Honduras' Deputy Health Minister visits INCB secretariat
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VIENNA, 2 June - Dr. Francis Rafael Contreras, Deputy Minister of Health of Honduras, visited the secretariat of INCB and met with the secretary of the Board and the Chief of the Narcotics Control and Estimates Section of INCB. Deputy Minister Contreras reported on progress in his country regarding the establishment of a new medicine regulatory agency in charge of monitoring and control of the licit trade in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursor chemicals and emphasized that the priority of his Government was to ensure that required medicines were available for those who needed treatment and chemical substances were able to reach the licit requirements of industry. To this purpose, the Government had embarked in a process of modernization by establishing the new agency dealing with the regulation and monitoring of the licit trade in control substances as well as other products including food and cosmetics. |
Discussions ranged about possible areas of collaboration such as providing access to the tools developed by INCB to facilitate the international trade in substances controlled under the three international drug control conventions, in particular I2ES ( video) and PEN Online, and the participation of Honduran experts in a planned subregional training workshop currently in preparation by the INCB secretariat, which was still subject to confirmation of contributions by donors.
Minister Contreras was accompanied by the Alternate Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations, Vienna, Ambassador Giampaolo Rizzo-Alvarado.