 We are standing on the government palace of Cape Verde at this first international drug conference of the Portuguese-speaking African countries. The conference was organized by the NGO Abidash in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice of Cape Verde. This event intended to promote and expand the strategic cooperation between governments, international bodies and civil society organizations in the field of drug policy. The intention of this conference was to put together the five Palo Alto countries talking about methodologies, knowledge, sharing information and trying to establish a common strategy and a common view and perspective about drug policy. This event here today is an important event because we have found in my country, Portugal, quite an interesting experience of drug policy in the last 11, 12 years. And I think that the exchange of the situation of the conditions of each country in the framework of the Portuguese-speaking countries is important. Well the region is vulnerable, policies are not well developed, there's not a good capacity for response and there's still a lot of denial, there's huge stigma around drug use. So what's great about this meeting is that the Portuguese have such an exemplary experience, their whole attitude toward drug use as a holistic problem, as a problem that concerns human rights, as a problem where you really can bring practical solutions to a very complex social issue. There are parts of this experience that really represent lessons that are almost universal, the idea that you've got to try to understand the situation of drug use, what motivates it, what situations people are in and whether there are services of the state that can help them get out of their problems. I respect to the processes of each country to make sure that no element of the African countries of the Portuguese official language is a narco-state. It is evident that the consumption of drugs and its social consequences are problems of modern societies. Therefore, these societies must not be indifferent or conceptual, they must, on the contrary, acquire the consciousness of the causes, as well as of the risks, threats and threats that they carry out. In the same context, the use and efficiency of the criminalization of the consumers, which, in the end, do not pass on victims of the system. My country is a fragile country where institutions are still at the stage of formation. The large bars of drugs take advantage, let's say, to make the country, more than 80 islands, and of those 80 islands, only 10% are inhabited, which means that the rest of the islands, without any kind of material conditions to monitor and fiscalize this part of the territory, in a very fertile area for the narco-traffickers, transport, therefore, from Latin America to the final consumption on the European continent. The drug destroys everything when it comes to the bases on which a society should sit. The drug destroys democracy, because the money of the drug sometimes negatively influences the choice of people, its own leaders. Our philosophy, and we are convinced that the State exists to create well-being for the population, to make justice for the population, but also to create security for all the citizens to live in harmony, in security conditions in their own territories. And the issue of the narco-trafficking comes with these three pillars, about which the State itself, which is the guarantee of security, the guarantee of well-being and the manufacture of justice. And it is natural that in my country also the consumption is not criminalized, which means that we also take a step towards Portugal. Portugal was a pioneer, let's say, in this perspective of no duplication, let's say, of the penalization of those who consume, because they are already protected by the fragile condition in which they meet and if they were criminalized, the practice of consumption would be double, let's say, without sacrifice. Saint-Méprince is an island, it is an island and it is a small country and we do not have the capacity to coordinate, to fiscalize our maritime waters. And we also have a serious problem of drug trafficking, particularly cocaine, taking into account that we have some difficulties in terms of means and mechanisms for the fiscalization of our waters and also our ports and airports. Well, the situation of drugs in Saint-Méprince, primarily to say that the first signs of drugs began to appear in 1995, therefore, at this time, both the consumption of trafficking and drug trafficking is worrying, because it has been sunny for a part of our population, which are young people. There are no statistics detailed in relation to the number or the index of people who consume drugs in Angola. Especially the young, young and teenagers are consuming a lot of drugs. The drug is not only light, but it also consumes a lot of heavy drugs, which is the famous Libanga. In Luanda, in the international airport, people always get caught in drug trafficking, which comes from Brazil, and they transport cocaine in various ways, such as capsules and others, carrying the same luggage. In the local discotheques there is a large consumption of drugs. In addition to the drug, which is cocaine, it also has a high consumption of alcohol itself. You know that alcohol, the drug that is in alcohol, which is beer, wine, whiskey, is cheaper than a bottle of water. Therefore, people with social problems, especially young people, have no job opportunities, no training opportunities. They consume drugs. After the distribution of the resources that the country has, this brings a lot of frustration to young people. Young people have a way out to ingrain themselves in drugs. First of all, there is elicit production on a large scale. In addition to this, there are those situations of drugs that not only transit through our country, but a part of this drug stays. Namely, it concerns the issue related to cocaine, which is often seen in Brazil. It passes through Mozambique and goes to South Africa, or goes to other squares. We do have some situations that concern us. Obviously, also the use of injectable drugs. And everything is done in the sense that, in the field of dissemination of educational information in front of drugs, we have privileged the creation of anti-drug drugs, not only in schools, but also in residential areas, in communities. We try to extend all this activity, even in the districts, so that we are not circumscribed only in the provincial capitals, but extend the action for all the points of our country. The treatment that is done in relation to drug consumers, is exactly to take them as patients, like people who are sick and people who need support. More than a penalization in relation to consumption, Mozambique does not encourage themselves through the use of drugs, but we do not recommend heavy penalizations in relation to drugs. Moreover, there are even procedures that are adopted in view of taking consumers to the treatment. In the situations in which the drug user himself predisposes to collaborate so that it can be submitted to the treatment, it removes this possibility of being penalized. And these measures are adopted with the assistance of drug consumers. This is very explicit. Can you explain us what is the West African Commission on Drugs? All the West African Commission on Drugs aims to mobilize public support and create awareness about the challenge of drug trafficking and drug consumption within the West African region. One of the challenges we are facing in the region is also the issue of data. We often rely on estimates. In 2008, the UNODC estimated at about $1 billion of what of cocaine passed through the region. We are at risk of having narco-states. We are at risk of having countries whose economy may now depend on drug trafficking. For a very long time, we've always considered ourselves as a transit region, that these drugs only just come through and they are taking to Europe, taking to the America, and we don't consume it. But the truth of the matter is that these drugs are now easily accessible on the street. They are cheaper than before. They are within reach within the communities and increasingly being consumed in injecting practices is also on the increase. People injecting drugs within the communities and this comes with a lot of challenges talking about HIV, behavioral practices, risk practices. You talk about hepatitis and this is actually a reality we need to wake up to that about 30% of the traffic drug that passed through the region are consumed locally. They even also led to the formulation of the prior declaration signed by judges of the Pellop countries. It focuses on the health care dimensions of drug policies. The judges representing the various countries of the Portuguese official language in Quinta Egon, the IJLP, gathered at this first international conference about drug policies in the Pellop, aware of the role that the judicial activities in the treatment and resolution of the problems linked to drugs, in all its aspects, present the following considerations and recommendations that in their opinion can positively influence the design and execution of public policies in terms of human drugs and rights. The conference brings several experiences that we consider to be taking into consideration exactly at this last stage in which we are in the finalization of our national strategy on illicit drugs and other addictive substances. We find important subsidies, we solidify some ideas and we consider that this will be extremely valuable for our work. But it is also true that drug wars bring a lot of social costs, a lot of economic costs and finances to the states themselves. Therefore, drug wars themselves and the way it tries to defend a certain ideology has created a paradox, has created a trap, a trap in which we were all captured, in which drug wars have been a failure and a failure from a political point of view. I think we need to have a change in our policy approach. We still believe we can get our way out of drug issues with guns, with law enforcement. It's not only about law enforcement, we should begin to look at the individual development. We should begin to see drug issues as a development issue because if we also look at some of the predisposing factors to drug consumption, at the root are socioeconomic issues. You have issues like unemployment, you have issues like poverty, you have issues like lack of access to education. These are issues that actually need to be addressed. More schools, more health centers, good friendly centers, arm reduction services are not prisons. Distecuting criminals is not enough. You have to take care of the patients. You have to have the health outlook on this. You have to have the community outlook on this, the family outlook. So you have to combine police activities, of course. You have to combine prevention activities, combine education, combine public health attitudes. You have to take care of the patients because putting them in jail just because they consumed once or twice or three times, it's not a solution. You fill up the jails and the thing continues. Unfortunately, we've had a unified voice from Africa in the past that has been a voice in favor of repression. We're hoping that we might actually have some people who are ready to stand up in international meetings, at least to say, you know, more policing is not the solution to everything. At least to say harm reduction means something and has to be part of policy. Thank you.