The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Vietnamese government co-organized a regional conference on countermeasures against drug and HIV/AIDS in Hanoi on June 14.
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The event was part of a 1993 memorandum of understanding between Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and UNODC.
The conference aimed to review the situation of drug using and HIV in East Asia and Southeast Asia, boost the role of executive, medical, and criminal judicial staff in the fields, exchange experience and knowledge of challenges and opportunities in taking evidence-based approaches in drug rehabilitation and fighting HIV in the region.
Participants in the conference included guests from Malaysia’s National Anti-Drug Agency (NADA), the Asian Network of People who use Drugs (ANPUD), UNODC, and the World Health Organization.
It’s estimated that there are 16 million drug users, including 2.6 million in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.