Guyana’s multi-sectoral drug demand reduction strategy lauded

Mar 11, 2018 News

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The global war on drugs is an expensive undertaking costing the global economy some US$100 billion annually, according to the UK-based NGO Transform Drug Policy Foundation. Guyana’s 2018 budget by comparison is US$53.4 million.
Conservative estimates put the value of the global illicit drug market at some US$330 billion, more than enough to help facilitate corruption reaching up to the highest level everywhere.
Globally, there are some 29.5 million persons suffer from drug use disorders according the UN 2017 statistics.
This figure is 0.6 percent of the global adult population who the international body said on its website “were engaged in problematic use and suffered from drug use disorders, including dependence.”
The UN said while the international market for new psychoactive substances [NPS] is still minuscule users expose themselves to possibly worsening health risks because they are “unaware of the content and dosage of psychoactive substances in some NPS.”
But Guyana has been making progress in combating this situation.
In fact, Ren Gonzales, a Psychology and Human Resources specialist this past week praised Guyana’s multi-sectoral strategy to help reduce the desire for access to the growing spectrum of available illegal drugs which wreak havoc on societies.
The results of a Guyanese survey conducted in schools five years ago concluded that local students then used a variety of dangerous drugs. The country’s National Drug Strategy Master Plan 2016 – 2020 referring to the study noted that “1.4 per cent of the students used cocaine at least once in their lifetime [and] 1.9 percent…used crack at least once in their lifetime.”
According to the study, the “lifetime prevalence rate for solvent and inhalants was 10.8 percent while it was 3.2 percent for tranquilisers, 2.9 per cent for stimulants, 1.6 percent for ecstasy, 1.0 percent for heroin, 0.7 per cent each for morphine, cocoa paste and hallucinogens, and 0.6 percent for both opium and hashish.”
But Gonzales admitted, the global war on drugs is failing. This he attributed to the fact that the number of users around the world escalated in 2017.
He disclosed too that more people are escaping the global dragnet and become ensnared in the trawl of the dark, illegal drug underworld.
He revealed too that some of those who manage to seek treatment have a high rate of habitual relapse. According to Gonzales, the rate is usually between 60 to 90 percent.
For this reason, he said, drug demand reduction specialists must target relapse prevention but differentiate between a “lapse and a slip” lest they misdiagnose patients.
“Good diagnosis means better prognosis,” Gonzales counselled while praising the country’s “very active training programme.”
According to Gonzales it is heartening to see local efforts reach beyond health workers to include Guyana Prison Service officers and ranks of the Guyana Police Force in the drug demand reduction quest. “This is very good,” Gonzales said.
He predicts that an injection of the science of psychology into the country’s drug demand reduction programme will bear fruit if practitioners are also equipped with the psychometric and psycho-diagnostic tools and not rely solely on interviews with clients for insight.
Guyana currently has very few trained and practicing psychologists but the recently-introduced psychology programme at the University of Guyana [UG], Turkeyen Campus is expected to bridge this gap said Gonzales, who is also President of the Guyana Psychological Association.
He wants successfully rehabilitated clients to be empowered to become useful members of society and Guyana’s national programme to pursue a holistic strategy to help solve the drug-demand problem which could have financial and other implications.
“We cannot look at one dimension of the problem,” Gonzales counselled noting that psychologists, sports personalities, religious counsellors, health workers and experts from other fields should be utilised in Guyana’s drug-demand reduction effort.
The country’s blueprint is a harmonious arrangement straddling public health and public security focusing on demand and supply reduction, control measures, institutional strengthening and policy coordination and international cooperation.
The five-year plan outlines the country’s national policies, identifies its priorities and assigns responsibilities for drug control efforts.
“In essence it guides the operational plans of all government departments and other bodies involved in the reduction of demand, supply control, and all other aspects of the national fight against drug abuse and its associated ills,” the document said.
While its strategies expressed are premised on existing national realities, it also makes provisions for the myriad of international, regional and hemispheric treaties, agreements and other covenants Guyana has ratified.
Two Ministry of Public Health employees, Ms Ayodele Kingston, of Region Four [Demerara/Mahaica] and Ms. Vilma Amsterdam of Region Six [East Berbice/Corentyne] lauded the initiative which trained them on motivational interviewing and relapse prevention. The training was facilitated by Gonzales.
“This week’s programme was more in-depth than what we were exposed to in the past,” Kingston said. For Ms. Amsterdam, “it was very informative and the role plays were insightful and revealed an understanding of the depths of the content they learned during the life-transforming five days.”

 

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