The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking will be marked on June 26, 2012. This day is to be held worldwide under the slogan "Think health, not drugs". Mongolia has united in the marking of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking since 1990.

Accordingly, the Association for Protecting Population from Drug and Narcotics has organized a press conference today on June 11. The Head of this association, Sh.Lkhagvasuren, said, “We have accomplished many projects at the marking of this day. Today we will conclude the results of the Drugs and Narcotics Theoretical and Practice Symposium, and the essay competition organized among the youth and students under the topic of “Ways to prevent youth and children from drug substances”, which were held at the conference hall of Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Also, we will hold an open discussion through the Mongolian National Broadcaster television on June 26, 2012.” 

This association started running researches since 1999, and has been running trainings and advocacies among the youth and children on preventing from drug use and familiarizing with its harms. They stated, “With the latest research held in 2010 among 2,000 people, it was estimated that 44.6% used alcohol, 40.8% tobacco, 1.8% used some sort of plant substances and 6.3% used medical drugs. Out of 1,000 people between the ages of 18-24, 36% had tried cannabis and 18% had tried ecstasy. There were 45 drug users in 1999, whereas this number increased to 410 in 2006, and later as high as 10,000 in 2010. Out of these drug users, 63% intoxicates by drinking, 18% by smoking, 7% by smelling and 12% by taking shots. We can see the increasing number of drug users not only from these estimates, but from the increasing number of crimes related to drugs. Four years back, a total of 19 people were convicted and accounted with legal charges with drug related crimes, whereas in the following year it increased to 39 people, 169 people in 2010 and 98 people in 2011. Thus, it is of utter importance to include a lesson in middle school education programs that explain the harms of drugs and narcotics.”