For a drug-free ASEAN community

Deputy PM Dam made the point on December 9 in HCM City while presiding over a trilateral meeting and the 15th ministerial-level meeting on drug prevention and fighting among Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Diversified fields of cooperation

At the important events, the three countries discussed useful measures on the field.

Since December, 2014, Vietnamese anti-drug forces worked with their Cambodian and Lao peers to expose 1,813 drug cases; successfully resolve seven special cases; capture 2,506 criminals; seize 455.681 kilograms of heroin, over 4,182 kilograms of cannabis, and 226,975 synthetic drugs.  

Addressing the event, Mr. Dam underscored that the Vietnamese Government has attached importance to and mobilized the entire society to the fight against drugs and implemented synchronous measures to reduce heroin supply and demand. Meanwhile, the legal system on the field has been improved.  

The rehabilitation work has been renovated in a friendly and voluntary manner in which addicts are regarded as patients for cure and support.

The growing of opium plants has been fundamentally controlled.

These achievements on drug prevention and fighting contributed significantly to national security, maintenance of social order and security, and socio-economic development.

However, Southeast Asia is one of the largest drug production and consumption hubs and the world’s biggest market of synthetic drugs.  

Cross-border drugs rings always exploited advantageously the respective countries' geography, customs, and economic exchanges and loopholes for their illegal drug trafficking.

Mr. Dam called on the three countries to work closely with each other; mobilize domestic and international resources for the fight against drugs.  

The same day, Deputy PM Dam received Acting Chair of the Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision Kou Chansina Kou Chansina, the Lao head of delegation and Deputy Chairman of the National Authority for Combating Drugs Kao Khondara, the Cambodian head of delegation./.  

By Huong Giang