The 1st ISCE International Congress on Drugs and Dependencies was held by Social and Cultural Department in conjunction with the Centre for Drug Misuse Research - Scotland, in Lisbon – Odivelas, Portugal, and besides European Cities Against Drugs there were representatives of the World Federation Against Drugs, International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy, Drug Watch International, Association for a Drug Free Portugal and other national and international organizations.

ECAD Director Jörgen Svidèn participated in one of the forum panels with a presentation ”Drugs and the Media”. The Congress was initiated by ECAD’s National Representative in Portugal, Dr. Manuel Pinto Coelho.

This forum gathered many prominent speakers: Professor Neil McKeganey from Scotland, former director of the UNODC Antonio Maria Costa, Professor Kevin Sabet from Florida University, President of the INCB Raymond Yans, EMCDDA’s Executive Director Wolfgang Goetz, Executive Councellor David Raynes, Secretary General of EURAD Fay Watson and many others.

The Congress covered a wide range of important issues concerning drugs; it complements by far to the relentless work against legalisation of drugs and adds more structure to the forthcoming activities of many participating agencies and individuals, so that as few as possible will get addicted to narcotic substances.

Besides the Congress, several networking meetings were held among the delegates. It was decided i.a. to create a broad coalition that will show the unity among a vast majority of the world’s leaders and citizens against illicit drugs.

In fact, less than five percent of the worlds populations has ever tried illicit drugs the last year and a lot fewer are addicted to drugs.

Nearly 100 percent of the present leaders in the around 200 independent states of the world oppose drug legalization.

This unity is a strong message and the aim is to better express and illustrate this in the near future. ECAD are happy to play a vital role in this work.