What is a national drug master plan
Why does South Africa need a national drug master plan
Vision of CDA
Central Drug Authority
The functions of the CDA Include:
Local drug action committees
Provincial drug forums
What is a national drug master
plan?
A drug master plan is defined by the United Nations Drug
Control Programme (UNDCP) as ‘the single document adopted by government outlining all
national concerns in drug control.
Why does South
Africa need a national drug master plan?
Sections 10 to 12(1) of Chapter 2 of the Constitution
of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act 108 of 1996), grants citizens the
right to have their dignity respected and protected,
the right to life, and the right to freedom and security.
The South African Government is accordingly committed to reducing both the supply of illegal drugs
and the demand for them through a wide range of actions and programmes.
To do this, it needs the help of all the criminal justice agencies, other government
departments, local authorities, health professionals, traditional healers,
religious organisations, schools, parents, sports groups, the media and the
private sector.
To date,however, the South African response to the drug problem has been disjointed,
fragmented and uncoordinated. This incoherent response has negatively influenced
the fight against drugs in two main ways, namely:
-
Firstly,the duplication of certain services and non-existence of others has led, in
effect, to the mismanagement of the meager resources available and the failure to secure others that are sorely needed.
-
Secondly, the lack of a single, unified and strategic
response to the drug problem has meant that the war against drugs has been waged
neither effectively nor on all fronts.
The South African National Drug Master Plan will act as the blueprint for South
Africa’s response to drug abuse. It will be the means by which existing
resources may be harnessed and yet others marshaled, their services streamlined
and guided, and will set out South African national policies and priorities in
the campaign against substance abuse. It will also substantially assist in
ensuring that a broader base of national and provincial departments take account
of substance-abuse issues in their activities and budgets.
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Vision Of The CDA
The vision is to build a drug-free society together and to make a contribution
to the global problem of substance abuse.
PRIORITIES
In order to
achieve its aims, the Master Plan has identified five main areas of focus,
namely
-
Crime
-
Youth
-
Community health and welfare
-
Research
and information dissemination
-
International
involvement
A sixth,
overriding and overarching goal has also been identified, namely communication.
OBJECTIVES:
The main
objectives of the Master Plan in these five areas are to
Crime
Reduce the incidence
of drug-related crime
Reduce the harmful
consequences of drug-related crime
Reduce the level of
drug misuse in prisons
Reduce the level of
substance abuse among road users.
Youth
Ensure that schools offer effective programmes on drug
education; giving pupils the facts, warning them of the risks, and helping them
to develop the skills and attitudes to resist drug misuse
Raise awareness among
teachers, governing bodies and parents of the issues associated with drug misuse
and young people
Develop effective
national and local public education strategies focusing particularly on young
people
Ensure that young
people, at risk of drug misuse or who experiment with, or become dependent on
drugs, have access to a range of advice, counseling, treatment, rehabilitation
and after-care services.
Community
health and welfare
Discourage people from
misusing drugs and to enable those who do so to stop
Ensure that individual drug misusers have access to a
range of advice, counseling, treatment, rehabilitation and after-care services
Ensure that families of drug misusers have access to
advice, counseling and support services
Develop and implement training programmes on the detection
of substance abuse, its prevention and treatment, for health and welfare
workers, law-enforcement officials and law students, personnel officers and
teachers, as well as any other role-players.
Research and
the dissemination of information
Coordinate the
collection and dissemination of locally and internationally derived information
of relevance to substance-abuse intervention
Evaluate internationally
developed intervention approaches and determine which modifications are required
for success in the local context.
International
involvement
Identify and implement
options, including science and technology options, to improve the effectiveness
of law enforcement to stop the flow of drugs into the Republic and to improve
the effectiveness of demand-reduction approaches
Promote stronger
regional co-operation.
Communication
The overarching objective of the Master Plan
is to ensure that all educational material and other information disseminated is
contextually correct, that is, in a form and language appropriate to the
culture, language, level of education and socio-economic background of its
intended recipients.
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CENTRAL DRUG AUTHORITY
The Central Drug
Authority should have a high-profile head and its members should include
representatives from the following institutions:
-Department of
Justice
-Department of Health
-Department of Education
-Department of Welfare
-Department of Home Affairs
-Department of Foreign Affairs
-Department of Trade and Industry
-Department of Finance
-Department of Labor
-Department of Correctional Services
-South African Police Service
-Research councils and universities
-Five representatives from non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
-Secretariat for Safety and Security
-National Youth Commission
-Business Against Crime
-Teachers' trade union representatives
-One representative from national intelligence services
The
Central Drug Authority should also include representatives from each of the nine
provinces from the provincial substance-abuse forums.
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THE FUNCTIONS OF
THE CDA INCLUDE:
i.
Overseeing and monitoring the implementation of the Master Plan
ii. Facilitating and
encouraging the coordination of programmes
iii. Facilitating the rationalisation of existing
resources and monitoring their effective use
iv. Encouraging government
departments and the private sector to draw up plans to address drug abuse in
line with the goals of the Master Plan
v. Introducing performance indicators whereby the
effectiveness and progress of the action plans can be monitored and evaluated on
all levels
vi. Facilitating the
initiation and promotion of measures, including legislation, to combat the
misuse of drugs
vii. Reviewing and commenting
on drug-related policies and programmes developed both locally and
internationally
viii. Establishing and maintaining information systems
which will support the implementation, evaluation and ongoing development of a
national drug master plan
ix. Submitting an annual report to Parliament and to
the nation, that will set out a comprehensive description of the national effort
relating to the drug problem
x. Ensuring the development of effective strategies on
drug education
xi. Liaison with the NCPS Ministers Committee where
necessary
xii. Acting as an
authoritative adviser to Government on policies and programmes in the field of
drug abuse and trafficking
xiii. Reviewing the Master Plan on a
five-yearly basis and amending it where necessary.
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LOCAL DRUG ACTION COMMITTEES
Composition
It is proposed that these committees should
be made up of senior representatives of the local magistrate’s court, police,
probation and correctional services, schools, local authorities, health
authorities and community structures, which will ensure appropriate coverage of
both rural and urban communities.
Functions
The drug action
committees will ensure local action on the Master Plan in each community and
will inform and be kept informed. Each drug action committee will be charged
with the task of
Ensuring that its action
plan is in line with the priorities and objectives of the Master Plan and that
it is aligned with the strategies of government departments
Implementing its action plans
Giving regular reports
to the Secretariat concerning its actions, progress and problems and other
drug-related events in its area
Providing information
the Central Drug Authority may, from time to time, require
Reporting formally to
the Central Drug Authority on a yearly basis.
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PROVINCIAL DRUG FORUMS
Composition
It is proposed that provincial drug forums
involve all stakeholders concerned in the fields of education, community action,
legislation and law enforcement, policy making, research and treatment.
It is recommended
that such forums have executive committee members who include persons
responsible for the following four portfolios:
a)
Treatment and After-care.
b)
Prevention and Education.
c)
Community Development.
d)
Legislation and Research and Information dissemination.
Functions
The main function
of provincial drug forums is to strengthen member organisations in carrying out
their existing functions related to directly or indirectly addressing substance
abuse, and to keep substance abuse high on the public/political agenda of the
province.
An important
function of a provincial drug forum is to encourage networking and the effective
flow of information between members of the forum.
When necessary,
such a forum may act as a mouthpiece for member organisations.
With regard to the Master Plan, provincial drug forums will specifically work to
put substance abuse on the public/political agenda, and to broadly assist the
local drug action committees in the execution of their tasks.
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