The purpose is to develop a roadmap around the drug threshold policy, the consumption table in force since 2014, which establishes the maximum and minimum net weights of narcotic or psychotropic substances, to determine the levels of possession and consumption and differentiate between consumers, micro-traffickers and drug traffickers.
For this reason, assembly members, officials of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), representatives of civil society, among other instances, held a working session in the Legislative House, in Guayaquil, within the framework of a technical table that already had a first meeting in Quito.
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“The table of drug use is not a technically rigorous instrument that allows us to differentiate an addict from a seller, nor is it a rehabilitation alternative for the problem of addictions in the country,” said Marcos Molina, a member of the Guayas assembly. who chairs the Health Commission of the Assembly and promotes said technical table.
The drug table was in charge of the technical entity of Ecuador’s drug policy at that time, the National Council for the Control of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (Consep), but currently said entity no longer exists.
Although among the proposals of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, when he was a candidate was the elimination of said table, legislator Molina pointed out that this is not so easy.
And for this reason, with the participation of the institutions involved in the issue and those who know the problem, it seeks to propose alternatives to address the situation.
The prevention and treatment of drug users is the responsibility of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP).
But, according to Assemblyman Marcos Molina, historically this has been one of the most precarious health sectors.
“The lack of public policies and the lack of investment by the State have made the treatment of addicts precarious. For this reason, it is urgent to work from the different institutions on proposals that allow us to face the drug phenomenon”, the legislator remarked.
For her part, Assemblywoman Geraldine Weber emphasized the need for a technical secretariat for drugs.
Last week, the Health Commission received a bill promoted by the legislator that contains three aspects in the fight against drug use: prevention, rehabilitation and entrepreneurship.
For her, drugs have destroyed young people, because they consider it a right to carry drugs; In addition, traffickers disguise themselves as addicts to carry their merchandise.
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The technical table plans to hold more sessions from which suggestions will come out that will be exposed in due course to the respective authorities.
Rodrigo Vélez, former executive secretary of the National Council for the Control of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances (the late Consep), who is also part of the technical panel, considers that the problem is not in the drug table, but in the lack of a policy that accompanies the current threshold. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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