Mayors' Conferences
28th Mayor's Conference - Invitation - May 11th and 12th, 2023 - Malta
On May 11th and 12th, the 28th ECADs Mayor's Conference will take place at Dolmen Hotel in Qwara, Malta. We warmly invite you to join us and expand your knowledge on prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and recovery. The conference will highlight best practices and research in the field. It will offer the opportunity to network with other ECAD members, representatives from local authorities, and non-governmental organisations. Registration is free for the first person attending from your organisation!
Additionally, the conference allows for a unique experience as it includes a full day of field visits on May 12th. All participants are invited to Komunita’ Santa Marija, which will be sharing information on their services, and their experiences, and will engage in discussions.
The Agenda has now been published! The deadline to register is April 22nd
Day 1
DATE | TIME | VENUE
11/05/2023 | 09:00 – 17:30 | The Oracle Conference Centre - Dolmen Hotel Qawra, St. Paul's Bay
08:30hrs – 09:00hrs| Registrations
09:00hrs – 09:05hrs| Welcome Address by the President of Local Councils’ Association - Mr Mario Fava
09:05hrs – 09:15hrs| Welcome Address by ECADs Chairman of the Board from Kristiansand, Norway - Mr Viggo Lütcherath
09:15hrs – 09:20hrs| Welcome Address by the Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government - Hon. Alison Zerafa Civelli
09:20hrs – 09:40hrs| Inspirational speech – “Push yourself to do it because no one else is going to do it for you” by the President Northern Regional Council & LCA Executive Member - Mr. Clifford Galea Vella Maslennikov
09:40hrs – 10:30hrs| Panel Discussion and Presentation – Discussing the Local Context
The prevention team within Sedqa would like to present the following studies.
Study 1: The Role of a Workplace Policy in Addressing Employees’ Substance Misuse Difficulties.
Aim: To explore the probability of an employee seeking support for a substance misuse difficulty elicited by the workplace ethic fostered by management. Through this paper, we seek to determine a possible correlation between the implementation of a substance misuse policy at the workplace, and employees’ probability to seek guidance and support from their employers for a substance misuse-related difficulty.
Study 2: A Substance Misuse Policy in the Workplace: Senior Leadership Teams’ Attitudes
Aim: To explore how senior leadership teams’ (SLTs) attitudes inform the drafting of a substance misuse policy and how those attitudes inform job retention procedures in the case of an employee disclosing a substance misuse difficulty. Uncovering SLTs’ attitudes toward addiction is essential to understand how these beliefs inform workplace policy aims and actions on substance misuse.
Keynote speakers representing Sedqa Prevention team:
Mr Jareth Grima – Social Worker
Ms Sheryl Spiteri – Prevention Team
Ms Stephanie Mizzi Cascun – Prevention Professional.
10:30hrs – 11:00hrs| Coffee Break
11:00hrs – 11:45hrs| Mr Jon Sigfússon Planet Youth – Evidence-based drug prevention.
Mr Sigfússon is the international programme director for the evidence-based Planet Youth Guidance primary community-based health promotion intervention. Over the course of 20 years, Mr Sigfússon directed the Icelandic Centre for Social Research and Analysis (ICSRA).
11:45hrs – 12:30hrs| Mr Matej Košir - Strategies and tactics to prevent cannabis legalisation in Slovenia - The power of prevention science and advocacy.
Mr Matej Košir has been working in prevention and advocacy in the field of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs for around 25 years. Since 2006, he has been involved in more than 30 European projects in the fields of health, justice, education, youth and research as a project or work package leader.
12:00hrs – 14:00hrs| Seated Buffet Lunch
14:00hrs – 14:45hrs| Profs. Christian Thurstone, MD - The impact of legalisation in Colorado, USA – challenges faced by [local] authorities and communities.
Profs. Thurstone is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado and a child psychiatrist who specialises in addiction treatment. He published some of the first papers on the potential effects of marijuana legalisation on youth and has devoted his professional life to preventing and treating adolescent substance misuse.
14:45hrs - 15:30hrs| Ms Mulka Nisic - Recovery Cities - Creating sustainable connections and networks in cities.
Ms Mulka Nisic has been involved as a Regional Project Manager and International Relations Officer at the NGO Celebrate Recovery, and Secretary General of the Recovered Users Network-RUN.
15:30hrs - 16:00hrs| Conclusive Remarks
16:00hrs – 17:30hrs| ECAD Plenary for ECAD Members only
19:30hrs – 23:00hrs| Welcome Dinner at The Pavilion Suite, Westin Dragonara St Julian’s - Separate Registration is required in the application form.
Day 2
DATE | TIME
12/05/2023 | 09:15 – 19:00
09:15hrs – 09:30hrs| Transport leaves from Dolmen Hotel & Salini Resort to Komunita Santa Marija
09:30hrs – 09:45hrs| Registration and Welcome Coffee
09:45hrs – 10:15hrs| Introduction to the services offered by Komunita’ Santa Marija.
10:15hrs – 11:00hrs| Sharing of good practices and discussion
11:00hrs – 11:30hrs| Tour around Komunita’ Sanata Marija premises
11:30hrs – 12:00hrs| Transport to Ħagar Qim in Qrendi
12:00hrs – 13:15hrs| Ħagar Qim Visit
13:15hrs – 13:30hrs| Transport to Xgħajra
13:30hrs – 16:00hrs| Lunch (you will have time for a short stroll by the seaside)
16:00hrs – 18:00hrs| Cultural Visit in Mdina – Visiting the National Museum of National History
18:00hrs – 19:30hrs| Visiting Dingli Cliffs
19:30hrs - 15:30hrs| Transport to Salini Resort and Dolmen Hotel
27th Mayors Conference - Gothenburg and online 2022
The 27th Mayors' Conference and 8th World Forum took place in Gothenburg and online 13-14th June 2022.
The World Forum and Mayor’s Conference is a meeting place for people from all continents who are working to prevent drug abuse, ensure evidence-based and gender-sensitive practices, increase access to treatment, and to promote recovery and reintegration services. This global forum is one of its kind where NGOs, self-help groups, treatment centres, scholars, local, regional, and national authorities, politicians and other decision-makers, and others from around the world will meet to share evidence and best practice experiences. This year’s World Forum will include three main tracks: Prevention, Treatment/Recovery, and Advocacy, which will stretch over 1,5 days followed by the WFAD Congress and ECAD Mayors plenary session.
We are proud to announce that the Forum was inaugurated by UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly and will be joined by experts from around the world.
Read more on the website: https://2022.wfad.se/ and access the full report here. 
26th Mayors Conference - Cork 2019 
25th MAYORS´ CONFERENCE
and 6th World Forum Against Drugs 
Conference materials
Kevin Sabet, PhD, Director, Drug Policy Institute, University of Florida, President, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), USA
Speech at the WFAD /ECAD 25th Mayors Conference, Gothenburg, May 15, 2018 (Video 5min.)
Supply reduction in Peril? A lot of the worlds`s drug supply emanates from a war-torn Columbia.
Dr. Michael Jonsson, FOI, Swedish Defence Research Agency
Text to the slides (PDF)
In Columbia, a peace deal has been struck, which gives hope for a closure of insurgency and violence. (PDF)
Thomas Pietschmann, Dr, Drug Research Section, Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs
The International drug control system, global/regional and national drug patterns and trends, and supply reduction efforts at the international level (PDF)
Photo: Götaplatsen @ Klas Eriksson
Annual Mayors` Conference and the 6th World Forum Against Drugs will take off on May 14-15 in Gothenburg this year.
This joint event will address a growing interest to the effective prevention practices, full recovery and alternatives to incarceration and to life-long dependency on drug treatment.
The conference will create a room for elaborating a practical guide to how a recovery city will look like, this will be grounded on the recent evidence-based research. Sheffield Hallam University (UK), Ghent University (Belgium) and the City of Gothenburg have already started working on this guide in practice.
In order to find out more and to register please visit a joint webpage here.
MAYORS` CONFERENCE 2017
ECAD 24th Mayors` Conference materials
On June 12-13, the city of Kaunas hosted ECAD 24th Annual Mayors`s Conference 2017
Safe Cities Without Drugs. Preventing, Protecting, Policing
Key-note speakers:
David W. Spencer, Field intelligence Manager, Drug Enforcement Agency, European Region
Supply reduction and dismantling drug trafficking organizations: In what ways can local communities benefit (PDF)
Kim Nilvall, Swedish National Bureau of Investigation, Intelligence section, Organized crime
Police work in socially disadvantaged areas in Sweden: Impact of drugs on urban crime (PDF)
Torsten Stodiek, Deputy Head, Strategic Police Matters Unit, Community Policing Advisor, Transnational Threats Department, OSCE
Preventing terrorism and countering violent extremism and radicalisation that lead to terrorism:
A community and intelligence led policing approach (PDF)
Jon Sigfusson, Director for Icelandic Centre of Social Research and Analysis, Reykjavik University, ICSRA
Youth in Europe and Planet Youth (PDF)
Laimonas Vasiliauskas, Senior Specialist, Serious and Organized Crime Department, EUROPOL
European Illicit Drug Market (PDF)
Antonio Boscini, Health Director, San Patrignano Community, Rimini, Italy
Recovery and social reinsertion: San Patrignano Community model extended (PDF)
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME (PDF)
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT (PDF)
Conference Booking Form
Kaunas Castle
Picture: @Rokas Tenys
Warm welcome to Kaunas, Lithuania!
- Details
- Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference
Stockholm is hosting two parallel conferences on May 19-20, 2014. ECAD joins forces with World Federation Against Drugs and their 4th World Forum to add weight to the anti-legalization message of political wills and to spread the competence of grass-roots NGOs.
" Do we want a drug-free world or a world of free drugs?" - asked former UNODC Director Antonio Maria Costa once.
The answer is written in ECAD Constitution and we stand for a drug-free world.
This is a unique opportunity for you to network, meet your counterparts from other countries and to support the UN Conventions on drugs.
European Cities Against Drugs and World Federation Against Drugs organize the conferences at the Munich Brewery, on the South bank of Riddarfjärden, with a joint opening on May 19, 2014.
These two conferences will have 2 separate registration desks and the participants will be given two different sorts of badges. However, the guests will have an opportunity to share the most interesting presentations and will get a balanced picture of the best speakers from both conferences.
On May 19, after the presentations of the keynote speakers and a common lunch, conference delegates will be separated for two different conferences and sessions of ECAD and WFAD. In the interim, the conference delegates will be asked to stick to their respective venues, according to the registration made.
On May 20, the conferences will be held separately for ECAD and WFAD participants until lunch, after that the conference delegates will join together again.
The City of Stockholm invites all conference delegates to a reception at 18.00 on Monday, May 19, hosted in the City Hall. H. Sten Nordin, the Mayor of Stockholm, will open the evening with a short welcome speech. The reception will be held in a buffet-style with sit-down opportunities.
Download First Announcement here (PDF)
We will publish Conference Booking Form in a few days here, please return to this page later.
- Details
- Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference
21th ECAD Mayors' Conference in Stockholm: May 19-20, 2014
Venue: Münchenbryggeriet, Torkel Knutssonsgatan 2
TOWARDS A HEALTHIER FUTURE IN A DRUG-FREE WORLD
HOSTED BY THE MUNICIPALITY OF STOCKHOLM
Joined Conference with World Federation Against Drugs, the conference in Stockholm had some 400 participants, of these ECAD participants from 35 cities in 16 countries.
Conference Programme (PDF)
Conference Speakers (PDF)
Maria Larsson, Minister for Children and Elderly, Sweden
Speech at the Opening Session (PDF)
Sven-Olov Carlsson, International President, WFAD
Speech at the Opening Session (PDF)
Kian Reme, Chairman, ECAD
Speech at the Opening Session (PDF)
Kevin Sabet, PhD, Director, Drug Policy Institute,University of Florida
"The Marijuana Landscape" (PDF)
Antonio Maria Costa, former Secretary General of UNODC
Inter-national and Inter-temporal Effect of Drug Policies (PDF)
Neil McKeganey, Professor, PhD, Director, Centre for Drug Misuse Research, Glasgow, Scotland
Drug Policy at the crossroads (PDF)
Raymond Yans, President of INCB until May 19, 2014
The Conventions and Legalization of the non-medical use of drugs (PDF)
Bertha K Madras, PhD (the Honorable) Professor of Psychobiology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Marijuana and Opioids. Risks for the Unborn, the Born (PDF)
Madeline Meier, PhD, Arizona State University, Duke University
Persistant Cannabis Users Show Neuropsychological Decline from Childhood to Midlife (PDF)
Martien Kooyman, MD, PhD, psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Netherlands
The Cannabis issue in the Netherlands (PDF)
Mike Sabin, MP of New Zealand
"New Psychoactive Substances available on the market. What can legislation do to keep up?" (PDF)
Nora Volkow, MD, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse, USA
Effects of Marijuana on Brain, Body and Behaviour (PDF)
- Details
- Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference
One more presentation from ECAD Annual Conference in Moscow:
Gilberto Gerra, MD, Chief of the UNODC Drug prevention and Health Branch, Austria
Youth stands for freedom from chemical slavery (PDF)
Björg Månum Andersson, Director General for Primary Health and Social Affairs, City of Oslo, Norway
A brief historical account of ECAD and Norwegian network of ECAD cities (PDF)
Have a look at the photo-gallery from ECAD Moscow Conference here
- Details
- Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference
"TOGETHER WE STAND STRONGER: INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE IN TACKLING DRUG ABUSE"
Moscow, May 13-15, 2013
An impressive amont of over 800 participants gathered under the roof of Moscow Government House, Novy Arbat Street 36/9 to celebrate ECAD XXth Mayors` conference in Russia on 13-15 of May.
Moscow vice Mayor, Mr. Pechatnikov and Minister for Healthcare of Moscow City Government, Mr. Golukhov, opened ECAD conference.
Representatives from the UNODC, United States White House, Russian Federal Drug Control Service and UNAIDS stood for a broad mixture of western and eastern knowledge and a variety of ways in presenting their message to the public. Overall multifaceted, qualitative and exciting, this conference appears to be the biggest ever in ECAD history so far.
ECAD is thankful to our partners in Russia, All-Russian-Narcological League, for preparing this top - quality conference with a minimum amount of resources. We look forward to cooperation with the City of Moscow in ECAD Advisory Board.
"The ways of structuring and organizing conference programme in Russia and in the Western world are very different, although it does not mean that either of the ways is better than the other, it is just different from what both parties are used to," remarked ECAD director afterwards.
Thanks to lots of efforts of ECAD Russian NGO partner, Russian Narcological League, a number of Russian regions, representing almost all Russian Federal Subjects took part at the conference, bringing exhibitions in English with them, relating of temperance movements and anti-drug activities. Lots of networking among ECAD members, fine presentations and a visit to Moscow Narcological Centre of applied practice and research on drug treatment were extremely rich in information that we are going to share with you here, on ECAD website.
Björg Månum Andersson, Director General for Primary Health and Social Affairs, City of Oslo, Norway
A brief historical account of ECAD and Norwegian network of ECAD cities (PDF)
Bertha K. Madras, MD, PhD, Prof. of Psychobiology, Chair, Division of Neurochemistry, Harvard Medical School, USA
Addiction as a brain disease: Implications for drug policy (PDF)
Christina Gynnå Oguz, Director, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, Sweden
An Exposé of the International Drug Policy Debate (PDF)
Kevin A. Sabet, Assist. Prof. Of Psychiatry, Director, Drug Policy Institute, Univ. of Florida, USA
Marijuana Legalization—where do we go from here? A review of evidence (PDF)
Kerstin Käll, MD, PhD, Specialist in Psychiatry, Chief Medical Officer at the Dependency clinic, University of Linköping, Sweden
Medical marijuana—a way to legalize cannabis? (PDF)
Saulius Chaplinskas,MD, PhD, Director, Centre for Communicable Diseases and AIDS
Controversies and challenges tackling illegal-drug-related communicable diseases (PDF)