Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the "Proposal for a Council Recommendation on the prevention and reduction of risks associated with drug dependence"
Date: 2002-11-20
Institutions: European Committee of the Regions
Subjects: action programme, cooperation policy, drug addiction, drug traffic, health policy, money laundering, public awareness campaign

26.3.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 73/5

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Proposal for a Council Recommendation on
the prevention and reduction of risks associated with drug dependence’

(2003/C 73/02)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on the prevention and reduction of risks
associated with drug dependence COM(2002) 201 final — 2002/0098 (CNS);

having regard to the Decision of the Council of 10 June 2002 to consult it on this matter, under
Article 152 of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

having regard to the Decision of its Bureau of 6 February 2002 to instruct Commission for Economic
and Social Policy to draw up an opinion on this subject;

having regard to the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the European Union action plan
to combat drugs (2000-2004) COM(1999) 239 final;

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European
Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the European
Union action plan to combat drugs (2000-2004), (CdR 292/1999 fin) (1);

having regard to its opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European
Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the health strategy
of the European Community and the Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the
Council adopting a programme of Community action in the field of public health (2001-2006), (CdR 236/
2000 fin) (2);

having regard to its draft opinion (CDR 225/2002 rev.) adopted on 25 September 2002 by the
Commission for Economic and Social Policy (rapporteur: Mrs Paz Fernández Felgueroso, Mayoress and
Chairman of the Council of Gijón, E/PES),

adopted the following opinion at its 47th plenary session on 20 and 21 November 2002 (meeting of
20 November).

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS’ VIEWS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS

1. General comments

1.1.
Human beings have used drugs since time immemorial.
Social, cultural, religious and other factors have all played a
part in influencing their use.

1.2.
Drugs have always been a source of conflict in society,
which tends to be ambivalent towards them. The various
means of tackling the problems caused by drug use, and even
the definition of the term ‘drug’, are heavily influenced by the
social constructs and cultural representations that operate in
different political and socio-economic contexts.

1.3.
The drugs phenomenon brings with it a raft of
problems related to highly diverse and complex factors such

( 1) OJ C 189, 7.7.2000, p. 256.
( 2) OJ C 144, 16.5.2001, p. 43.

as culture, fashion, new social behaviour patterns, changes in
traditional social values, the breaking down of borders and
globalisation — a whole range of influences which help to
explain a situation which concerns and poses a major challenge
for the whole of European society.

Attempts to tackle the problem must be based on a
1.4.
recognition that the phenomenon we are facing is universal
and growing. Intervention must thus be planned and tailored
to suit the specific context.

1.5.
It is for this reason that the Committee welcomes with
great interest the Commission’s request to draw up an opinion.
It wishes to highlight a number of areas of particular relevance
from the perspective of local and regional authorities.

1.6.
The Committee wishes to draw attention to several of
the proposed areas for action, which it considers essential for
any strategy to combat and prevent drug dependence, with a
key role for local and regional authorities.

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2. The community

4. Youth

2.1.
The creation of structures for the prevention and
reduction of risks associated with drug addiction is important.
Community measures can support measures in the Member
States.

4.1.
Information, education, the development of talents
and the use of social skills all play a key role in providing
young people with resources which promote healthy habits
and behaviour in a society in which drugs are a reality.

2.2.

The most important actions are set out below:

— Information and distribution of targeted and non-targeted
resources in the community of both a preventative and
therapeutic or rehabilitation nature; such information
must be adapted linguistically and culturally to the
different groupings and bodies to which it is addressed.

— Raising the awareness of the various groups in the
Community in order to optimise social and public
participation, and thereby manage to lower the current
level of disapproval for installing therapeutic resources in
cities.

— Training of different actors such as teachers, parents,
family and youth associations, etc., in order to gain an
awareness of the problem and tackle it from an edu-
cational/preventive angle.

4.2.
Action must be organised through youth associations
and youth mediators who are able to connect with young
people and influence them in adopting lifestyles which are
both healthy and appealing.

4.3.
Specific and exclusive Youth Information Areas could
act as a preventive resource at the service of young people,
making information more accessible to them.

Action worthy of note that has been taken at local and

4.4.
regional level includes:

— Prevention training for youth mediators.

— Actions carried out by mediators to make information

more accessible to young people.

— Actions aimed at

reducing alcohol and drug use:
implementation of the law banning sales of tobacco and
alcohol to minors, information campaigns, educational
workshops, health weeks, courses open to the public, ...

— Information campaigns and materials designed to appeal
to young people, including comics, audio-visual materials
and music CDs.

— Generating funds for the integration of drug addicts in
rehabilitation programmes into society and employment.

— Coordination of all resources available in the area con-
cerned for the implementation of programmes and the
creation of a community social framework to enable
prevention and integration activities to be compared and
improved.

3. Education

The educational sphere is an ideal arena in which to
3.1.
implement programmes and preventive or health promotion
actions. Preventive work in schools requires programmes
which impart knowledge and transmit values, attitudes and
behaviour that discourage drug taking.

3.2.
Drug education can be taught as part of health
education. This approach enables children and teenagers to act
lifestyles which are as healthy as
responsibly and adopt
possible by teaching them the necessary life skills and abilities.

3.3.
Drug education programmes thus involve teachers,
students and parents — i.e. the entire educational community.
They should also seek to involve other groups in the wider
community.

— Alcohol free areas at parties and social events.

— Development of alternative leisure and free time pro-

grammes.

— Risk reduction programmes that act directly in places
where stimulant synthetic substances are normally con-
sumed.

— Workshops on the prevention of alcohol and tobacco

abuse and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

5. Employment

The social dimension of work and its importance in
lives make this an area of prime importance in

5.1.
peoples’
preventing drug abuse and promoting healthy behaviour.

Action should be based on shared responsibility and
5.2.
the involvement of all stakeholders in the firm: management,
medical services, trade unions and workers. Such action must
form part of health promotion in general and comprise
preventive measures that are aimed at reducing demand,
tailored to individual situations and take account of working
conditions. Trade union representatives have a key role to play
in such programmes as mediators.

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5.3.

The following are important actions:

— Training of trade union representatives.

— Training of middle and senior management.

— Advice to firms.

— Dissemination of information through magazines and

leaflets aimed at workers.

— Information and individual guidance.

6.

Illegal trafficking and money laundering

6.1.
A further cause for concern, to which the Committee
wishes to draw particular attention, is the problem of drug
trafficking and the closely linked phenomenon of money
laundering, which is essential to trafficking operations. Drugs
trafficking and money laundering are two (although not the
only) ways in which organised crime is becoming more
powerful across the world, helping it to extend its influence
and operate in ever larger spheres with impunity, undermining
the very structure of democratic States, in an unseen, but
nonetheless constant manner.

6.2.
A good drugs policy must take a global view of the
problem as a whole, and must involve coordination of the
different kinds of action planned. Clearly, prevention is crucial.
But it is not enough to simply inform people of the dangers
— the dangers themselves must be tackled. Attempts to wipe
out trafficking must focus not only on investigating, pursuing
and punishing those involved, but also on investigating how
the illegal profit is moved and laundered and the earnings
recycled and reinvested in the legal financial market.

6.3.
There is an urgent need for a general framework for
action, comprising various elements: a solid national system,
extensive regional cooperation mechanisms involving different
legal systems, mutual legal assistance, joint investigations, the
definition of operational criteria and coordinated police action.
The first priority should be to establish this system at EU level,
and then to extend it on the basis of coordination.

6.4.
The EU must remain mindful of the situation of the
working classes in countries which produce illegal drugs. It
must support the consolidation of democratic structures and
sustainable development, thus enabling the millions of people
who have hitherto relied for their survival on the production
of the raw ingredients of illegal substances to live in dignity.

6.5.
Combating organised crime must be seen not as an
isolated task for individual States or for the different groups in
society involved, but as a shared task that requires dialogue,
joint effort and a uniform perspective with clear, pre-defined
objectives. In this regard, the Committee believes that particu-
lar attention should be devoted to achieving progress in the
following areas:

— Promoting legislative harmonisation, both in definitions
of offences and procedures for pursuit and investigation.

— Working for an end to tax havens.

— Continuing work on framing a policy for criminal
investigation and police assistance within the EU and
communicating this need to the United Nations with a
view to the creation of an organisational structure capable
of responding to this new challenge.

— Commitment to a single judicial area in this field.

— Reinvestment of funds from the confiscation of assets
obtained from the profits of illegal drugs trafficking in
policies aimed at reducing demand and risk and in
support for drug addicts.

6.6.
The Committee feels that it is important to include a
number of new elements in recognition of their particular
impact on certain areas and on the lives of the people affected
and on this note would stress the vital role of local and
regional authorities in these spheres:

— Set up damage limitation programmes for new drugs or
patterns of consumption of products such as alcohol and
synthetic drugs.

— Extend such programmes to reducing the damage caused
by drugs at work and their impact on integration in the
labour market, thereby helping to improve occupational
health and the prevention of occupational risk.

— Promote recovery and rehabilitation programmes provid-
ing opiate substitutes to prisoners and access thereto,
distribution of syringes, other items connected with drug
use and condoms.

— Work with female prostitutes and/or drug addicts with a
view to halting the spread of diseases related to drug
consumption and helping to alleviate the abuse suffered
by many at the hands of third parties, including partners,
pimps and networks trafficking in women.

— Plan and support programmes designed to minimise the
harm suffered by the children of drug addicts and
problems caused in both institutions and families.

— Outline social and health strategies designed to increase
take-up of anti-retroviral drugs to avoid the progression
of the physical consequences of HIV.

— Increase the number of general health programmes for
drug addicts, including oral health programmes, regular
gynaecological check-ups, regular hepatitis check-ups,
etc.

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— Design programmes for the prevention, follow-up and
controlled treatment of hepatitis C, which is very com-
mon among drug users, in order to halt the spread,
progression and future consequences of the disease, in
particular the probability of chronic illness and pro-
gression to cirrhosis and carcinomas.

— Promotion of measures to prevent or minimise the
physical, psychological and social problems encountered
by drug addicts unable to give up drug use, e.g. use of
opiate substitutes, easier access to substitutes, distribution
of syringes and condoms.

— Promotion of measures in line with the ‘therapy not

punishment’ approach.

— Promotion of regional studies and research.

Brussels, 20 November 2002.

The President

of the Committee of the Regions

Albert BORE

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on the ‘Proposal for a Council Recommendation on
the Prevention of smoking and on initiatives to improve tobacco control’

(2003/C 73/03)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS,

having regard to the proposal for a Council recommendation on the Prevention of smoking and on
initiatives to improve tobacco control (COM(2002) 303 final);

having regard to the decision of the European Commission of 3 January 2002 to consult the Committee
under the fourth paragraph of Article 152 of the Treaty establishing the European Community;

having regard to the decision of its Bureau of 6 February 2002 to instruct the Commission for Economic
and Social Policy to prepare the Committee’s work on this subject;

having regard to the Resolution of the Council and the Ministers for Health of the Member States meeting
within the Council of 18 July 1989 on banning smoking in places open to the public (1);

having regard to Council Directive 89/552/EEC of 3 October 1989 on the coordination of certain
provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the pursuit
of television broadcasting activities (‘Television without frontiers Directive’) (2);

having regard to the recommendations on tobacco control initiatives required at Community level,
adopted by the Commission’s High Level Cancer Experts Committee (COM(1996) 609 final — Annex);

having regard to the Council Resolution of 26 November 1996 on the reduction of smoking in the
European Community (3);

(1) OJ C 189, 26.7.1989.
(2) OJ L 298, 17.10.1989.
(3) OJ C 374, 11.12.1996.