Drug as a Health Issue

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Cooperation with Awareness Campaign Carried Out by the National, Prefectural and Local governments and Non-governmental Organizations

1) The "No, Absolutely No!" publicity campaign and U.N. Fundraising Campaign are carried out to support the "United Nations Decade Against Drug Abuse".

2) The Center gives assistance to all kinds of gathering during Drug Abuse Prevention Month (October-November) which are carried out by national and regional public organizations. These include Ministry if Health and Welfare regional assemblies (6-7 regions nationwide) and prefectural assemblies (around 20 locations).

3) The Center cooperates with relevant organizations by supplying awareness campaign improvement materials, by introducing and dispatching specialists, by securing space, and by providing domestic and overseas information, and other services.

4) Training sessions are carried out to educate advisers on how to promote educational activities in regional communities.

5) Training session are carried out for drug addiction counselors.

6) Training session are carried out for advisers on how to promote preventive education against drug abuse.

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Surveys and Research on Drug Abuse

1) The Center conducts surveys on the general public awareness of drug abuse control.

2) The Center conducts surveys on the status of and countermeasures for drug abuse in foreign countries.

3) The Center collects and analyzed basic and clinical research information on drug abuse at home and abroad.

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Grants for Scientific Research on Drug Abuse

1) The Center offers grants for research by specialists who are active in various fields related to drug abuse.

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International Cooperation Activities

1) The Center exchanges, information, and materials for awareness campaigns, with foreign non-government education and prevention organizations (East and South Asia IFNGO)

2) The Center attends international conferences hosted by non-governmental organizations (such as Parents Resource Institution for Drug Education in the U.S. PRIDE)

3) A Japan-U.S. Symposium is held with the joint sponsorship of the American NGO "PRIDE"

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Publication of Newsletters

The Center issues newsletters, which contain up-to-date scientific findings on drug abuse control and reports on the status of awareness campaigns, and distributes them to the relevant agencies and organizations, in order to reinforce the mutual links.

To address this phenomenon, close international cooperation is indispensable. Therefore, first of all, we would like to raise the issue of management of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Japan strongly supports the work of the UNODC, which plays a pivotal role in this field. However, we believe it is impossible for UNODC to implement its mandate thoroughly unless donor confidence improves. To this end, we believe it must create an accountable and transparent management system, including a strategic organizational plan with a clearly articulated program of work, as well as a concise and comprehensive annual financial/activity report.

Japan welcomes the scheduled entry into force of the United Nations Convention against Corruption on 14 December 2005, which will complement the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its three protocols, all of which are already in effect. Having signed all of these instruments, Japan is now in the process of preparing for their early conclusion.

Drug abuse damages not only the mind and body of the user. Because the proceeds from the production and trafficking of illicit drugs provide enormous financial resources for transnational organized crime and international terrorism, it threatens the security of an entire society. To tackle these issues, Japan has consistently supported the programs and activities of UNODC, especially through annual contributions to the Fund of the United Nations International Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP).

We must take prompt measures to combat synthetic drugs, which can be produced anywhere with simple equipment, unlike other traditional drugs such as opium and cocaine that require land and suitable weather for cultivation. Of great concern is the emergence in recent years around the world of a number of drugs and precursors that are not controlled under the international conventions and the threat they pose to public health. We believe it is important to gather and share information on such drugs and precursors in order to develop and carry out prompt, effective countermeasures in an internationally coordinated manner before those substances become more widely available and abuse spreads. Japan submitted a resolution to that effect to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs this year, and it was adopted by consensus.