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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
“It’s still a long way to peace in Sudan”
Journalists
No new approval procedures for export credit guarantees in Germany
Drugs and development: harm reduction strategies
Smaller volume of German arms exports
Kenya, Angola: billions missing
Afghan economy growing – so is the drug trade
Health services
2/2004
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[ New GTZ concept ]
Drugs and development: harm reduction strategies
GTZ has revised its concept on drugs, drawing on tools that have worked in Western Europe under labels such as “harm reduction” or “integrated local drugs policy”. The first approach uses health information, rehabilitation and similar instruments to minimise the harm done by addiction instead of just threatening addicts with repression. The second approach means promoting close cooperation between police, courts and local authorities on the one hand and civil society actors on the other to improve prevention, information and other forms of drug control.
According to GTZ project manager Christoph Berg, this re-gearing is needed for a number of reasons. One is that new consumption patterns have formed along the principal trade routes. In Iran and Pakistan, there are now millions of heroin addicts, and they belong to other social groups than traditional opium users in the region. Young people, for example, are frequently drawn to the more addictive narcotics. In Latin America, a similar upturn can be seen in the use of cocaine. This drug, too, is more dangerous than the traditional coca leaves.
As Berg goes on to say, the experience of recent years shows that drugs are not an isolated developmental problem. On the contrary, they make other problems worse. Drug-related prostitution and intravenous drug-taking, for example, accelerate the spread of AIDS. Also, where social solidarity is undermined by drugs and dissipation, poverty reduction becomes even harder. The vicious circle is complete when desperation and hopelessness feed a desire for the euphoria of a ‘high’. According to Berg, similar interactions are also at play in the escalation of civil wars. On the one hand, the production and sale of drugs can help finance militias; on the other, drugs remove inhibitions and make mercenaries more brutal.
Consequently, GTZ sees drugs as an issue that needs to be taken more seriously in every area of development, foreign and security policy. So Christoph Berg’s team considers it a feather in its cap that its work is not only appreciated in the Development Ministry but also consulted by other departments, such as the Foreign Office. (dem)
Further information is available on the Internet at
www4.gtz.de/drogen/english
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