Social integration efforts, ‘much needed’ for foreign inmates

Cited from Petra Paula Merino, Drugnet Europe No. 46, April–June 2004

 European prison populations today contain an overrepresentation of social, cultural and ethnic minorities, many being immigrants from outside the EU. … Foreign inmates experience difficulties in accessing general care, legal support and addiction services, the main barrier being linguistic. This ultimately jeopardises their chances for social integration as they are more likely to experience health and addiction problems and less likely to be given a chance for parole. Participants at a recent conference on ‘Prisons, drugs and society in the enlarged Europe’ [organised by the European and Central and East European Networks of Drug Services in Prison] called for comprehensive interventions to prevent imprisonment and integrate immigrants into society by facilitating their access to employment, health and social services and education. Meanwhile, effective in-custody measures cited included peer-support approaches, cultural mediation and repatriation of inmates to prison units in their home country. Other urgent measures proposed related to the prevention of diseases among detainees, especially HIV, hepatitis B and tuberculosis.

 Treatment now more ‘available, accessible and diverse’

Cited from Drugnet Europe No. 47, July–September 2004

 Measuring public expenditure on drug treatment is an important indicator of governments’ commitment to the drug problem. Preliminary estimates from an EMCDDA study of drug-related public expenditure from 1990–2000 suggest that, in Member States, 70–75% of the drug budget was spent on law enforcement and around 25–30% on the health sector, including treatment for drugs and related diseases. Although data are insufficient to draw clear-cut conclusions, and more cost analyses are required for an accurate picture of spending, preliminary research shows that within the EU, the average health-related expenditure for problem drug users is around € 2,000 per person per annum.

 ELDD offers easy access to EU drug legislation  

Cited from Cécile Martel, Drugnet Europe No. 47, July–September 2004

 In 1990, the European Community took its first legislative action in the field of drugs by ratifying Article 12 of the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Since then, the EU has adopted a battery of over 60 directives, regulations, recommendations and framework decisions addressing the drug phenomenon, primarily in line with the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam. The EMCDDA has now made these texts available in one easily accessible archive in its European Legal Database on Drugs (ELDD). … A descriptive overview of drug legislation at EU level – the ‘European Union profile’ – has also been published. This is divided into the following sub-sections: development of legislation; controlled substances; drug use and possession; trafficking and drug-related crime; prevention, care and treatment; precursors; money laundering and confiscation. The main purpose of the feature is to provide policy-makers, researchers, journalists and the general public with an accessible, up-to-date and comprehensive reference collection of EU drug legislation.

[The European Legal Database on Drugs is accessible at http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/eldd ]