WASHINGTON, USA – The executive secretariat of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS) releases Friday the thematic national evaluation reports of the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM) 2022 on “Measures to Control and Counter the Illicit Cultivation, Production, Trafficking and Distribution of Drugs and to Address their Causes and Consequences.”
The national reports were approved by CICAD member states during its seventy-second regular session, held November 8-11, 2022, and chaired by Paraguay.
The reports address drug supply reduction issues, such as:
• Interdiction programs to reduce the Illicit cultivation, production, trafficking and distribution of drugs;
• Measures to address the challenges posed by New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and illicit synthetic drugs;
• Effective monitoring and control of chemical substances and precursors to prevent their diversion to the manufacture of illicit drugs;
• Adequate availability and accessibility of substances subject to international control for medical and scientific purposes;
• Control measures to prevent diversion of controlled pharmaceutical products containing narcotic drugs and/or psychotropic substances;
• Intelligence and information exchange to detect methods used by criminal organizations;
• Illicit crops and alternative development programs;
• Programs to mitigate and reduce the impact of illicit crops and drug production on the environment;
• Effects of small-scale drug trafficking on public health, the economy, social cohesion, and citizen security;
• Money laundering derived from drug trafficking, and the administration and disposition of seized and forfeited assets.
The MEM, mandated by the 1998 Summit of the Americas, is a peer review process that measures the progress of actions taken by OAS Member States to address the problem of drugs and related crimes. The MEM process, managed by OAS/CICAD, evaluates member states’ adherence to the Hemispheric Plan of Action on Drugs (POA) 2021-2025, which serves as a guide for the implementation of the Hemispheric Drug Strategy 2020.
As the only multilateral evaluation of its kind in the world, the MEM’s national reports highlight the strengths and challenges in the formulation and implementation of OAS member states’ policies regarding the drug problem, encouraging national dialogue among policymakers. The MEM hemispheric briefs are informative papers identifying trends stemming from the national reports, focusing on trends and collective progress.
The eighth round consists of three annual evaluations covering the following POA thematic areas: Measures of Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Support, in 2021; Measures to Control and Counter the Illicit Cultivation, Production, Trafficking, and Distribution of Drugs, and to address their Causes and Consequences, in 2022; and Institutional Strengthening/Research, Information, Monitoring, and Evaluation/International Cooperation, in 2023. Finally, in 2024, the fourth and final year of the eighth round, the MEM will carry out a comprehensive evaluation to update the information presented in the first three years.
MEM reports can be accessed here.
