Secretariat of Comprehensive Policies on Drugs

The SEDRONAR was established in 1989 by president Carlos Menem through a modification of the Law on Ministries by Decree 271/89, replacing the National Coordinating Commission for the Control of Drug Trafficking and Drug Abuse (Spanish: Comisión Nacional Coordinadora para el Control del Narcotráfico y el Abuso de Drogas).[6] Its first secretary was Alberto Lestelle, who was in office until 1995. Lestelle resigned in March 1995 after conducting an investigation into drug use among members of the National Congress; upon his resignation, Lestelle famously said that "a lot of deputies [do a bump of] cocaine in the bathroom" (Spanish: muchos diputados se dan un nariguetazo de cocaína en el baño).[7] Lestelle was succeeded by Gustavo Green, and Julio César Aráoz and Eduardo Amadeo also headed the secretariat during the rest of Menem's presidency.

During the presidency of Fernando de la Rúa, the SEDRONAR was headed by Lorenzo Cortese, who was involved in a controversial dispute with then-INADI director (later Supreme Court justice) Eugenio Zaffaroni over his –and the government's– opposition to the decriminalization of drug use.[8]

In 2004, President Néstor Kirchner appointed former Santa Cruz governor José Ramón Granero to the secretariat. Granero was in office through the presidencies of Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner until his resignation in 2011. Granero was involved in a number of controversies, including the discovery of seven unidentified kilograms of cocaine in SEDRONAR vehicles in 2008 and the lack of controls in the entry of ephedrine from Mexico into Argentine territory (both for which he was tried and found innocent due to lack of evidence).[9] Granero was finally asked his resignation by President Fernández de Kirchner due to his staunch opposition to decriminalization of drugs for personal use.[10]

Granero's place was taken by former foreign minister Rafael Bielsa, who held the position until 2013.[11] Bielsa was replaced by a priest, Juan Carlos Molina, who took office on 29 November 2013.[12] Molina was a vocal supporter of decriminalizing all drugs.[13] Under Molina's administration, the SEDRONAR cooperated with the Ministry of Federal Planning to set up two types of state-sponsored establishments aimed at curbing drug abuse and treating addictions: Casas Educativas Terapéuticas (CET, "educational therapeutic homes") and Centros Preventivos Locales de las Adicciones (CEPLA, "local preventive addiction centres").[14][15] Molina resigned due to personal reasons in May 2015 and was replaced by Gabriel Lerner.[16]

President Mauricio Macri designated Roberto Moro to the SEDRONAR on 10 December 2015. On 12 January 2017, President Macri issued a decree overhauling the SEDRONAR, renaming it as the "Secretariat of Comprehensive Policies on Drugs" (while maintaining the same acronym) and stripping it of its presidential secretariat status, reorganizing it under the Office of the Cabinet Chief. A number of functions of the SEDRONAR were also reassigned to the Ministry of Security.[3]

The Secretariat is tasked with coordinating the Argentine state's policy on drug use and addiction. Its administration is based around two axes: reducing drug demand and reducing drug availability. On the first axis, the SEDRONAR seeks to establish communal support networks that may help reduce drug demand, thus establishing strategies and elaborating policies aimed at preventing the use of drugs.[17] The Secretariat also cooperates with the Ministry of Security to identify and disestablish illegal drug commerce and distribution.[18]

The SEDRONAR counts with two undersecretariats: the Undersecretariat of Prevention, Investigation and Statistics on Drugs (Spanish: Subsecretaría de Prevención, Investigación y Estadísticas en materia de Drogas) and the Undersecretariat of Attention and Care on Drugs (Spanish: Subsecretaría de Atención y Acompañamiento en materia de Drogas).[1]

• Official website (in Spanish)
• Observatorio Argentino de Drogas (in Spanish)