It is my pleasure and honour as Chairman of the Advisory Board of ECAD to welcome Mayors and Deputy Mayors from many cities in Europe to the 11th Mayors’ Conference.

Policy Making
This is the major policy-making forum of the organisation. It meets annually so that elected representatives of European cities may consider the progress, or lack of progress, being achieved in the ongoing task of reducing the demand for illegal drugs and reducing the supply of such drugs to our city communities.

Philosophy
The ECAD philosophy supports the existing UN drug conventions, the Political Declaration and the Guiding Principles of Demand Reduction approved at the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs in New York in June 1998.
ECAD has consistently highlighted the need for intensified national and international cooperation to fight the illegal drug problem. We have also advocated that the UN should be given power to react against flagrant breaches of the conventions and international agreements wherever they occur.
It is clear that if some countries decide to allow drugs of all kinds to be freely available, they exacerbate the problem of other countries and cities, which strive to curb the use of illegal drugs.

Suffering
The delegates to this Conference are only too well aware of the real suffering on the ground in their cities arising from drug misuse. You have firsthand knowledge of the social, psychological, physical and criminal repercussions associated with an excessive compulsion to take illegal drugs.

Citizens’ Welfare
We are all committed to the welfare of our citizens whatever their social status, age group or educational qualifications.
Our task is to promote social inclusion and to make our cities better places in which to live, find employment, bring up a family and to enjoy our leisure hours.
We know from surveys carried out in many cities that millions of Europeans are involved in and adversely affected by drug-related problems.
In my country, there is a strong correlation between drug misuse and deprivation. The evidence suggests that many drug addicts share four characterictics – being young, unemployed, having left school at an early age and living in an economically disadvantaged area.

Local Drug Task Forces
We are endeavouring to come to grips with the illegal drug problem by establishing Local Drug Task Forces in our cities and regions.
The Task Forces have a multi agency composition with representatives from Health Authorities, Education providers, Gardi (Police), Fas (The National Training Agency), Youth Councils and representatives from local communities. They meet monthly and oversee the operation of programmes designed to reduce the demand for drugs. They also act as a lobby or pressure group toensure that there are sufficient places in Rehabilitation Centres where addicts can be treated and cared for in a non-judgemental way.

Harm Reduction
We read today about programmes operating in some cities designed to reduce drug-related harm or how to manage the risks involved in a free drug environment.
We must be clear on the fact that to prevent the use of drugs is something completely different from reducing drug-related harm. Harm reduction is merely an effort to reduce the personal and social consequences arising from a failure or reluctance to prevent drug misuse in the first place.

Hazardous Effects
Let us be absolutely clear about the hazardous effects of drug misuse on the user and on the social environment.
On the user there are:
1 Biological effects; toxicity and dependence
2 Psychological effects; functional impairment and effects on personality
3 Behavioural effects; neglect of social roles and violence
There are advert effects:
1 Family; micro level – disruption and neglect
2 Neighbourhood and community; meso level – public disorder and insecurity for residents
3 Society at large; macro level – effects on the economy, public health and judicial systems.
These are all matters, which adversely affect the quality of life of people in our cities.

No Solution
There are politicians in many cities who simply throw their hands in the air and declare that the use of illicit drugs is a social problem, which cannot be solved. Drugs are not a basic part of our culture and we have a duty to promote preventive measures while offering abusers various forms of care and treatment.

Social Exclusion
I believe, like Martin Luther King, that ”it is better to light one little candle than to curse the darkness”.
ECAD has been lighting candles across Europe over the past decade. Our cities have been striving, through education and training initiatives, as well as community programmes to reduce the demand for drugs and have been encouraging the police and judicial systems to join with us in a concerted manner so that we can overcome a plague that has been and, continues to be, responsible for more social exclusion in our cities than any other single urban problem.

Irish EU Presidency
The Irish EU Presidency will oversee significant developments in relation to the drugs issue, with preliminary discussions taking place at present on the next iteration of the EU’s drugs strategy.
The first meeting of national drug coordinators, from the 25 members of the newly enlarged Union, will take place in a matter of weeks.
On the 10th/11th of May 2004, a closed conference was hosted by the Irish Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in Dublin Castle, to lay the groundwork for the development of a new EU Drugs Strategy, 2005 – 2010.
The main targets of the existing EU Strategy 2000 – 2004 are:
1 To reduce significantly, the prevalence of illicit drug-use, particularly among young people under 18 years of age.
2 To reduce substantially, the incidences of drug-related health damage and the number of drug-related deaths
3 To increase substantially the number of successfully treated addicts.
4 To reduce substantially, the availability of illicit drugs.
5 To reduce substantially, the number of drug-related crimes.
6 To reduce substantially, money laundering and illicit trafficking of precursors.

ECAD Support
ECAD fully supports these six aspirations and looks forward to the day when that strategy is transposed into concrete actions on the ground thoughout the EU.
The Dublin Conference entitled ”EU Drugs Strategy – The Way Forward” will address the issue of involving civil society in the development of EU drugs’ policy.

ECAD Submission
It is clear that ECAD must make a comprehensive submission to the formulation of drug strategy for the 25 member states of the EU for the period 2005 – 2010.

Brotherhood
When the 10 new member states of the EU were formally welcomed to the Union on the 1st May last in Dublin, there was much rejoicing.
I was reminded of a most prophetic statement made by the great French writer, Victor Hugo in 1849:
”A day will come when you, France; you, Italy; you, England; you, Germany; all nations of the Continent, without losing your distinct qualities and glorious individuality, will merge into a higher unity and found the European brotherhood.”
I suggest that the greatest contribution we could make now and, for the foreseeable future towards the concept of ”European brotherhood”, would be to protect our people, young and old, from being preyed upon by drug barons with their death-inducing products so that Europeans may live life to the full in a drug-free Europe.

 
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