INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD ELECTS PROFESSOR HAMID GHODSE OF IRAN AS PRESIDENT

International Narcotics Control Board Elects

Professor Hamid Ghodse of Iran as President

(Reissued as received.)

VIENNA, 18 May (UN Information Service) -- Hamid Ghodse, an international drug control expert from Iran, Professor of Psychiatry and International Drug Policy at the University of London and the Director of the International Centre for Drug Policy at St. George’s Medical School, was elected the new President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), as it began its eightieth session here yesterday.

Professor Ghodse has been a member of the INCB since 1992 and has also served as President of the Board in the years 1993, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2001.  He has served as a director and consultant for a number of regional addiction treatment and research bodies in the United Kingdom, as well as an expert and adviser for a number of international forums.  He is an editor of several scientific periodicals on psychiatry, substance misuse and addiction.  He is also the author of over 300 scientific books and papers on drug-related issues and addiction, including “Drugs and Addictive Behaviour:  A Guide to Treatment”, Cambridge University Press 2002.

The Board also elected Madan Mohan Bhatnagar (India) as First Vice-President; Robert Lousberg (Netherlands) as Second Vice-President and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Estimates; and Alfredo Pemjean (Chile) as Rapporteur.  The officers serve in their individual expert capacity and are elected for a one-year term.

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