{"id":80884,"date":"2019-07-23T02:36:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T00:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=80884"},"modified":"2019-07-23T02:36:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T00:36:23","slug":"african-union-steps-to-fight-drug-substance-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/07\/23\/african-union-steps-to-fight-drug-substance-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"African Union steps to fight drug, substance abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stevie Chauluka:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
CHAKA\u2014 The problem is that youths are often misused in society<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bed-fellowship between drugs and African youths continues to be a thorn in the African Union Commission (AUC)\u2019s flesh.<\/p>\n

In Malawi, the situation is no different, as the relationship between drugs and youths continues to rattle policymakers.<\/p>\n

So prevalent is the situation that, earlier this year\u2014when Blantyre Police Station spokesperson Augustus Nkhwazi announced that cases of drug abuse had skyrocketed by 30.5 percent, from 50 cases registered in 2017 to 72 cases registered in 2018\u2014People\u2019s Federation for National Peace and Development Executive Director Edward Chaka was not surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that youths are often misused in society, to the extent that politicians on both sides of the veil continue to use youths for selfish purposes. For example, it is not uncommon for one to learn that youths have been used to intimidate political opponents.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIn most cases, the youth use drugs to be \u2018high\u2019, thereby increasing cases of youth delinquency. We can stem cases of substance abuse if we give youths technical skills, say through technical colleges, and other formal and informal sources of education,\u201d<\/em> Chaka said.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organisation, in its \u2018Substance Abuse Research Report\u2019, \u201cDrug abuse has become a global phenomenon affecting almost every country though the extent and characteristics vary depending on the country in question. The most commonly used and abused substances are cigarettes, cannabis, cocaine and alcohol. Alcohol and other related problems are becoming more and more a public health concern and they represent one of the leading causes of preventable death, illness and injury\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ministry of Health Principal Secretary, Dan Namarika, said the ministry has put in place a number of interventions to stem such cases, with the view to promoting good health habits in Malawi.<\/p>\n

It could be for this reason that the Ministry of Health and Population of the Arab Republic of Egypt has organised the 3rd Ordinary Session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Health, Population and Drug Control.<\/p>\n

Among other things, delegates to the meeting will discuss a consideration of the revised African Union Plan of Action on Drug Control and Crime Prevention.<\/p>\n

They will also discuss the post political declaration and plan of action on international cooperation towards an integrated and balanced strategy to counter drug lords strategies.<\/p>\n

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MWAKASUNGULA\u2014 Malawi has not been spared from the negative consequences of drug use<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adviser of the Drug Policy and Harm Reduction Platform, Undule Mwakasungula, said the meeting was a platform for enhancing advocacy for drug policy reforms and harm reduction programmes aimed at those that depend on drugs in Malawi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to note that Malawi has not been spared from the negative consequences of drug use including severe human rights violations directly related to criminalisation and stigmatisation of people who use drugs, which is attributed to punitive laws.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe platform is composed of people, non-governmental and civil society organisations and advocates passionate about addressing the issues of drug policy reforms and harm reduction in Malawi,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mwakasungula said Malawi could not afford to remain silent on the matter as it was one of the countries in Southern African faced with cases of drug trafficking and abuse.<\/p>\n

In My 2018, a 26-year-old Lilongwe-based Malawian man, Riad Randeri, died in Brazil in what his parents and community members suspected to be a drug mission gone wrong.<\/p>\n

The meetings in Cairo will be held from July 29 to August 2 under the theme \u2018Increased Domestic Financing for Universal Health Coverage and Health Security for All African Citizens\u2014Including Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced persons.\u2019<\/p>\n

It will bring together experts in drug control and health ministers from across the African continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stevie Chauluka: The bed-fellowship between drugs and African youths continues to be a thorn in the African Union Commission (AUC)\u2019s flesh. In Malawi, the situation is no different, as the relationship between drugs and youths continues to rattle policymakers. So prevalent is the situation that, earlier this year\u2014when Blantyre Police Station spokesperson Augustus Nkhwazi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":80889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80890,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80884\/revisions\/80890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}