{"id":17741,"date":"2024-08-13T20:19:22","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T19:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=17741"},"modified":"2024-10-05T15:16:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T14:16:47","slug":"ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-launches-alliance-to-prevent-drug-harms-in-collaboration-with-united-nations-and-tech-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2024\/08\/ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-launches-alliance-to-prevent-drug-harms-in-collaboration-with-united-nations-and-tech-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield Launches Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms in Collaboration with United Nations and Tech Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\"><strong>Press Release: Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield Launches Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms in Collaboration with United Nations and Tech Industry<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Today, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations, launched the Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms (Prevent Alliance), alongside representatives from the United Nations and the tech industry, including Meta, Snap Inc., and X Corp.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">\u201cTwo out of every five Americans know someone who has died of an opioid overdose\u2026in every corner of the world\u2026we\u2019re seeing a rapid rise in synthetic drug use, dependence, and overdose death,\u201d said the Ambassador. \u201cThis is an international crisis\u2026we\u2019ve seen the criminal groups that produce these drugs adapt quickly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">That adaptation includes the use of technology platforms, including social media, to promote the illicit use of non-medical synthetic drugs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">\u201cThis alliance between the United States, the United Nations, and our partners in the private sector, holds immense potential to make a meaningful difference. To disrupt this crisis, both here in the United States and all across the globe, and adapt with the same agility, the same resourcefulness, of those we\u2019re up against. This is a good step, but we all know much more needs to be done to address this problem.\u201d Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield continued.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">The Prevent Alliance, a public-private partnership effort, is committed to ending the use of online platforms to aid the flow of illicit substances. Through a framework for cross-industry cooperation, the Prevent Alliance will work to disrupt the availability of synthetic drugs online, promote drug-prevention content across platforms, and enables cross-sector communication establishing the best evidence-based practices for drug-prevention campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">The alliance builds upon the work of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, a multilateral effort to combat the threats posed by synthetic drugs launched by Secretary Blinken last year, and the U.S.-led adoption of new controls targeting the synthetic drug manufacturing process at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs earlier this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Maggie Nardi, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), said, \u201cGovernments alone cannot shield people from the dangers of synthetic drug misuse; we must forge stronger alliances with public health, civil society, affected communities, academics, and industry to combat their illicit manufacture, distribution, and promotion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Under the Biden Administration, the United States is dedicating more resources to tackle the demand for drugs, including more resources for public awareness, health interventions and services to prevent and reduce the implications of drug use, as well as measures to prevent, detect, and stop the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of drugs. These efforts include support for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Commission on Narcotic Drugs, as well as U.S. leadership in rallying countries around the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">\u201cEvidence-based prevention is key to respond to the drug use situation globally, especially in a rapidly digitalized world. Social media nowadays carries an important influence on the individual. To harness this influence positively, science can help,\u201d said Delphine Schantz, director of UNODC\u2019s New York office. \u201cUNODC together with WHO reflected on that science through the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention. This science aims at creating a healthy and safe environment for children and youth, fostering resilient generations against drugs and any risky social and health behaviors. Working through this science, social media could be one of those added layers of prevention.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">\u201cFamilies and communities around the world are struggling with the opioid crisis,\u201d said Nell McCarthy, Vice President of Trust and Safety at Meta. \u201cFrom governments to the private sector, and health care systems to civil society organizations, we must all do our part to combat this crisis, which is why Meta is proud to be part of the Prevent Alliance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt;color: #0000ff\">Source: <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"https:\/\/usun.usmission.gov\/ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-launches-alliance-to-prevent-drug-harms-in-collaboration-with-united-nations-and-tech-industry\/\">https:\/\/usun.usmission.gov\/ambassador-linda-thomas-greenfield-launches-alliance-to-prevent-drug-harms-in-collaboration-with-united-nations-and-tech-industry\/<\/a> July 2024<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Press Release: Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield Launches Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms in Collaboration with United Nations and Tech Industry Today, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the United Nations, launched the Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms (Prevent Alliance), alongside representatives from the United Nations and the tech industry, including Meta, Snap Inc., [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,40,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet","category-prevention-research","category-synthetics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17741\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}