(Note to Editors: UCLA's Richard Rawson is available as an expert on substance abuse issues facing the Middle East. Also, a conference agenda is available on request.)
Drug addiction researchers at UCLA are promoting peace through science while addressing a growing substance abuse problem raging in the Middle East.
The Integrated Substance Abuse Programs at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA will convene a four-day meeting of health officials from more than two dozen Middle East nations and their neighbors Sept. 4"8 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Participants will set aside cultural and political differences to create a collaborative atmosphere intended to generate science-based substance abuse services within existing health care systems in the region.
Nations sending representatives to the conference include Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Russia and other countries in the region who share long histories of violence or tension with one or more other participants. Representatives of the United Nations, World Health Organization, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse also will attend.
"The drug traffickers in the region easily cross centuries-old cultural and political barriers in plying an illegal trade that devastates personal health, social institutions, and political and economic stability," said Richard "Rick" Rawson, an adjunct associate professor at UCLA's Semel Institute and associate director of its Integrated Substance Abuse Programs.
"A similar united front among the nations of the region is the most effective way to fight back, Rawson said. "At the same time, we hope cooperation in this project will encourage collaborative dialogue on other common issues and help bridge long broken relationships between nations."
Primary funding for the conference has been provided by the United States Institute of Peace, an independent, nonpartisan federal institution created by Congress to promote the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts. The United Nations, World Health Organization, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and National Institute on Drug Abuse are providing additional financial support.
Drug abuse and trafficking issues in the region are large and complex, and have been heavily influenced by geopolitical events of recent years. For example, the fall of the Taliban government in 2001 jump-started the heroin trade in Afghanistan, historically a primary source of the drug for the Middle East and other parts of the world. Meanwhile, the fall of Saddam Hussein in neighboring Iraq has opened that nation to the drug trade.
"While drug abuse is a concern in its own right, there are many who are equally or more concerned about the associated consequences of drug use," Rawson said. "There is extensive evidence that illicit drug use is a major contributor to crime. Drug trafficking and the property crime associated with the acquisition of drugs often can overload and corrupt law enforcement and judicial systems.
"Of additional concern are the health care issues related to HIV, hepatitis and TB transmission that in some parts of the world are primarily associated with injection drug use and prostitution related to drug acquisition," Rawson said.
Rawson spent two weeks in fall 2004 in Cairo, Egypt, with health officials from the region to share first-hand accounts and review existing data on illicit drug use in the region. Among the issues touched on at the Cairo meeting:
"¢ One in 10 adult males in Iran is addicted to heroin or opium. Thirty percent of the nation's 1.5 million injection users are HIV positive."¢ Opium production in Afghanistan has doubled every year since 2001 and is expected to continue this exponential increase over at least the next two years."¢ The liberation of Iraq has opened the borders of that country to a new and flourishing drug trade that health officials in Iraq are woefully unprepared to address.
The upcoming Istanbul conference is an outgrowth of cross-cultural research conducted by UCLA's Rawson and scientific partners in Israel and Palestine into drug abuse trends in the region.
Funded by a grant from the State Department's Middle East Regional Cooperation Program (MERC), results were outlined in 2000 in the peer-reviewed journal Addiction and detailed in the book "Drug Problems: Cross-Cultural Policy and Program Enforcement" (Auburn House, 2002). The book contains articles written by eight Israelis and seven Palestinians, along with authors from the United States and Europe.
The success of the project spawned a similar, MERC-funded study into drug abuse trends involving UCLA, Egypt and Israel that is ongoing.
The UCLA's Semel Institute is an interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior, including the genetic, biological, behavioral and sociocultural underpinnings of normal behavior, and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders. More information about the institute and its Integrated Substance Abuse Programs is available online at http://www.npi.ucla.edu/ and http://www.uclaisap.org/.
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