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The meeting was fruitful and constructive with many good suggestions in making ECAD work more meaningful and efficient.Beside positive budget and local offices` reports, one of the items on the agenda was an application of the city of Stavanger, Norway, to become a member of the Advisory Board.
Preparations for the annual conference in Varna, Bulgaria are in the full swing. Please follow our website that will be updated with general particulars on the accommodation, logistics, booking and registration in the coming days.
The city of Cork, the home town of Cllr. Jim Corr, ECAD Chairman, has arranged the meeting at the beautiful Cork City Council chambers.
Cllr. Michael O`Connell, Lord Mayor of Cork (picture, in the middle) expressed support and interest in ECAD work when he received AB members in his premises in the middle of a busy working day.
Advisory Board members were interested in local drug situation and drug policy developments in Cork. To inform on the local drug coordination activities and National Drugs Strategy structures, Local Drug Task Force Coordinator, Mr. David Lane was invited to the meeting.
ECAD Advisory Board thanks the City of Cork for its true engagement and generosity in providing every possibility to hold the most rewarding and informative meeting.
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Januari 5-6
Norwegian cities in ECAD held its yearly meeting in Drammen. ECAD Norway consists of the seven largest municipalities, which have a fruitful and inspiring national network.
Apart from several exciting discussions and a stimulating speech from the Chairman Tore Opdal Hansen, the participants listened to some very interesting lectures with both national and international outlooks.
ECAD Norway is a very good example of how to use the membership in ECAD to create national networks, not only between cities, but also among politicians, experts and practitioners.
(Picture left to right:
Director General in Oslo City Council Bjørg Månum Andersson, ECAD director Jörgen Sviden and Mayor of Drammen Tore Opdal Hansen)
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Drug-secure Russian cities: from national security to people’s security
By Lana Willebrand, journalist and seminar participant
In the end of November, the Regional office of ECAD conducted a seminar on drug-secure communities. The seminar was advertised through the ECAD Russia home page www.ecad.ru and was aimed at the Russian-speaking countries. ECAD regional office in Russia, which works in tight collaboration with the St. Petersburg State University has a long tradition of, and specializes in, research and practice seminars. ECAD members, invited experts (Russian and foreign) and all interested gather at least once a year at this university to discuss different aspects of anti-drug policies. 
This year, the focus was on the concept of people’s security in regard to illicit drugs misuse and drug-related criminality. The point of departure for the discussion was an understanding that the anti-drug activities of the authorities have to turn towards the needs of the citizens to feel protected from the narcothreats which directly endanger their lives and health.
Namely, the threats which are posed by mercenary and violent crimes committed by the drug abusers whom the Russian state is not able to compel to rehabilitation; and by involvement of children into drug misuse at their schools or recreational places.
‘Conflict’ is a key-concept for analysis of drug policies and drug reality. Drug conflicts are being distinguished and recognized on all levels, from local to global; conflict shows how illicit drugs find their way into population; it explains the importance of drug prevention and prevention of drug-related crimes on the streets of our cities.
The academic clang to the conflict approach which could be heard here is not intended to scare away visitors of the ECAD homesite; on the contrary, it aims to show that there is a clear, comprehensive and easy-to-grasp theory behind a successful drug policy which is - yes! - narcoconflictology.
Development of this discipline and its transformation from the master program linked to one university to internet-based courses available for all ECAD members regardless of their location is led by Georgy Zazulin (picture), PhD in law, ECAD Director in Russia, and his network.
ECAD is grateful to all who put their time, energy and money into this educational and vital project, above all – the St. Petersburg State University in general and the department of conflictology in particular, and the Swedish Carnegie Institute.
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November 6-11
ECAD’s director Jörgen Svidén visited Portugal and the cities Villa Real Sant Antonio and Mafra. The purpose of the trip was mainly to participate as a key note speaker in a Conference organized by the city of Mafra; Prevencão Do Consumo De Drogas.
Thanks to ECAD’s close collaborator, Director of APLD, Dr. Manuel Pinto Coelho, it turned out to include a lot more than that. Besides important and fruitful discussions with Dr. Pinto Coelho, he had arranged so that the city of Villa Real Sant Antonio got introduced to ECAD.
This resulted in Villa Real Sant Antonio and Mafra becoming new members of ECAD at a ceremony in the city, all in front of media representatives and local politicians.
The very well organized Conference in Mafra was a success, not the least because it ended with great support for a restrictive and humane policy and that Mafra decided to become members of ECAD. ECAD and Mafra have cooperated for some years and there have been discussions about membership, so it is with great pleassure that the city now have decided to fully participate in our organization.
ECAD is proud to welcome our first Iberian cities to the extensive network!
During the stay in Portugal it was also a meeting with representatives from Dianova and discussions about having an ECAD-conference in Portugal in 2011.
More information on that will come.
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November 18-19
ECAD Swedish network of cities held its annual Conference in Stockholm.
There were several interesting lectures on some of Stockholm’s activities concerning illicit drugs: Housing first, preventive measures etc.
The participants met a newly appointed Deputy Mayor and ECAD’S new Advisory Board member Anna Köning Jerlmyr, who made a short presentation and heard about organisational activity plans for 2011 from ECAD’s director Jörgen Svidén.
ECAD Sweden has also decided that, besides Markus Häggström, Eva Andersson, Patrik Runesson and Marie Ljungberg-Schött should be re-elected to the Board. A new member, Dario Espiga, Deputy Mayor from Göteborg, was elected.
ECAD Sweden members have, among others issues taken up the task to develop the Swedish ECAD member cities` international contacts.
The Swedish ECAD network Annual Award was given to the IOGT youth activity JUNIS, in Umeå. The Board of ECAD Sweden is grateful for active iterest and engagement of this member cityin the preventive work!
ECAD Sweden will meet next year in Borås.
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!