President Mohamed Nasheed has said that most of the socials problems that we face today stemmed from the issue of drugs. He made this statement while speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference on “Maldives: Towards a Future without Drugs”. He also said that if we do not address drug related issues now, it would be difficult to solve other economic and social problems that we have.
In his speech, the President said that he was very much concerned over the drug issue and that even people very close to him have been affected by this menace.
Stating that in the past, strict punishments had been given to drug users in the Maldives, the President said that, however, very negative results had been achieved through that method. He further, appealed to the participants to think about this matter during their discussions.
Stressing that the conference was an action planning meeting in search of a future without drugs, the President called on the participants to give their full cooperation to make this conference a success.
Welcome remarks at the ceremony were given by Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed. He highlighted the key issues on which discussions would be based on.
The conference will be held from 15 – 17 August at Aarah. The participants of this conference include youths, recovering addicts, members of NGOs set up to create awareness on drug addiction, law enforcement authorities, members of the People’s Majlis, developmental partners and concerned government officials.
