13 Jan
With the launching of the National Strategic Framework (NSF) on Health and Drugs, our country has taken a further step to tackle our country’s decades-long issues with the drug menace.
It is worth noting that the strategy aims at addressing all aspects of the drug problem through health, social and legal approaches.
Besides, we can say that the NSF is perfect because its five-priority strategies have their own objectives and tasks, and has also given a room to relevant civil organizations and partners to cooperate in implementing these strategies.
The NSF will be implemented effectively, and all stakeholders including governmental departments must work closely, especially with those communities that are affected by the drug problem.
The tasks in the national strategy are important for the country; a steering committee needs to be formed to promote cooperation between the work groups under the committee.
As NSF is not directly related to reducing drug production, to control drug usage and to implement the opium substitute projects for farmers, ministries concerned are obliged to draw frameworks for tackling the above objectives and to implement them.
For several decades, Myanmar has been beleaguered by its drug problem, an issue that has been accentuated by the country’s decades of civil wars.
By implementing the NSF, our country has made a significant step towards a health-centric approach to reduce the rise in drug use among the youth.
According to statistics, drug users in a town in central Myanmar make up 75 per cent of its population.
It has alarmed us that if we cannot eradicate the drug problem in our country, our efforts for the development of youth, their health and education, will be in vain.
The menace of drugs is slowly eroding our society, ruining the lives of our youth, and destroying the dignity and future of our country. We must promote the anti-narcotic awareness raising programme at schools where about 9.7 million of our school children are learning.
If we do not collaborate and successfully combat the drug problem today, Myanmar will face a severe and drastic situation in the coming decade.
In this regard, we earnestly urge all stakeholders to join us in our efforts in the fight against drugs. Under the strategy, the regional and state authorities are required to come up with projects, in line with the situation in their areas, and implement them.
