RESPONDING TO A MANDATE LAID DOWN by the Fifth ASEAN Summit, the 19th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Officials on Drug Abuse (ASOD) held in Hanoi last September intensified the implementation of the ASEAN Plan of Action on Drug Abuse Control and the Medium- Term Programme of Work to Operationalize the Action Plan.
The 19th ASOD Meeting also agreed to adopt the following as ASOD's flag- ship projects and proposed them for funding from the ASEAN Fund:
To sustain the self-sufficiency in implementing projects in drug abuse control, after the successful implementation in 1996 of two projects under the Work Programme on cost-sharing basis, the 19th ASOD Meeting agreed to continue implementing in 1997 two more projects using that modality.
The Meeting also endorsed the project Promoting Drug Abuse Prevention Activities among Out-of- School Youth to the ASEAN Standing Committee (ASC) for funding. The ASC has since endorsed it for funding either by the ASEAN-EU or the ASEAN- Canada Dialogue.
The Meeting also agreed to promote non-project activities on exchange and dissemination of information on the evaluation of treatment and rehabilitation, effective aftercare approaches for reducing relapse, Natrexon treatment, high lighting lessons learned.
The ASOD continued to accord importance
to the expansion of cooperation
with other countries in and outside
the region as well as with regional, international
and non-governmental organizations.
As a result, Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, FANC, INTERPOL, UNDCP
and the ASEAN NGOs for the Prevention
of Drugs and Substance Abuse will
be invited as observers to the 20th ASOD
Meeting scheduled to be held in August
1997 in Brunei Darussalam.