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Foreign Minister Not Hopeful For "Continental Consensus" On Drugs
posted (June 7, 2013)
As we showed you last night on the news, Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington addressed the OAS General Assembly on the issue of the drug problem – saying that it is an issue of demand, not supply. His view was one of 35 coming from the Foreign Ministers or representatives who attended the meeting in Guatemala. All of them had strong opinions, and Elrington told us that he's not confident that a continental consensus will be arrived at.

Hon. Wilfred Elrington - Minster of Foreign Affairs "Small countries like ours have seen us pass very terrible legislation which causes us to be sending so many of our young people to jail. Incarcerated because of the so call drug problem, you find them with a small stick of weed and you lock them up, once they are locked up for a small stick of weed and get convicted they can't get a job, visa and it is creating a lot of hardships. You lock up mothers who have young children when in truth and in fact, Belize is not responsible for the drug trade. The drug trade is impelled by the demand in the developed countries and our system in perpetually under stress and under pressure simply because the drugs pass through our countries - enroot to other countries. No matter what we do we will not be able to stance the trough because the demand is too great. We also have pressure of the demands of the developed countries to do more, they want us to do more and demonstrate that in my mind is a sufficient effort. I don't think we're going to get much out of it."

As the end of the assembly, it was declared that quote,

"it is essential that the Hemisphere continue to advance in a coordinated manner in the search for effective solutions to the world drug problem..."

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