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CONTENTS

Previous issue of The Observer News 
CHILE: National Study on Drug Use

This issue of the Observer News showcases Chile. We are featuring the new drug information portal that CONACE launched this past June 26, 2003 and highlighting some of the results from the National Drug Use Survey on the General Population of Chile.

CHILE launches new anti-drug information portal on June 26, 2003

The Executive Secretary of the National Anti-drug Council of Chile (CONACE), Maria Teresa Chadwick, and the deputy minister of the interior,  Jorge Correa Sutil, officially launched a new drug information portal www.conacedrogas.cl this past June 26, 2003 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.  The objective of the portal is to disseminate information and resources to citizens about public policies, treatment and drug control issues.  (press release available only in Spanish - Word and PDF) 

 
The Tobacco Files (PAHO)
Changing Paradigms of Money Laundering
CICAD XXXIII
CICAD's MA on line in drug addictions 
Transnational Digital Government
RESOURCES:
Spanish Documentation Center
Statistics 2002 Application deadline for the 2003-2005 Master online program is August 31, 2003

CHILE: 
National Drug Use Survey on the general the population

Chilean Observatory on Drugs 

The Chilean Observatory on Drugs has as an objective to compile, organize and disseminate statistics and information on drugs and their impact on Chile, both in the area of demand and supply reduction. This collection of information is derived from various national sources of information, and is made available by different institutions, professionals working in the field, and the general community.  Visit the Chilean Observatory's site for more information.  

Conclusions from the 2002 National Drug Use Survey on the General Population 
Prevalence of drug use in Chile:

Marihuana is the most widely abused drug in Chile with a usage rate of 5.17% in the general population.  The second highest usage rate is for cocaine at 1.57% and the third highest was for cocaine paste with a rate of 0.51 %.  The rate of recent abuse of non prescription medication reached 4.33 %.  Solvents and inhalants had a prevalence level of 0.25 %.

Drug use is most heavily concentrated among youth, mainly male minors. Among youth aged 19 to 25 the rate of drug use was 16% and around 8% for those aged between 12 and 18 and young adults from 15-34 years old. The youth have the highest rate of drug use with 14% marihuana and 5% in cocaine and cocaine paste. 

Working population

Among its conclusions, CONACE found that the evolution or tendency in illicit drug use among the working population, according to last year's prevalence, shows that from 2000-2002 there was a slight increase in marihuana use from 5.04% to 5.17%.  Nonetheless, there was a decrease in the use of cocaine paste from 0.78 % to 0.51% and in cocaine from 1.84% to 1.57%. 

Post-secondary School Students

It is interesting to note that the rates of illicit drug use are higher in the students of post-secondary education between the ages of 17 to 25 (17.4%) than in the persons of the same age that do are not in school, but are working (14%); but lower than those who are unemployed (21.4%) or out of the work force (21.9%)

Similarly, post-secondary school students between the ages of 26 to 34 years have an illicit drug use rate of 12.7%, which is much higher than the population of that same age who is working (8.3%), but lower than those who are unemployed (13.8%) and those who are out of the labor force (22.5%).

For more details about Chile's 2002 National Drug Use Survey on the General Population, please visit CONACE's site.  The survey is available in Spanish only:
http://www.conace.cl/html/estudios/estudios_generales/estudio_2002/estudio_2002/index.php 

 

The Tobacco Files
from the Pan-American Health Organization, 
 The Tobacco Files
by Donna Eberwine
Photos © Carlos Gaggero
http://www.paho.org/English/DD/PIN/Number16_article3_1.htm

What insider documents show about tobacco industry tactics to protect profits at the expense of public health efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean

Cigarettes for sale at convenience store
A convenience store in Lima, Peru, offers single cigarettes for sale for about 15 cents (U.S.) each to smokers who cannot afford the $1.50 purchase price for a pack.

 The release of internal tobacco industry documents as part of anti-tobacco litigation in the United States in the 1990s provided a treasure trove of evidence of the industry’s attempts to confuse and deceive consumers and undermine public health efforts in the United States and abroad. To find out what these documents show about tobacco industry activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 2001 commissioned a research project focusing on the two market leaders in the region, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International (PMI). 

The result, drawn from more than 10,000 pages of documents, is Profits Over People: Tobacco Industry Activities to Market Cigarettes and Undermine Public Health in Latin America and the Caribbean (PAHO, 2002), by Stella Aguinaga Bialous and Stan Shatenstein. The full text of the report is accessible online at www.paho.org . Printed copies can be requested by e-mail from Heather Selin at selinhea@paho.org.

Full-text available in printer-friendly version of Word and PDF

Reprinted from Perspectives in Health, the magazine of the Pan American Health Organization, printed in English and Spanish.

Changing Paradigms on Money Laundering
by: Rodolfo Uribe, CICAD

Changing Paradigms of Money Laundering
by Rodolfo Uribe, Anti-Money Laundering Unit, CICAD

The term money laundering was first used at the beginning of the 20th Century to label the operations that in some way intended to legalize the income derived from illicit activity, thus facilitating their entry into the monetary flow of the economy. As a result, the surveillance, control and inspection entities were forced to establish priorities and to develop measures to prevent the laundering of illicit income through the financial sector and the legitimate sector of the economy. The practice of disguising income derived from illicit activities dates back to the Middle Ages when usury was declared a crime. More. 

Word and PDF 

Dr. Uribe is the coordinator of the CICAD/OAS project to develop and strengthen Financial intelligence Units (FIUs) in South America. Some of the positions Dr. Uribe held prior to working in CICAD, include:  Director General of the Financial Information and Analysis Unit of Colombia, Director General of the National Statistics Department, Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Colombian Republic, and Vice President the Military University of Colombia. 

CICAD XXXIII Report on CICAD XXXIII

CICAD's Thirty-third Regular Session, which took place from April 29 to May 2, 2003, was chaired by Mr. Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Attorney General of Mexico, and vice-chair, Mr. Paul Kennedy, Senior Assistant Deputy Solicitor General of Canada.  In his welcome address, Mr. Macedo de la Concha, confirmed the importance of looking into the links between organized crime and drug trafficking and developing hemispheric actions on this issue.  

On the other hand, Mr. Kennedy focused on the importance of improving communications across governments in order to deal with the drug problem more effectively. 

During the four-day meeting, the CICAD delegates covered a wide variety of topics, such as cooperation to contain the movement of  illicit drugs and firearms, and the integration of 9 new indicators to the CICAD's Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism 

See the final meeting report: Word and PDF. 

Online MA in Drug Addiction Studies August 31, 2003 is the application deadline for the 2003-2005 Online MA degree in drug addictions 

CICAD offers this first-ever graduate level degree online for personnel working in substance abuse treatment and prevention, providing professional development for substance abuse specialists and researchers in Spain and Latin America. Administered through a network of eight national universities, the online M.A. aims to consolidate the profession of demand reduction throughout the Americas. CICAD provides scholarships to enable students from all economic levels to enroll. The program opened in 2002, with a first-year class of 127 students, and is currently taking applicants for Fall 2003.

For more information visit: http://www.unireddrogas.com/Files/16_Insc.htm 

Applications for 2003-2005 Online MA in drug Addictions are currently being accepted. The deadline is August 31, 2003.  This  is an interdisciplinary MA aimed at professionals from any academic background. Classes will begin on October 1, 2003. The duration is of two years and the total cost is $2,000 US
Transnational Digital Government Project Transnational Digital Government Project

Power Point Presentation

The Transnational Digital Government Project, funded by the US National Science Foundation, represents a transnational collaboration among seven universities located in the United States, Belize and the Dominican Republic, national drug councils and government agencies in Belize and the Dominican Republic, and OAS/CICAD/OID.  

The collaboration aims at applying information technology to an international problem -- detecting and monitoring activities related to the transnational movement of illicit drugs. Starting from this general vision, project participants have agreed to take one government function –  immigration at remote borders and ports of entry – and five advanced technologies and determine how applying these technologies could make this government function more efficient, more effective, both nationally and transnationally.  The five advanced technologies are:  spoken dialogue systems, machine translation, information filtering, networking and middleware/Internet technology.  Project emphasis will be on the transnational aspects.  Project participants have also agreed on initial infrastructure requirements and specifications for a research prototype.  

For more information please see the presentation made at CICAD XXXIII in Word and PDF.

 

RESOURCES:
Documentation and Information Center Spanish National Drug 		 The information and documentation center of the DGPNSD 
by José del Val, Director

The Documentation and Information Center of the Delegation for the National Drug Plan (Spain) can be used by professionals and experts from public and private institutions that work in the area of drugs, as well as by the general public undertaking activities in this field. The services are free.

The Center is located at the following address: C/ Recoletos 22, 28071 - Madrid

If interested, please feel free to visit us at our location or contact us through:
Phone:  +34 91 537.27.00, +34 91 537.28.20, +34 91 537.26.88
Fax: +34 91 537.26.90
E-mail: cendocu@pnd.mir.es

http://www.mir.es/pnd/centro/index.htm  
(Provides access to epigraphs: content, services provided, bibliographical database, publications catalogue, bibliographical bulletins of the Documentation and Information Center).

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This quarterly newsletter is published electronically and  circulated to encourage discussion and comment. The findings, interpretations, judgments, and conclusions expressed in this newsletter are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to CICAD/OAS.