The 1.6 billion dollars the United States is giving Mexico to fight its drug war under the Merida Initiative is not just earmarked for security-related hardware and surveillance equipment.
Funds are also being made available to help reduce domestic drug demand in Mexico – a problem that has doubled in size in the past seven years.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne says the Merida Initiative is supporting RENADIC (Red Nacional Contra Las Adicciones), an 18-million-dollar information technology platform that will link nearly 400 Nueva Vida centers, local councils, and state observatories throughout Mexico.
Nueva Vida (www.nuevavida.salud.gob.mx) is the federal government’s addiction awareness information program. Set up in 2009, the program provides a toll-free, 24-hour information hotline, as well as more than 300 centers in towns and cities around the country, where individual and group attention can be provided. The centers enable training at different levels for children and adolescents, as well as training for over half a million public health workers, teachers, coaches, and others as addiction first responders.
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