- Details
- Category: News
The City of Kristiansand, Norway, hosted annual conference for Norwegian network of cities in ECAD on January 5, 2012. ECAD Director Jörgen Svidén was one of the participants.
Representatives of Norwegian cities in ECAD meet once a year in January to focus on actual drug issues and discuss activities in their respective cities, to strengthen established contacts and to create new ones. Besides this, there are lectures on different topics to broaden perspectives and to give inspiration and new knowledge. The participants have various professional skills and roles, from leading politicians to practitioners and scientists.
Among great speakers was Else Kristin Utne Berg from Bergen, who presented a survey on trends of drug use and, based on that, ideas on how to react on these figures. The audience also got an interesting and engaged presentation from Kristiansand’s City medical practitioner, Dagfinn Harr, on success factors in the fight to help people overcome drug problems.
Norwegian initiative for ECAD member cities is most welcome in ECAD and is something that should be a role model for cities in other countries, as an important social factor and a professionally useful meeting. Gatherings like this are very inspiring and help set focus on the issue we all work on: how to create a better environment so that as few as possible get in contact with drugs and as many as possible stop taking them.
“Ut av tåka 2012”, a Norwegian annual seminar on cannabis, will be organized on February 22, and "Erfaringsdag", a seminar for drug coordinators from all over Norway, in connection to "Ut av tåka 2012" event will take place on February 21, 2012. Download seminar programme below.
"ERFARINGSDAG" PROGRAMME (PDF)
- Details
- Category: News
A new book "Touching the spot" by Doctor Manuel Pinto Coelho, based on his work done in the scope of a doctorate thesis in Educational Sciences and supervised by Professor Amaral Dias is due to be published in English soon.This book deals with a controversial notion of addiction as a disease, a model that may be misplaced, according to Doctor Manuel Pinto Coelho (picture), ECAD representative in Portugal, medical director of the Permanent Medical Service in Portugal since 2003.
"This book is a proof that drug dependent is not a condemned victim", says Doctor Coelho, who has a degree in Medicine and Surgery. "He or she can free himself by discovering himself and his willpower".
"Touching the spot" is about figuring out a new paradigm to drug dependence, to help everyone who has problems with drugs all over the world, and their families, to live happier lives.
ECAD looks forward to a hard copy of the book to be published in English and Russian in the near future. Contact us if you wish to know more!
- Details
- Category: News
In the middle of December Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) holds a reconvened Session to approve budget and agendas for the next CND (55th Session in March 12-16, 2012) for the two coming years.
In connection to this event Vienna NGO Committee had a meeting on December 14.
Meeting agenda focused on planning for the offensive work representing NGOs at the next CND session in March 2012 and arranging a Civil Society Hearing that is proposed to take place on Tuesday, March 13, 2012.
The CND acts as a governing body that decides on the policies to be followed by the UNODC in the area of drugs and approves its budget for this work.
Vienna NGO Committee on drugs is growing stronger in cooperation with the UNODC and Civil Society Team. The Committee is now Austrian legal entity with a seat in Vienna ("Wiener Drogen Komitee" in German).
Members of the Committee are an important link between civil society and the UN bodies, as well as INCB and CND. This year many VNGOC members made contribution in form of contact networks in the countries that INCB chose for its field Missions (eg. Bolivia, Serbia, Turkey, Bangladesh).
NGO participation at the CND sessions in March is informal but there is a possibility to attract more attention to the vital issues through participation in the side events also next year. The number of side events that could be organised by the NGOs is reduced in 2012, which is unfortunate. However, side events are an actual possibility to influence CND agenda and NGOs will remain active, preparing for the CND. The topics of the round table discussions at the CND have been announced already:
a) Counter-narcotics efforts and the principle of common and shared responsibility: opportunities and challenges;
b) Measures to prevent diversion of substances frequently used in the manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances from domestic distribution channels, including by strengthening partnerships with the private sector.
Read more about the criteria for NGO selection to participate in the CND side events at www.unodc.org
ECAD has been an engaged member of the Vienna NGO Committee Board since 2009.
- Details
- Category: News
Social workers, law enforcement officers, young volunteers, specialists promoting social development and healthy life attitudes are visiting Swedish NGOs (received at X-CONS in the picture) and s
tate bodies this week to get a picture of Swedish drug policy development.ECAD welcomes the initiative of 4 cities in Russian Siberia - Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Nyagan´ and Khanti-Mansiysk - to learn from the successful experience in prevention.
Subcategories
The ECAD Mayors' Conference
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!