Mission Statement: 
Updated Mission Statement (approved by the Congress in May 2023)

Our mission is to prevent use, reduce harm, and facilitate recovery.

ECAD's vision is to promote public health and protection to the exposure of illicit drugs. We seek to be a positive force for an ambitious and inclusive drug policy, promoting public health, and reducing stigma. Simultaneously, we aim to reduce drug supply and demand as well as the societal and individual impacts of drug-related harm and substance use disorders. Our main goals are to prevent use, improve the quality of life of those facing substance use and decrease the number of deaths due to overdoses of drug use.

The work of ECAD rests firmly upon the spirit of the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which limits the use of narcotic drugs to solely medical and scientific purposes in ECAD's Member Cities. We aim to improve the health of the inhabitants of our Member Cities and seek to promote evidence-based and humane drug policies, which are firmly rooted in empirical science. We believe that societies can affect the scale of their substance problems by making concerted efforts towards prevention, treatment, recovery, and control. 

ECAD believes in harm reduction as a continuum of care, which is not in conflict with a drug-free vision or a drug-free life for the individual. We are in favour of harm reduction to the extent that it does not normalise non-medical drug-use. Drug use should primarily be addressed through health and social interventions as well as alternatives to incarceration. Substance use disorders should be met with a variety of health and social measures, not punishment.

ECAD serves the interest of its Member Cities by offering evidence-based material, capacity, and tools for constant improvement of their actions and policies to prevent drug use, reduce harm, and facilitate recovery.