26 February 2025
Excellencies, Distinguished Company, Companions,
We’re gathered right here right now to debate an especially grave and pressing matter.
A matter that destroys people, tears households aside and eviscerates communities.
A scenario that has solely worsened lately and―in lots of corners of our area―is spiralling uncontrolled.
Girls and Gents,
I start my intervention with some uncomfortable truths.
Around the globe, an estimated 5.6% of individuals have used medication within the final 12 months.
In our area, that determine goes as much as 6.7%.
The truth is, the Jap Mediterranean has one of many highest burdens of substance use globally.
With hashish, opium, khat and tramadol topping the record as our narcotics of selection.
A 2019 examine discovered that a minimum of 3.4 million individuals within the Jap Mediterranean had drug use dysfunction, a greater than twofold improve over a interval of twenty years.
And the area counts greater than 31,000 deaths per yr related to substance use problems.
Just one in 13 individuals obtain remedy, and the standard of that remedy varies considerably.
Therapy for substance use dysfunction is seldom a one-off as a result of habit is a persistent illness.
Information means that greater than two-thirds of people with opioid use dysfunction return to substance use inside a yr of remedy.
Along with the huge social prices, substance use is related to psychological well being situations, hepatitis, tuberculosis and cardiovascular illnesses.
In our area, almost one fifth of drug customers reside with HIV, and greater than half endure from hepatitis C.
As a spouse, mom and doctor with a deep data of our tradition and values, I discover these numbers actually surprising.
Since taking workplace as WHO Regional Director for the Jap Mediterranean, I’ve made battling substance use a flagship of my tenure, as a result of I perceive that habit and the social decay it causes stand in the way in which of well being and prosperity for all.
Our purpose, OUR COLLECTIVE GOAL, is to sustainably cut back the morbidity, mortality and social prices of substance use within the Jap Mediterranean.
As a result of we can not have well being for all, with out well being for probably the most weak.
Progress on substance use can function a catalyst for change, driving progress in direction of defending individuals from preventable well being dangers and enabling them to steer more healthy lives.
That requires:
1. Fewer individuals attempting medication within the first place;
2. Extra individuals accessing higher remedy; and
3. Higher monitoring, surveillance and knowledge.
We are going to obtain this with a concentrate on 5 principal areas of labor, these are:
1. Therapy not criminalization;
2. Sturdy evidence-based public well being interventions that
a. promote wholesome existence
b. develop wholesome household and social environments; and
c. guarantee equal entry to schooling and vocational coaching
3. Cooperation amongst public, non-public and civil society stakeholders with help from UN businesses.
4. Implementing worldwide remedy requirements; and
5. Dependable and goal nationwide and regional knowledge.
The WHO Regional Flagship Initiative on Substance Use works with international locations and improvement companions to step up public well being motion on substance use throughout the Area.
We are able to carry stakeholders along with the world’s main consultants to share greatest practices, and to help the event of tips, instruments and proof for motion.
However ONLY YOU can lead that change.
ONLY YOU can tear down obstacles to remedy resembling stigma and criminalization.
AND ONLY YOU can catalyse motion in direction of your nationwide response.
We should handle essential gaps in our insurance policies, laws, and repair supply to forestall substance use, promote psychological well being, empower individuals with lived expertise, interact communities, present remedy, and facilitate restoration.
I’m grateful to the Nationwide Rehabilitation Centre in Abu Dhabi for convening this coverage dialogue with such a various and devoted group of stakeholders.
Over the subsequent three days, we intention to forge a consensus on the implementation of the regional flagship initiative, one that’s knowledgeable by real-world experiences and one of the best obtainable proof.
I eagerly stay up for our deliberations and thanks to your dedication to well being for all, together with probably the most weak.
