CNS STORY: War on drugs must focus on saving lives, Vatican official says

VATICAN-DRUGS Mar-18-2009 (310 words) xxxi

War on drugs must focus on saving lives, Vatican official says

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The health, dignity and lives of people suffering drug addiction must be the centerpiece of the global war on drugs, a Vatican official told a meeting sponsored by the United Nations.

Bishop Jose Redrado Marchite, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, led the Vatican delegation at the March 11-20 meeting of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria. A copy of his remarks was released at the Vatican.

Too many people, he said, consider drug abuse "a reality that forms part of our daily lives and so one can seek only to limit its damage."

But drug abuse destroys lives, tears families apart, gives rise to crime and enriches international criminal networks, Bishop Redrado said.

The Vatican delegation was participating in the Vienna meeting to encourage strategies that focus first on "the health, dignity and life of drug addicts," he said.

In the fields of education, health care, family and youth ministry, the Catholic Church has a long and successful history of fighting drug abuse and caring for its victims, he said.

In early 2006, he said, his office commissioned a survey of drug prevention and treatment programs in Catholic institutions in 121 countries.

One-third of all Catholic hospitals, clinics and dispensaries worldwide have a program for the prevention or treatment of drug abuse, he said. The programs identify and assist drug addicts, provide education about drug prevention, and train health care workers to treat and minister to addicts and their families, he said.

Church programs in Spain, France, Ireland and Portugal appeared particularly successful, Bishop Redrado said, because of public information campaigns and courses and their holistic approach to recovery. Such approaches involved medical care, psychological counseling, the rebuilding of personal dignity, the development of skills and values for living a healthy lifestyle and assistance in repairing family bonds.

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