No. 2, Year 4
Second Quarter 2006

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Science at the Service of Drug Control in the Americas

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the U.S. government is working to share advanced scientific knowledge about drug use and addiction with the rest of the Americas, said Dr. Nora Volkow, the  NIDA Director, speaking at the thirty-ninth regular session of CICAD in Washington, D.C. in May. She also spoke about her own groundbreaking research and the threat from methamphetamine... Find out more.

OAS Chief Urges New Commitment of Funding for CICAD Activities

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza reiterated a proposal for member states to underwrite CICAD activities through allocating a small percentage of assets seized for trafficking and money laundering crimes.  The funds would go toward CICAD's supply and demand reduction training programs, as well as toward preparing law enforcement and financial authorities to better investigate and prosecute money laundering crimes... Find out more.

In the rest of the session, the Commission heard several reports and presentations that brought them up to date the hemisphere's status in the fight against drugs... Find out more.

Peer review process gets streamlined

At the CICAD meeting, the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) received a strong endorsement from the Commission member states, underscoring the importance of the process as the cornerstone of CICAD's narcotics control strategy... Find out more.

News
Research Grants to Encourage Quest for Knowledge on Drug Use

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and CICAD's Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID) opened a new drug research funding initiative for applications in August. The competitive Postgraduate Research Award Project's deadline for application is November 3, 2006. Only researchers of CICAD member states are eligible. Those interested can find a document explaining all the details and requirements, as well as instructions for the application, at the OID website. Awards will not exceed US$3,000 each.

Summertime studies
Canada’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is partnering this summer with CICAD by hosting a two-month training program, aimed at building drug-related research capacity in Latin America.  The Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Toronto is also collaborating.  This initiative is supported by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAIT)... Find out more. 

International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
June 26 was commemorated by several national drug commissions. Reports from Jamaica and the Bahamas... Find out more.

Costa Rican financial analysts get training
In mid-June, CICAD's Anti-Money Laundering Unit held a training workshop on information analysis tools and techniques of financial intelligence for the staff of Costa Rica’s financial intelligence unit. The workshop was organized with the Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD) and took place on June 12-15. It drew 10 FIU analysts that received training in using a specialized software application employed in financial intelligence and strategic and operational analysis techniques... Find out more.

Announcements

Training courses and other CICAD-sponsored events in the near future are:

• 9/11-22/2006   I    nternational Observer Attachment Program (IOAP) Training Seminar (Canada)  
• 9/25-28/2006        Logical Framework Workshop - Andean countries    
• 9/25-29/2006        Training and awareness seminar to introduce the concept of private sector involvement for port officials, members of the business community. Seminar deliver in partnership with BASC (Uruguay)  
• 10/16-19/2006       Logical Framework Workshop  (Caribbean countries)
• 10/23-27/2006       ERCAIAD Operational Intelligence Course (Santiago de Chile, Chile)
• 10/30 -11/3/2006   Meeting of the Ibero-American Observatories (Cartagena, Colombia) - rescheduled.

Online Resources:

The latest issue (July 2006) of the Revista Peruana de Drogodependencias is available in Spanish... The Boletin En Linea 14 of Colombia's Observatorio de Drogas is in Spanish... The CESAR Fax provides a weekly, one-page overview of timely substance abuse trends or issues. The Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR), at the University of Maryland at College Park, also makes publications and drug information available online. All content is in English.

The following CICAD documents are now posted to the website: Final Report of the thirty ninth regular session of CICAD (May 2006) as well as speeches, reports and presentations; the Hemispheric Report and 34 country reports on implementation of recommendations 2003-2004 Evaluation Round. In addition, the CICAD Links page has been completely revamped.