In the meeting with the Chairman of the Health and Family Committee, Prof. Dr Dusan Milisavljevic and Committee member Dr Branislav Blazic, Serbia was jointly noted to be a transit country, thanks to its geographical position, through which drugs are smuggled into Western Europe.
Dusan Milisavljevic stressed that, despite the high numbers of drug addicts among the young people in Serbia, the abuse of drugs in the country has not exhibited any growth trends. He endorsed the UK’s efforts in the fight against drug abuse deeming the Serbian National Assembly standing delegation’s upcoming participation in the 2016 IPU session which will, among other things, tackle this issue, very useful.
UK MP Molly Meacher said that reducing the need for drugs in Western Europe is something that should be dealt with as this would also decrease the transit of drugs through Serbia, which will, she said, be one of the future goals.
Committee member Branislav Blazic stressed that Serbia needs a centralized approach to the drug abuse and trafficking problem, and that the field needs a new strategy.

Drug trafficking and smuggling were also the main topics of conversation in the meeting between the members of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee - Igor Becic, Konstantin Samofalov and Miroslav Petkovic, and the UK MP. The Committee members agreed that drug trafficking is the most common crime in Serbia and that Serbia wants to join the fight against it more intensively.
UK MP Molly Meacher spoke of the European coordination of the initiative of the Organisation of American States to revise the existing international mechanisms for drugs suppression. She said she wanted to encourage Serbia’s fight against drug abuse, emphasising the need to intensify the efforts to reduce the demand for drugs in Western Europe.

In the course of the meeting with the Member of the UK Parliament’s House of Lords, the member of the National Assembly’s standing delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Marija Obradovic noted that Serbia, as a transit country, can be of considerable help in the fight against illegal drug trafficking. The officials agreed that it is necessary to change the policy at the global level and find alternative and more efficient approaches to the fight against narcotics noting that the initiatives and activities of the Inter-Parliamentary Union greatly contribute to the efforts. Marija Obradovic also informed the UK MP about the experience she garnered from taking part in the panel on the fight against drug trafficking at the 128th session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.