of two projects under the Work Programme on a cost-sharing basis, the 19th ASOD Meeting agreed to implement two more projects in 1997, also on the basis of cost sharing.
The cost-shared project, ASEAN Training on Financial Investigations, is expected to be implemented with the holding of two training courses in Kuala Lumpur for around 40 personnel of law enforcement agencies and government financial institutions from the Member Countries as well as from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar who will be trained in financial investigations. The training courses are scheduled in August 1997.
The first half of 1997 witnessed still greater efforts by ASEAN in combating drug abuse and illicit trafficking
One more project, Promoting Drug Abuse Prevention Activities among Out-of-School Youth, was approved by the 19th ASOD Meeting and later endorsed by the ASC Meeting in January 1997 in Lombok, Indonesia, for funding consideration under the ASEAN-EU or ASEAN-Canada Dialogues. This project helps to explore factors influencing drug abuse among out-of-school youths and to assist in the development of targeted preventive programmes.
The project proposal will be prepared for implementation as soon as a funding source is identified by the ASEAN Secretariat as requested by tbe 5th Meeting of the 30th ASC held in June 1997. The United Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) has indicated that it would support the costs of resource persons for the training seminar.
This project relates to the need to put into place the necessary legislation, regulations and procedures to implement the provisions of the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Trade in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The project proposal seeks to provide participants in the seminar with more efficient skills in investigating precursor chemicals violations and to prepare quality investigative reports.
The 19th ASOD Meeting also agreed that the Work Programme project, ASEAN Training Seminar for Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Counselors, which was intended to be implemented on a cost-sharing basis, would be replaced by the ASEAN Training Courses for Drug Rehabilitation Professionals (D-ASC/92/37) to be funded by the EU since funding for the project had been obtained from the EU. Two training courses under the project were held in Kuala Lumpur. The first course was organized in May and June and the second one in June and July 1997. The objective of the programme is to train a core of counselors in the theory and practice of drug abuse counseling and to act as a core group of resource persons for national counseling courses.
To further strengthen regional cooperation, the Member Countries have also agreed to implement non-project activities, focusing on exchange of information on the evaluation of treatment and rehabilitation, effective aftercare approaches for reducing relapse, such as Naltrexone treatment, the control of precursors, and also effort to promote adherence to the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.
Cooperation with EU on drug matters continued to make progress with the implementation of several projects, though no dates for the meeting of the proposed Sub-Committee on Narcotics have been yet communicated to ASEAN as well as the response to ASEAN's counter-proposals on draft guidelines for the Sub-Committee on Narcotics.
A project funded by the EU, Development and Validation of Evaluation Instruments for Preventive Drug Education was completed, following the convening of a Regional Seminar in October 1995 in Manila. A two-volume manual on the adopted evaluation instruments for the region was distributed to the Member Countries.
The on-going project, ASEAN-EU Three-Year Plan of Action on Preventive Drug Education, is currently being implemented with two components:
A Country Coordinators' Meeting was held in July 1996 in Bangkok to review the progress of the project implementation. In view of the delayed remittance of project funds, the Meeting recommended to extend the implementation of the project to September 1997, which was endorsed by the 19th ASOD Meeting. To ensure the timely remittance of project funds, the Philippines as well as the ASEAN Secretariat have requested the EU to facilitate the release of project funds.
In summary, over the last year, ASEAN cooperation on drug matters has witnessed significant achievements through greater efforts made by the Member Countries in order to implement the Fifth Summit directive on building a drug-free ASEAN society. However, to get rid of the scourge of drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking in the region, greater endeavours are needed to further enhance the intra-and extra-regional cooperation in order to turn ASEAN into a drug-free region.