La Sedronar Did Not Design Drug Prevention Programs for Children Living In the Streets
The Secretariat's preventive strategies also do not reach secondary and university students, and have a "low level of national coverage," says an AGN study. In addition, it was not possible to link the budget you have with the actions you carry out. Against drug trafficking, the agency does not work with national security forces.
The preventive programs developed by the Secretariat of Programming for the Prevention of Drug Addiction and Fight against Drug Trafficking (Sedronar) have a "low level of coverage in the national order," says a report of the General Audit of the Nation (AGN, for its acronym in Spanish). According to data from the 2005-2006 period, these strategies did not reach street children, secondary education (15 to 17 years), tertiary and university education levels, and aboriginal and Border areas.
Likewise, the actions did reach 0.21% of the national school population between 10 and 14 years old; To 0.013% of young people between the ages of 18 and 25; To 0.16% of the national general population at Community level; To 4.5% of the prison population, including agents of the Federal Penitentiary Service; And to 0.12% of institutions registered in the labor market.
The percentages corresponding to the educational space are reinforced by the data provided by the Second National Survey of High School Students, made in 2005, on the consumption of psychoactive substances in the national school population between 14 and 17 years. That study stated that 43.2% of respondents never received drug use prevention courses, while 26.9% did so only once.
Thus, the Audit concluded that "it is not possible to fully link the resources allocated in the budgets with the actions that should be developed by Sedronar within the framework of the National Plan against drugs 2005-5007."
The AGN report, approved on 5 February this year on data collected between 2005 and 2007, states that Sedronar does not have an up-to-date record of governmental organizations or NGOs providing services in the field of drug dependence in the country. Although this list is "mandatory", there is no government agency registered, and the detail of NGOs is "partial." At this point, the Audit verified that there are no data at the national level on treatment demands, available programs, treatments performed, or waiting lists of people who demand care.
The actions of the Sedronar also become "difficult", points out the AGN, because the jurisdictions form their offices of drugs in a "heterogeneous" way. At the institutional level, the provinces have different bodies dedicated to the fight against narcotics, such as Secretariats, Undersecretaries, Directorates or Regional Plans, with a "low level of links with areas of provincial governments." With this scenario, the control body detected that "11 provinces, including Federal Capital, has no drug plans," and that 14 provinces did not form a drug observatory."
On the other hand, the Audit stated that, at the time of its report, there was no coordinated action between Sedronar and the security forces that were then in the orbit of the Ministry of Interior: Federal Police, Airport Security, National Gendarmerie, and Prefectura Naval. This lack of interaction is manifested in two aspects: first, the members of the forces do not participate in the National Training Plan for the control of illicit drug trafficking and related crimes, and secondly, they do not inform Sedronar about the procedures that For violations of the Narcotics Act. For this reason, the unit does not have centralized statistical data and, since the second quarter of 2006, when the groups that depended on Interior stopped providing such information, it only has reports from the provincial and Customs forces.
The lack of regulation of Law 26,045, published in the Official Gazette on July 5, 2005, adds to this disagreement. The delay in this process, which the Executive Branch had to comply with 60 days after the ruling, the fines (from $ 10 thousand to $1 million) in cases of partial or total non-compliance with the obligations established in the Law, and does not allow the regulation of procedures for the interdiction and confiscation of controlled chemical substances," the Watchdog explains.
The AGN also noted that the controls carried out by the National Registry of Chemical Precursors (RENPRE) are "insufficient". Chemical precursors are substances that can be derived for the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and more than 6 thousand companies that are enrolled in the RENPRE are involved. In order to control such a universe, Sedronar has only two designated persons who, moreover, do not have formal guidelines and are based on their "experiences of analysis and research," the report said. Another area of the Secretariat registers a similar situation in terms of its personnel: it is the Detour Control Group, which is responsible for examining controlled chemical substances in the field of Sedronar. The sector is formed by four people (two lawyers, one administrative employee and one Federal police) who must make their inspections throughout the country, and none is part of the permanent or transient plant of the Sedronar.