The Athens Declaration

Background

At the 2nd International Conference on the Environment held in the City of Athens Cultural Center (Greece), a declaration was adopted addressing unused consumer medications. Countries whose attendees signed the declaration by vote included: the United States, Canada, UK, Spain, Romania, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, India, Phillipines, and Italy. We are now requesting further endorsements of individuals, NGOs, corporations, organizations and governmental entities. We anticipate presenting the Declaration at a number of international and national conferences and meetings as well as by way of presentations directly to international governments and agencies.

The first formal North American review of the Declaration will be on October 31st-November 1st, 2007 at the Fifth Annual Maine Benzodiazepine Study Group & Fourth Annual Unused Drug Return International Conferences at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland, Maine.

The Declaration refers to two World Health Organization (WHO) documents: WHO Guidelines on Drug Donations and the WHO Guidelines on Drug Disposal

Questions and further inquiries may be addressed to Dr. Stevan Gressitt at gressitt@uninets.net

View and endorse the Athens Declaration below!

Click here for a PDF version of the Declaration

THE ATHENS DECLARATION as unanimously voted on August 3rd, 2007 at the 2nd International Conference on Environment in the City of Athens Cultural Center is as follows:

We, an international group, support the following six reasons to address citizen unused drug disposal:

1. To curtail childhood overdoses

2. To restrict household drug theft

3. To limit accumulation of drugs by the elderly

4. To protect our physical environment

5. To restrain improper international drug donations

6. To eliminate waste in the international health care systems of all countries

We call upon governments, NGO's, and citizens everywhere to correct policies and practices that foster waste in the health care systems of all countries and endanger humans, animals, and our physical environment.

We call upon all countries to renew their support of WHO Guidelines on Drug Donations and the WHO Guidelines on Drug Disposal, and strive to improve on these.

We call upon health care providers worldwide to appropriately prescribe medicines to patients in the most effective form and quantity.

We call upon health care organizations to refrain from policies that promote excessive dispensing.

We call upon patients worldwide to recognize the need for medicine to be taken as intended if it is to be effective.

We call upon governments, NGO's, and citizens worldwide to refrain immediately from improper drug donations either as humanitarian aid following disasters or in general practice.

We call upon others to endorse these principles with us for the betterment of the health of the environment and patients worldwide.

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