UNODC held a diplomatic forum as a part of event at International Day of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

30 June 2011 - Commemorating the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, a radio talk show called Diplomatic Forum was held at Tuesday (28/06) in Sultan Hotel, Jakarta, to highlight the important role of community in reducing the number of drug abuse and illicit trafficking. The event was organized by RRI World Service Voice of Indonesia, in partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Sultan Hotel. The talk show, which aim is to emphasize the importance of public knowledge in community to deal with drug abuse and illicit trafficking, will be broadcast in English all over the world. Voice of Indonesia is RRI World Service that serves international audience and broadcast in 8 languages. The talk show feature the following guest: 1. Mr. Gary Lewis, Regional Representative UNODC East Asia and the Pacific, 2. Inspector General (Police) Indradi Thanos, Deputy of Law and Cooperation of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN), 3. Mr. Everardo Corona Aguilar, Deputy Chief in Mission, Mexican Embassy Jakarta, 4. Muhammad Farhan, Representative of Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa (YCAB). At the beginning of the talk show, Mr. Lewis explained that UNODC covers three main areas to combat drugs abuse and illicit trafficking, which are area of production, area of trafficking, and area of consumption. In the production area, the need is to reduce the number of the growing community. In trafficking, the important thing to tackle is money laundering. Tackling the money laundering could be achieved by enhancing the tactical law enforcement. Meanwhile, in consumption area, young people should be prevented from experimenting drugs. In this area, prevention is important. As a representative from Mexican Embassy Jakarta, Mr. Aguilar shared the Mexicos experienced in reducing the number of drug abuse and illicit trafficking. Mr. Aguilar said that reducing the number of consumer is important because if the number is decreased, then it is not attractive anymore to the dealer. Mr. Thanos added that in order to combat drugs abuse and illicit trafficking. Five functions that BNN does are prevention program, empowerment the society, law enforcement, new legislation number th 35 , and multinational alliance. He said that countries in the world should work together to tackle drug trafficking because it is not an ordinary crime. It is hard to solve such an organized crime without alliance with other country he said. The focus of YCAB is prevention. Prevention is important to reduce the number of drugs abuse and illicit trafficking, but it also the biggest challenge, said Mr. Farhan in his argument. It is a challenge because preventing is boring, preventing has been done by a lot of actors such as government, agencies, or media, but the result cannot be seen yet. Prevention is a long term project, not a short term one that is why it is boring. Before the closing, Mr. Lewis emphasized the importance of prevention and treatment. Also, he stated that law enforcement need to differentiate a person who are dealer or a person who are user because the treatment between those two categories is different. Article by Devi Natasia Photo by Amri Pitoyo Priyadi