Justice minister opens national forum on drug use and road safety
Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa on Saturday opened a national forum on the effects of drug and psychotropic substance use on road safety, bringing together officials, security services, experts and civil society at the National Army Club in Beni Messous, on the western edge of the capital.
The meeting was organised by the National Office for Combating Drugs and Addiction in cooperation with the command of the National Gendarmerie, whose commander accompanied the minister. Its slogan was "Road safety is everyone's responsibility: no to drugs."
Participants are examining the health and legal dimensions of the issue under the country's new traffic law, Law No. 26-09. Representatives of ministries and national bodies, as well as specialists and members of civil society, are taking part. The opening was also attended by the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defence, the First President of the Supreme Court and the Attorney General at the Supreme Court, a line-up that shows how many institutions are involved, from the courts to the armed forces.
No figures on drug use among drivers or on road casualties were released at the opening, and the text of the minister's remarks was not made public. Neither the programme of the sessions nor any recommendations had been published at the time of writing.
Drug trafficking and road safety are both recurring concerns for the Algerian authorities. The army, the gendarmerie and the national police announce seizures of cannabis, cocaine and psychotropic tablets almost every week, and the defence ministry's weekly reports regularly record large cannabis seizures along the western border. On the roads, two crashes in Boumerdès and Béchar on Friday alone left 29 people injured.
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