Special Issue:
Demand Reduction
Initiatives
in Central America
 Amb.
Albert Ramdin listens to a discussion about rehabilitation options
at a Salvadoran youth detention center.
Training
and certification for drug treatment counselors makes its mark in El Salvador
CICAD's training and certification
program for drug treatment counselors in El Salvador is breaking new ground by putting
knowledge and skills in the hands of government and non-profits working with
substance abuse. OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin visited a juvenile
detention center where the staff has changed their methods, thanks to the
program. Read the
full article...
Training and certification program expanding to all Central America
and beyond
With successful starts in El Salvador and Guatemala under its belt,
CICAD's training and certification program will expand to other Central American
countries in 2009. CICAD is also cooperating with the Latin American Federation of Therapeutic Communities (FLACT) to provide similar training to FLACT member organizations throughout Latin America.
Read the
full article...
CICAD's Anna Chisman unveils plaque at POETA center
Outreach effort for at-risk youth clears
path to future prospects
Since mid-2008, a youth
outreach center
in the town of Guazapa in El Salvador has been providing job training, development of leadership skills, family counseling and intervention, and sports and artistic activities for high-risk youth, as resources to prevent drug use, violence and other anti-social behavior. Read
the
full article...
Raising the professional bar for drug treatment counselors
El Salvador's National Drug
Commission (Comisión Nacional Antidrogas,
CNA)
is in the process of creating the first drug treatment counselor certification
procedure so that trained professionals can take a series of tests to show
that they meet minimum standards of excellence. CICAD developed regulations for
the certification of treatment counselors, drawing on the experience
of the U.S. National Certification Commission (NCC) of the
National
Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC), as well as service
delivery and certification agencies in the United States and Latin
America. Although most governments specify
requirements for psychologists and psychiatrists, there is currently
no certification for drug treatment counselors in Latin America.
News and Events
Rebuilding the State from the threat of drug trafficking
The OAS Secretary for Political Affairs, Dante Caputo, filling in for the OAS Secretary
General
José Miguel Insulza, delivered the
opening remarks at the 44th regular session of CICAD in Santiago, Chile in
November 2008. Caputo provided an insightful analysis of why
drug trafficking poses key challenges to the State in the Western
Hemisphere.
His words are worth wider consideration given the rising tide of violence of organized crime in the region. Read the
full text...
Gabriel Abarca and Oscar Paineán (Universidad de Atacama, Chile) were among those who presented 81 posters
on the
results of project activities and research findings.
Latin American universities met in El Salvador to discuss CICAD-supported
academic training in drug issues
The First Joint Meeting of Schools of Public Health,
Nursing, Medicine and Education on Research Training on Drug
Issues from an International Health Perspective met in
San Salvador in August 2008, bringing together 150
participants from 50 universities located in 17 Latin
American countries. It sought to assess the advances of
CICAD-sponsored projects, to present the preliminary results
of multi-site studies conducted by the universities with
CICAD backing, and to carry out training workshops. The
university partnership program aims to incorporate drug
issues in university curricula (undergraduate and
postgraduate) to prepare a cadre of health professionals to
deal with the drug problem. It is currently working with
schools of nursing, medicine, public health and education.
Caribbean specialization gains students
The University of the West Indies, through its Distance Education Center
(UWIDEC), has registered 35 students in its Certificate
Program in Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment in its second academic year,
and
determined that the program will be self-sustaining. CICAD
underwrote the start-up of the on-line program, which
has become a model for similar on-line programs elsewhere.
Ibero-American Workshop of National Drug Observatories
In October, the fourth meeting of the national drug
observatories of Latin America was held in the city of
Antigua, Guatemala, under the auspices of CICAD's
Inter-American Drug Oberservatory (OID) and
the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for
Development (Agencia Española de
Cooperación Internacionalpara el Desarrollo -
AECID). The training
and information exchange meeting brought together 40
professionals from 20 countries in North, Central and
South America, as well as representatives from the
National Drug Plan of Spain (PSND), the European Monitoring
Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
of the United States.
 Online Resources:
The
International Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco (IDAT) Research Community aims
to advance drug, alcohol and
tobacco abuse research around the globe by fostering international
cooperative research and supporting the exchange of scientific
information. Here, investigators can find news, training and
funding opportunities. In addition, investigators can network and
form workgroups in
The Exchange, and access international survey
data, and epidemiologic information in
The Toolkit. IDAT is funded by the U.S.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) as part of its international
program. Services are free of charge and any researcher can
start up a working group to coordinate activities and share
information. So far, it is only available in English.
 DecentralizaDrogas
is the outcome of collaboration between the Government of Colombia,
the Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development (Agencia
Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo
- AECID), Spain's National Drug Plan (Delegación del
Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas (PSND), Ministry of Health
and Consumer Affairs), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) and CICAD. It is part of a strategy to translate a national
plan into local action in 27 of Colombia's 32 departments. Available only in
Spanish.
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