CARICOM/PAHO Adviser Dr. Edward Greene has urged that drug abuse be treated as a human rights issue that warrants an urgent regional approach toward prevention in the face of the threat to sustainable economic and social development.
Universal prevention as a principle, Greene said, converges with human rights, in so far as to respect human rights means that governments cannot violate the rights of individuals and that to fulfil human rights the governments must take budgetary, legislative, administrative and judicial measures to ensure the full realisation of the rights of the individual. “Clearly then drug use and abuse are human rights issues,” he said, while delivering the Sir Philip Sherlock Distinguished Lecture on “Preventing Drug Abuse: Interfacing medical, legal and cultural responses with a Human Rights Vision” in Jamaica last month.
He was the 2011 Recipient of the Sir Phillip Sherlock Distinguished Award for Distinguished Service in the Area of
