Abstract
Cambodia, confronted by the spread of drug misuse among young people, requested support from international agencies to develop a drug treatment programme in 2000. The initial plan developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime was to set up a number of conventional drug treatment centres in urban areas. During the planning phase, however, the project was redesigned as a community based outreach programme. Ten Community Counselling Teams have been formed and trained in pilot areas, and within the first year of operation 462 drug and alcohol users contacted. Comprising former drug users, family members affected by drug use and health care staff, they have drug scene credibility, local knowledge and connectivity, and a rudimentary level of medical competence. Crucially, they enjoy the support of village elders, who are involved in the planning and reporting stages. While the Community Counselling Teams with their basic training in addiction counselling are in no position as yet to either provide or refer clients to treatment, they can provide brief interventions, organise self help groups, and most importantly provide an alternative to law enforcement. By taking a development centred approach, with emphasis on community, empowerment and inclusion, it provides a constructive and inclusive alternative to medical approaches and the compulsory drug treatment centres. The paper is based on an evaluation involving interviews with a range of stakeholders and a review of project documents.
Highlights
The prevailing policy consensus in Cambodia is that drug misuse was unknown until the mid 1990s, an unintended consequence of the country opening its borders to travellers and trade in 1993 after decades of war and isolation
The purpose of this article is to seize on some of the achievements that were recorded by the project, and to note that in Cambodia as in other parts of Southeast Asia moralistic and repressive approaches to drug control are often balanced by a strong sense of pragmatism [14,15,16]
The evaluation was conducted over a three week period in September - October 2009 following the multi method evaluation model laid out in the UNODC guidance literature. aIt including the study of documents both at home and at the UNODC office in Phnom Pen, including the different versions of the project document, progress and monitoring reports, where available previous evaluations, self evaluations and client feedback, policy documents, documents from other projects by UNODC or other donors, and scientific literature
Summary
The prevailing policy consensus in Cambodia is that drug misuse was unknown until the mid 1990s, an unintended consequence of the country opening its borders to travellers and trade in 1993 after decades of war and isolation. Since there has been a sharp rise in drug seizures and arrests and the availability of amphetamine type stimulants, opium, cannabis and prescription medicine [1,2]. Patterns of use were changing, as they had done earlier in Vietnam, with a shift from opium to heroin, and the rising popularity of amphetamines [5,6]. In 1995, the government formed an inter-ministerial agency, the Secretariat of the National Authority for Combating Drugs (NACD) and solicited support from the international community. It solicited donor funding to support the NACD financially, assisted the government with the drafting of drug control legislation, and clean-up operations following the discovery of a clandestine laboratory
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