Brussels, 26/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On International Drugs Day, Friday 26 June, the European Commission launched a new initiative with the main aim of making young people more aware of the dangers of taking illegal drugs. “Let us not kid ourselves. The threat is still there: every year there are seven to eight thousand drug-related deaths in the European Union, and one person dies every hour. This is all the more serious as it mainly affects the young,” said Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, officially launching the “European Action on Drugs” (EAD) campaign, along with journalist and TV star Nikos Aliagas and Jerzy Awsiak, journalist and social campaigner, at a major event bringing together some 120 stakeholders from across the EU. This initiative, building on the principle of shared responsibility, encourages everyone, whether groups or individuals, to sign a pledge undertaking to act in some way that addresses the drugs problem. Up until now, 21 organisations from throughout the EU have signed the EAD pledge, including the Belgian insurance company EHIAS, the French association “Le Phare” (families against drugs), the London Drug Policy Forum from the UK and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). Commissioner Barrot called for a genuine “anti-drugs alliance”, bringing together all parts of civil society. The campaign, he said, would focus on the dangers of drug-use for health, and on the dangers of addiction and, hence, the loss of freedom. The initiative will use the latest information technologies, and will also operate in schools and clubs to provide families with better information on the risks to their children. “Families have to be persuaded not to condemn young people, but to open up discussion, to inform them of the risks. We have to be open and frank about things,” Barrot said. “We must make sure that young people who don't take drugs don't feel as though they are missing out,” added Aliagas, who presents Star Academy on French television. “There are no more drugs in show business than elsewhere, but it is just more easily seen there,” he said. “We have to show the toll that drugs have taken on heroes, the rock stars who are totally burned out. Drugs, sex and rock'n'roll. What's left? Rock and safe sex. All the rest is just self-destruction, and we don't need that,” he added. “We've got it wrong. The war in drugs has become the war on drug users. We have to hold out our hand. These are our children, your friends, your brothers and sisters. No one is completely safe. So, together we can hope to bin all that rubbish and smile, and, above all, have the right to be free,” he went on. Barrot, however, said there had to be police action against drug trafficking and supplying. “The whole problem is demand. That's what we have to tackle, but without condemning those who take drugs,” he said. For more information, go to: http://www.action-drugs.eu (B.C./transl.rt)