PARLIAMENT RESUMES FIFTH SESSION

ZAGREB, March 31 (Hina) - Croatia's parliament on Wednesday morning resumed its fifth session with a discussion on two bills of amendments to the law on drug abuse prevention, one moved by the government and the other by the opposition Social Democrats (SDP), aimed at ensuring a more effective procedure of destruction of confiscated drugs.#L# The existent solution, adopted in 2001, turned to be inefficient, given that no commission, which courts should have appointed for controlling the annihilation of seized narcotics, has been established so far. As a result, over two tonnes of confiscated narcotics stored in state-run warehouses have been accumulated. Therefore both the government and the SDP propose that the commission should be appointed by the government, but the opposition SDP insists that the chairman should be a journalist while the government proposes that the chairman be appointed by the interior minister. During the debate, some MPs criticised the government for failing to submit a report of the office for drug prevention on the current situation and that, as a result, deputies were not informed of the number of drug addicts, preventive measures this office was taking, cooperation with the media or of a national strategy on the matter. Djurdja Adlesic of the Croatian Social Liberals/Democratic Centre (HSLS/DC) club said the debate without such a report was pointless. She insisted that the office should give Sabor an annual report on the matter. Ruza Tomasic of the Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) said that the figure of 5,811 registered drug addicts in Croatia in 2002 did not correspond with the real number of addicts, which she added was at least three times higher. (Hina) ms