- Details
- Category: News
Sustainable, healthy and safe communities - how to design a modern and ambitious drug control system
The world drug problem is solved locally. In every city, in every school and in every home.
On July 16-17th ECAD was presenting its findings to delegates at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe at the conference titled Combating the Threat of Illicit Drugs and the Diversion of Chemical Precursors, Vienna. ECAD spoke about the organsations work to counteract the European drug problem by drug demand reduction efforts aimed at environmental and primary prevention as well as the promotion of full recovery from addiction.
Drugs have been used for medicinal, religious and recreational purposes since dawn of men. But yesterday’s use shares little resemblance to today’s global drug markets. Commercialization and advances in chemistry and communications have profoundly altered the toxicity and speed with which drugs traverse our globe during the last century.
The global drug control system is being strained but is our best hope to counteract the devasting impact from illicit drugs. Regulations of legal drugs are not successful examples to follow. Community-based and scientifically grounded actions and interventions at local level that targets the causes for substance use as well as vulnerabilities to organized crime can make the world drug problem significantly smaller.
ECAD´s point of departure for its work are the following assumptions:
- Drugs are the most harmful when made legal and commercially promoted
- Levels of drugs use can be addressed
- Drug addiction is in most cases a recoverable condition
- Adress vulnerabilities to organized crime to mitigate harms from the drug trade
The message of our presentation was that countries should adhere to the international principles to which they have already signed, i.e defend the integrity of the drug control conventions. Countries (Canada) that unilaterally breaches the international treaties they have signed on for and on which the rest of the worlds drug control system is reliant upon, should think twice before they legalize drugs.
If countries want to achieve a serious and long term reduction in drug demand they would do wise to study the true success story of the world - Iceland. An evidence based mapping of local risk and protective factors and subsequent long term and holistic change of the local environment in which youngsters are brought up can bring about a population level reduction in their willingness to take drugs.
To fully make people recover from drug addiction underlying issues that preceded drug need to be adressed. Drug treatment need to take into account and solve more problems than those posed by the drugs and equip persons with tools to adress challenges in life without drugs. A sustainable recovery takes time and need to be supported years after intitial treatment and stabilisation to increase likelihood of success.
To mitigate the harms posed by traffickers and criminals operating on drug money law enforcement would do well to cooperate with treatment and social service and act as an engine for the recovery of addicts with a criminal background. The presence of (large scale) organized crime in a society can be understood as a weakness in governance. The criminals need to be combatted and persecuted but to be sustainable, the governance weakness also need to be adressed.
- Details
- Category: News
In July, ECAD was present during the Swedish Annual polician week on the island of Gotland situated in the middle of the Baltic Sea.
We organised seminars and hearings on drugs, public safety and health during the week. Policians from all parties in the parliament came to our tent to share their view on how to make Sweden safer and their stance on drugs.
For the fourth consecutive year ECAD has been organizing seminars talks and events with partners Criminals Return into Society and Association for Drug Free Sweden at the annual politician week in Gotland Sweden. This year was an election year and every political party wanted to participate in our tent and give their view on how the society could be made safer. Down below we have listed the headlines of our sessions:
A safe society - the role of NGO´s
Per Johansson, generalsekreterare, RNS
Erik Leijonmarck, generalsekreterare, ECAD
Ali Reunanen, förbundssekreterare, KRIS
The left party (V) on drugs and crime
Linda Snecker, Vänsterpartiet
The liberal party (L) on drugs and crime
Roger Haddad, riksdagsledamot, Liberalerna
True and false on cannabis - state of the art of research on health harms
Peter Allebeck, forskare
Pelle Olsson, författare, journalist
The conservative party (M) on drugs and crime
Beatrice Ask, riksdagsledamot, Moderaterna
What does a social and liberal drug policy look like?
Johan Pehrson, riksdagskandidat Liberalerna
Niels Paarup-Petersen, riksdagskandidat Centerpartiet
Lars Ströman, ledarskribent Nerikes Allehanda
Gabriel Romanus, fd socialminister Liberalerna
The centre party (C) on drugs and crime
Johan Hedin, Centerpartiet
Shootings, open drug trade and marginalized communitites - what are the relationships?
Manne Gerell, forskare
Schools free from drugs
Staffan Hübinette , lärare och föreläsare
The green party (MP) on drugs and crime
Annika Hirvonen, riksdagsledamot, Miljöpartiet
The role of the customs service in adressing drug supply
Jessica Vikberg, tullinspektör och förbundsordförande RNS
Johan Lindgren, förbundsordförande TULL-KUST
The Social Democratic party (S) on drugs and crime
Morgan Johansson, justitieminister, Socialdemokraterna
Annika Strandhäll, socialminster, Socialdemokraterna
Life style coordinator
Ali Reunanen, KRIS
The prohibiton of drugs - a tool for early intervention
Lennart Karlsson, ordförande Svenska Narkotikapolisföreningen
Sven-Olov Carlsson, projektledare, Prevent Don't Promote
The nationalist party (SD) on drugs and crime
Adam Marttinen, riksdagsledamot, Sverigedemokraterna
Never go back - Recovery from drug addiction and being a mother
Sara Woldu, ledare mammagruppen KRIS
The christian democratic party (KD) on drugs and crime
Andreas Carlsson, riksdagsledamot, Kristdemokraterna
Apart from our own hosted talks and seminars the Secretary General also participated in a discussion on cannabis from a medical and societal viewpoint organized by Uppsala University.
http://www.ufold.uu.se/Evenemang/Seminarier/almedalen-2018-behovs-cannabis-ur-medicinskt-syfte-klarar-sverige-en-legalisering/
- Details
- Category: News
On October 10-11, 2018, ECAD organize a study visit to European biggest Recovery Community, San Patrignano, in close proximity to Riccione, Italy.
This year it will be the most festive occasion to participate in the WeFree days there since the Community will celebrate its 40th anniversary.
Use this opportunity to find out more about San Patrignano`s successfull model for recovery and social reinsertion and talk to the members of the Community during ECAD special session of Questions and Answers.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.WeFree/Study Visit Programme here (PDF)
ECAD have negotitated a favourable hotel rates for you and blocked a number of rooms at Hotel Feldberg (Via Fucini 10, Riccione, ph. +39 0541641942) in advance.
Fill in the Booking form and send it back to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before August 31, to get the agreed hotel rates.
On October 10, a scientific conference on the elimination of viral Hepatitis by the International Liver Foundation, will take place at San Patrignano. ECAD have arranged for your free participation in this conference if you are interested.
Download the Conference Programme "HCV elimination in people who inject drugs. A roadmap for elimination in Italy: treating the infections and predisposing causes" (PDF)
- Details
- Category: News
On June 26, 2018 the Moscow city scientific-practical conference with international participation "Combating Drugs - Global Problems" took place, timed to coincide with the International Day against Drug Abuse. This day symbolizes the determination of the world community to strengthen international cooperation in creating a society free from drug addiction, contributes to a serious understanding in society of one of the main problems of our time — the problem of drug addiction. The event was attended by: a leading international organization advocating a drug-free Europe and representing millions of European citizens - European cities against drugs (European Cities Against Drugs - 249 cities in 30 countries around the world, also take initiatives and carry out various anti-drug activities in support of UN conventions - against the legalization of drugs and for a reasonable anti-drug policy); Health leaders and organizers; medical prevention specialists, general practitioners, general practitioners who provide primary health care and specialists of medical organizations of the Moscow state healthcare system of the stationary type, as well as employees of government departments and agencies, representatives of scientific institutions, public and other organizations
- Details
- Category: News
On May 30-31, ECAD Secretary General will participate in the Planet Youth workshop in Reykjavik.
The workshop will provide an overview of the Icelandic Model of Substance Use Prevention. Emphasis will be made on both the scientific pillars underlying the model, as well as practical applications.
The workshop is divided into three sections:
1. A brief history and scientific criteria for the model
2. Survey data collection, processing and dissemination
3. Community outreach and practical work with stakeholders.
Location: Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Natura, Reykjavik, Iceland
Dates: May 30th and 31st, 2018
Times: 09:00 - 16:00 both days
Optional Study Visits: 1st of June 12:00 to 16:00
Light lunches included both days + coffee and snacks during breaks
Optional study visits June 1st
WORKSHOP AGENDA (PDF)
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!