Over 200 groups adopt plan to promote evidence-based health program for drug users
MANILA, Philippines — Groups have adopted the declaration that promotes the use of evidence-based health treatment for drug users while, at the same time, seek to have reforms in the country’s criminal justice system.
Over 200 Filipino and foreign stakeholders adopted the Manila Declaration on Creating Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) systems in a conference, according to the US Embassy in the Philippines.
“By spending our time to learn and share, we are making a sound investment and bridging pathways to ensure that friends, families, community members and society as a whole have what they need to not only survive, but to thrive,” US Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) Director Kelia Cummins said.
Law enforcement personnel, drugs and substance-use professionals, civil society organizations and other stakeholders took part in the 2nd National Conference of the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP) organized by the INL, the Colombo Plan and the Quezon City government last week.
The Philippine Addiction Specialists Society now sits at the new representative body of the ISSUP to the Philippines.
The administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte declared a deadly and controversial “war on drugs,” which rights groups both here and abroad have estimated the death toll to be as high as 30,000.
The Commission on Human Rights has recommended a human rights-based approach to treating drug addiction. – with report from Franco Luna
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