San Patrignano, Italy
Texte original en anglais, non traduit.
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Speech by Mr Alain Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Dear Minister,
Ministers,
Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Members of the San Patrignano community,
As we speak, somewhere in Europe, a container arrives in a port with drugs hidden in its cargo. A customs officer is offered a bribe to look the other way. A thirteen-year-old is recruited on social media to sell drugs. Someone promises this will be the last time they use.
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That is one Europe. Its drug problem keeps getting bigger.
There is another Europe, where people come back from addiction. San Patrignano is that Europe.
In that Europe, the governments here today take political responsibility together, as the European Coalition Against Drugs.
That Europe does not need to invent new tools. It has them and it needs to use them. The European Convention and Court of Human Rights. Around them, standards and monitoring. This is the Council of Europe’s common legal space, and it reaches beyond our continent. We bring it to this Coalition.
Now we have to use these tools together.
The approach is clear. Law enforcement that is tough on traffickers. Prevention that reaches young people early. Recovery that ends in reintegration.
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Start with the traffickers.
In Évian in June, the G7 recognised the sea as their main route and committed to intercepting more ships.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled on such operations, and Council of Europe member states are turning that case law into guidance for police and prosecutors.
And the money. Last week, we opened a new Protocol to the Council of Europe’s Warsaw Convention on money laundering. It helps states confiscate what traffickers made and put it toward recovery. I invite every government here to sign and ratify it.
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Now prevention. It works when risks are seen in time.
Some risks are new drugs, and the Council of Europe helps national observatories spot them early. Other risks are seen first by a teacher, a parent or a social worker. We are developing practical tools for them.
And addiction no longer comes only from a substance. Council of Europe member states are now preparing guidance on online addictions.
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Finally, recovery.
I was, and you know, here in March in San Patrignano, and I left convinced that the addiction policies that work put the person at the centre, with realism, humanity and responsibility.
At San Patrignano, people are not defined by their past, but by their potential.
Good treatment is the first step towards realising it. A home, an education and work come next.
Recovery is the work of a whole society. The Council of Europe’s European Social Charter is built on that idea.
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All this work is security work.
Drug traffickers do not need to defeat a state. They only need people to stop trusting it.
Preventing that is what the Council of Europe calls democratic security. It is where law enforcement, prevention and recovery meet.
Drug policies differ, but they rest on a common foundation: health, safety and dignity for every person.
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Excellencies, colleagues,
The traffickers are counting on us to be slower than they are.
The Council of Europe is reforming, with its member states, to move at the speed the threats demand. And so is this Coalition.
But speed alone will not beat them. Co-operation will.
What we do now will decide the place of drugs and addiction in Europe for the next ten, twenty, thirty years.
Thank you.
© Council of Europe — High-level international meeting on prevention and recovery from addictions organised by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy