Conference - European Cities Against Drugs

ECAD's activities from year to year culminate in the annual ECAD Mayors Conference, hosted by a distinct ECAD member city every summer. Councillors and other politicians and policymakers convene with academics and civil society organizations to participate in seminars and study visits, discussing the latest developments in drug prevention efforts throughout Europe.

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

Kaunas logotype

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)

a wall of participants

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME (PDF)

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT (PDF)

Conference Booking Form

@ Rokas Tenys, the Kaunas Castle

Kaunas Castle
Picture: @Rokas Tenys

Warm welcome to Kaunas, Lithuania!

Details: Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference; Published: 11 April 2022

This year ECAD and WFAD will be hosting the joint hybrid forum in Gothenburg, Sweden and online between 13-14^th of 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 will be inaugurated by UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly and will be joined by experts from around the world.

More information: https://2022.wfad.se/ and via this link.

Details: Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference; Published: 05 August 2019

Two central takeaways could be derived from ECAD 26th Mayors Conference- Pathways to Recovery, held in Cork in June 2019.

1. Time spent in meaningful activity is of tremendous importance.
2. No one should walk the recovery path alone

Other than that the conference focused on exploring different pathways and viewpoints towards recovery from drug addiction. Many valuable insights were provided by international as well as national irish experts on addiciton and recovery. Stakeholders, people with experience and care givers provided comprehensive perspectives on the subject.

A brief overview of some of the presentations could be made following the link down below:

https://www.irista.com/gallery/idv4foujhfo0

Pictures from the conference can be accessed here:

https://www.irista.com/gallery/hbex0akjhe0x

Details: Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference; Published: 03 May 2019

Program Highlights

Details: Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference; Published: 22 January 2019

ECADs next Mayors Conference titled Pathways to Recovery will take place in the Irish city of Cork on June 13-14th 2019.

The conference will be focusing on different aspects of recovery from drug addiction and what cities can do to promote a sustainable recovery from addiction.

Details: Category: The ECAD Mayors' Conference; Published: 23 January 2017

On June 12-13, 2017 the City of Kaunas will host the 24th ECAD Annual Mayors’ Conference “Safe Cities Without Drugs. Preventing, Protecting, Policing”.