Strasbourg, 01/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Created by the French President Georges Pompidou in 1971 and integrated into the Council of Europe (CoE) by decision of the Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) in 1980, the Pompidou Group's principal mission is to help to draft common policies to fight drug addiction in the 47 member states of the Council of Europe (CoE). Its main asset is a multi-disciplinary approach fed into by various thematic working groups, which meet on a regular basis.
The precursors group, which was set up four years ago, held its annual meeting in the premises of the CoE in Strasbourg from 24 to 26 September. “Our specific mission is to focus on the chemicals from which drugs are extracted”, explained Claude Gillard, adviser to the Belgian Ministry of Justice, who chairs the structure. By way of example, he referred to APAAN (alpha-phenylacetoacetonitrile), a heroin precursor.
“Tackling trafficking in these substances is highly complex”, he stated. It involves the police, intelligence, customs, justice and also the various national authorities responsible for controlling the legal trade in these products as regards granting permits. The multi-disciplinary approach is absolutely vital and involves representatives of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries within the working group, as well as academics and scientists, to anticipate developments in the products in question. This list also includes the supranational authorities of the European Commission, in its competence in matters concerning the freedom of movement of goods, the European Drugs Observatory, Eurojust for the legal issues, the European anti-fraud office (OLAF) and the UN drugs control body. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is also involved as regards customs, as are Europol and Interpol.
“We also work with third countries”, said Claude Gillard, such as the United States and Mexico, or China and India, with which the group worked in 2013. “This year, we involved Nigeria in our work, as there is a developing traffic in chemical precursors destined for Europe in that country. The questions we tackled with them also related to the theme of the environment, because storming a laboratory and dismantling it involves a series of procedures for which training is required. The police officers have to be physically protected from the products, familiar with explosion risks and capable of preventing any contaminated run-off into the water distribution circuits or rivers. This is the first time that we have tackled the drugs issue from an environmental point of view, but it is an essential one”, he explained.
Producing, consuming and destroying drugs is not without an impact, as shown by two of the speakers at the session, Aïssata Maiga and Walter Kego, who work for the Institute for Development and Security Policy in Sweden. The figures are shocking. To produce a single joint of cannabis requires the equivalent of a 100W bulb burning for 25 hours and generates 1.5 kg of CO2. Growing a single cannabis plant takes 33 litres of water and the production of four grams of cocaine destroys four square metres of tropical forest. When brought to the attention of the public, these figures could make people, particularly younger people, stop and think.
By 2015-2018, the precursors group of the Pompidou Group plans to look at the penal chain, because although there are seizures and arrests, these do not in all cases lead to sentencing. (VL)