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Project Description:

The recognition of the drug phenomenon as a public health issue is essential to preventing drug abuse. The health perspective provides a context in which to evaluate the social impact of drug abuse, for example, the drug related illness and deaths, social violence associated with drug use, alcohol and drug related traffic accidents, among others. These different areas combine to provide an overall perspective of the impact drug abuse bears on the health of society.  

By recognizing the public health impact of the drug phenomenon, policy makers will better equipped to prepare legislation to support drug prevention though education, increase drug treatment services within the health system, and provide the public with tools to prevent, and treat drug problems on a community level. The international community has a stake hold in the formation of sound policy in drug prevention and treatment through public health institutions. Throughout the Americas, the drug issue has been a constant area of both tension and cooperation. International efforts tend to focus on the control side of the drug problem, despite the fact that countries consistently report increases in consumption. Thus international policy, and the treatment and prevention of drug abuse converge in international public health.

As the world becomes more interconnected, the objectives of national foreign policies toward prevention and control of drug needs to be reexamined. This problem has become a matter of international health diplomacy, which involves the need for governments to work together to develop a broader base for international relations and collaborative that will place greater emphasis on the international and global security. With these changes taking place at international and national levels, we must shift the paradigm within the public health sector and international relations. International and global health becomes an important field of study, practice, and research in today’s world, they provide elements and tools to support national and international policies toward public health sector as well as the prevention and control of drugs (licit and illicit) in the Americas.    

Objectives:

This Program was developed to work with PAHO/WHO/Human Resources Program; Schools of Public Health distributed in fourteen countries of Latin America; National Drug Commissions; Ministers of Health; Ministers of Education and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

The general objective of this program is to prepare a cadre of public health professionals with scientific knowledge and technical skills to work on Demand Reduction in the fields of Drug Abuse and International Health in aspects of policymaking and program development,  and also to support the advance of the public health graduate programs in these two fields.

The specific objective is to train public health professionals and develop a public health curriculum model which incorporates drug content and international health issues.  

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