Topic: 2024-Substance Abuse
Country: Germany
Delegate Name: Lee Gerring
Delegate: Lee Gerring
Committee: WHO
Topic: Substance Abuse
Country: Germany
School: Williamston High School
It’s no secret that a large portion of the world is greatly affected by the use of drugs and other substances such as alcohol, whether they’re the ones doing it or not. As the world grew and large markets were created across the globe, the planet also saw an increase in illicit drug use. According to the World Drug Report, 292 million people used a drug in 2022, a 20% increase from the previous decade, and nearly 40 million people are affected by a drug use disorder, this statistic not even taking into account the amount of deaths caused by this drug use. A majority of countries have taken action against the use of illicit drugs as means to slow, and hopefully end, the deaths caused by its usage. There are some drugs that are actually used to combat the addiction of harmful drugs, however they generally tend to be in the more developed nations and are unable to be received unless by a medical professional.
Germany takes the battle against substance abuse very seriously. In a 2022 report, alcohol was found to be the most frequently used substance, with a 30-day prevalence of 70.5% or 36.1 million citizens, followed by non-opioid analgesic drugs with 47.4%; or 24.2 million citizens. This shows that the addiction to substances is still very prevalent in Germany and still has ways to come to combat this crisis. Adopted in 2012, Germany took up the National Strategy on Drug and Addiction Policy, this policy uses a four pillar response to complete it’s goal. These pillars consist of: prevention, counselling & treatment, harm reduction, supply reduction, and the use of law enforcement. Preventive measures are intended to provide information about the dangers of drug or addictive substances as to counteract harmful use or addiction before it can develop in the first place, this is a step usually used when educating children. Counselling and treatment offers are vital to help those addicted to drugs to break the cycle of their addiction and prevent relapses. Another measure taken to reduce harm is the use of drug consumption rooms, stabilizing the health and social situation of those living with addiction. This makes it an important precondition for overcoming addiction at a later stage.
Germany has no plan to drift away from the National Strategy on Drug and Addiction Policy and plans to continue the use of the policy’s four pillars as means to help. However, Germany does still see a significant portion of their population still being affected by substance abuse even with this policy. So with that, Germany is still very open to adopting and strengthening its current policy as means to improve the lives of citizens. Germany hopes to find allies in the countries in the European Union, especially the Netherlands and Switzerland who tend to have similar policies with Germany on this front of substance abuse.
