Secondary School Drug Survey Dissemination Seminar
(ZIZ News) — High level education officials gathered at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort on Wednesday morning for the St. Kitts-Nevis Secondary School Drug Survey Dissemination Seminar.
Legal Affairs and Justice Minister the Hon. Patrice Nisbett, Organisation Of American States (OAS) Representative Terence Craig and Director of the National Council on Drug Abuse Karimu Byron also attended the seminar.
Chief Education Officer Clarice Cotton, during her remarks, spoke of the need to involve secondary school students in the survey.
“This survey was targeted to the secondary level because we feel that that is a group that is at risk. This is the age when the onset of youth is happening. The end of childhood has come and there are lots of changes going on in these children’s bodies. Their mood swings and all that is important and it was important to target that group because that group sometimes go through a lot of difficulties during the changes,” she said.
Meantime, Mr. Craig, the OAS representative to the country, highlighted the role of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission [CICAD].
He said it is the western hemisphere’s policy forum for dealing with drug problems.
“The CICAD Executive Secretariat supports the Commission by strengthening the human and institutional capabilities and channelling the collective efforts of its member states to reduce the production, trafficking and use of illegal drugs. CICAD’s mission is also to address the health, social and criminal consequences of the drug trade. This is done through various programmes and projects. The Inter-American Observatory on Drugs is one of these projects,” he said.
Craig added that CICAD helps to promote and build a drug information network for the Americas: offering objective, reliable, up to date and comparative information.
He said this ensures that member states can better understand, design and implement policies and programmes to confront the drug phenomenon in all its dimensions.