The global fight against drug abuse.

• Author: Lujan, Maria Juliana
• Position: INTER-AMERICAN SYSTEM

The European Commission (EC) and the OAS Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) have initiated an extensive program of activities that refocus efforts on treatment and rehabilitation. The first fruit of this coordination was an agreement between the government of Suriname and the city of Ghent, Belgium aimed at establishing the first drug treatment court in Paramaribo as an alternative to incarceration for drug offenders. Ghent, Belgium has joined this innovative challenge in part because of its unique experience in the area of drug treatment courts.

At a three-day meeting held in June in Ghent, judges, prosecutors, and health officers from both sides of the Atlantic discussed the most effective methods of drug treatment under judicial supervision as an alternative to incarceration for drug-dependent offenders. The meeting, held under the joint auspices of CICAD, the City of Ghent, the Institute for International Research on Criminal Policy of the University of Ghent (IRCP), the Office of the Prosecutor (Ghent), and the District Court of Ghent, is part of an ongoing program called "Drug Treatment City Partnerships," which creates links between European cities and cities in the Americas so that they can work together to improve drug treatment. The program brings together national and city policy-makers from 45 cities on both sides of the Atlantic to learn from each other about good, evidence-based practices in the treatment of drug addicts.

Research has shown that drug treatment courts in Chile, Canada, the United States, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Bermuda, and the United Kingdom have reduced relapses and recidivism among the offenders who successfully complete the program. European cities have had such success with this approach that recently the first drug court association was created in the European Community. The association will serve as platform as the European Commission and the nations of the Americas continue these pioneering efforts.

Cooperative efforts like these started as a result of an international forum held in the Dominican Republic on May 2007. For the first time, cities from both sides of the Atlantic were brought together to share their experience in a multilateral context, and this engendered a collaborative effort to develop better local policies and best practices in the treatment...