V Latin American and I Central American Conference on Drug Policy
In this edition, the 5th Latin American and 1st Central American Conference on Drug Policy aims to be a platform for discussion and elaboration of solution-oriented proposals. The production and use of drugs is a complex phenomenon, with multiple manifestations according to the historical moment, cultural environment, economic model, the particular circumstances of a country, the different significances assigned by subjects, as well as the actual differences between substances. Nevertheless, it is reduced and homogenized as the “drug problem”, as if it was a uniform, unhistorical phenomenon.
In the last hundred years this issue has become a “social matter”, and with the aid of different social actors, including the State, it has been constructed as a social problem.
The drug control policies express tensions, contradictions, and conflicts about the way to regulate consumption and production. Within this framework, local and international debates on drug policy are developing.
In the Latin American context -characterized by enormous social inequality, income disparity, and poverty – these debates cannot ignore the consequences that the drug control policies have produced in the region: social isolation, a disproportionate incarceration of drug users and small dealers or “mules”, social violence, environmental damage, and violations of basic human rights.
In this edition, the 5th Latin American and 1st Central American Conference on Drug Policy aims to be a platform for discussion and elaboration of solution-oriented proposals.
The CONFEDROGAS Consortium was founded on May 15th, 2013 in order to organize the Latin American Conferences on Drug Polices. Based on a history of results produced by conferences in Buenos Aires (2009), Rio de Janeiro(2010), Mexico DF (2011), and Bogota (2012), organized by Intercambios Civil Association in partnership with Psicotropicus (2010), CUPIhD (2011), and Acción Técnica Social (2012) as local organizers, and with the support of WOLA and TNI, these six NGOs have now formally joined together to strengthen the drug conference initiative as a permanent, regular platform for discussion and development of new proposals.
