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Sixth Meeting of the Regional Advisory Panel on the Impacts of
Drug Abuse (RAPID)
Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Cairo, Egypt, 16–19 October
2007
Regional Director's message
The Eastern Mediterranean Region is facing a
diverse range of substance-related problems with particular
complexities which call for technically prudent,
ethically-acceptable and culturally-sensitive approaches. Thus,
care needs to be taken over the possible transitions in terms of
type of substance and patterns of use. In some countries opiate
use and patterns of injecting drug use are on the increase with
serious health consequences such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis B and
C. In other countries there is an increase in the use of
stimulants, and to some extent alcohol, among vulnerable groups
of young people. There are other countries in which the dominant
drug of use is cannabis or khat. Hence, it is important
to determine how the less harmful drugs can be controlled
without being replaced by more harmful drugs, especially those
that may be injected.
In 2005, the Fifty-second Session of the
Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean passed a
resolution which called for a regional consultation on khat,
the control of which is limited as a result of the mixed
attitudes of senior health leaders. It is WHO’s conviction that
simplistic and cross-sectional approaches to khat, which
ignore the cultural and socioeconomic aspects and the potential
long-term transition to more harmful substances or patterns of
use, should be avoided. Thus strategic planning on khat
will rely partly on such useful consultations and partly on
further generation of knowledge in the field.
In 2006, another important resolution was
passed by the Regional Committee on the public health problems
of alcohol consumption in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Based on that resolution, the sixth RAPID meeting included a
one-day workshop on the alcohol,
smoking and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST),
with the aim of receiving the technical feedback of RAPID
experts on how to streamline and adapt ASSIST for use on the
young population of the Region.
The objectives of the meeting were to:
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conduct a technical
review of transitions of patterns of drug abuse;
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provide recommendations to
prevent harmful patterns of transition;
-
discuss regional strategic
directions to control the use of khat;
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provide training on the use of
the alcohol, smoking and substance involvement screening
test (ASSIST) for the management of alcohol and substance
abuse.
Meeting report
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