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A week in May, 16-20, was devoted to the EU project (Triple R) study visit to Rome and Centro Italiano di Solidarieta don Mario Picchi, or CEIS.
Triple RRR project has now its own website, click here for a detailed project description and all study visits.
The framework of the study visit reflected the need to understand the Italian rehabilitative model based on the "Progetto Uomo" ( "Project Man") ideals. A project "Man" has historically opened new opportunities for recovery in Italy, promoted acceptance for differences among the clients of the community, perceiving addiction as a humanity disease, different for each human being.
There are 1200 drug treatment communities in Italy and in 2015 there were 90 000 persons in treatment.
Italian perspective over the public and private governance in the rehabilitation of drug users has been oriented to the Christian and family values. It was developed with some assistance from the Vaticane, explained CEIS Area coordinators, Massimo Caciolo and Andrea Pilloni.
"Project Man" implies that the more responsibility one gets as the treatment evolves, the less control is exercised on the way.
We were intorduced to the Progetto Uomo rehabilitation model applied at 2 therapeutic communities, at San Carlo residential facility in Castelgandolfo and at Santa Maria therapeutic Community. Both communities apply the 3-phase model (physical intervention, phychological therapy and consciencious involvement) but have different residential programmes that can last 18-20 months.
Among therapy goals are individual autonomy (reaching autonomy, not sobriety (!)), remodelling cognitive maps (meaning that treatment centre is a place of awareness and care, where clients get their pharmacotherapy gradually decreased in a protected environment; and reshape their family relationships), and rapid resocialization.
The project partners were involved in a psychodrama, reflecting a process of rapid resocialization. It is a technique to visualize in a graphic way a relationship in a group at one specific moment. The parameters used are "attraction" and "rejection". We also had a glimpse into the double-diagnosis treatment by ECO programme.
The project partners worked on reorganizing the work load, finalizing the main concepts for the manuals and set some new deadlines for the work on the Triple R Project publications on Rehabilitation, Recovery and Reinsertion as well as for the justice intervention handbook.
ECAD looks forward to publishing and spreading the manuals on Rehabilitation, Recovery and Reinsertion - the joint work of 4 established recovery communities in the EU and a handbook on Justice Intervention - the experience and knowledge of Drug Courts in Belgium put in print this autumn.
This is the first output of the RRR project that will be presented and spread at the EU headquarters in Brussels at the beginning of 2017.
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ECAD invites all interested social workers, politicians, students, researchers, forensic scientists, policemen and teachers to our second project conference Why do most drug-related deaths occur in the Baltic Sea region? in Tallinn, this Friday, May 27.
We shall take up the impact of new psychoactive substances in the Baltic Sea region, drug-induced deaths and highest mortality rates in the EU. The topic is mostly actual for Sweden and Estonia, and for our Latvian partners to a certain extent.
We will discuss the growing number of fatal outcomes as a result of drug overdoses in Estonia, Latvia and Sweden. To what extent does new psychoactive substances contribute to total mortality rates and why do most drug-related deaths occur in the Baltic Sea Region?
ECAD will also present a recent prevention project tackling the use of Spice in the southern Sweden. Maybe your city would like to join?
The Conference is arranged in cooperation with Tallinn City Council. We have the honour to use the beautiful Jaan Poska residence, at Jaan Poska str. 8 as our Conference Venue.
Conference Programme for download (PDF)
Warm welcome to Tallinn!
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Kian Reme, ECAD Chairman, has been recently interviewed in Norwegian newspaper (Aftenbladet.no). 
He expressed his vision of Norwegian drug policy, affected to a great extent by ideological polemics and myths.
A notorious "Norwegian drug policy has failed" is one of such myths. The truth is much more complex. Having a vision of a society free from drugs and having a vision of zero deaths in traffic are safety policies with much in common, states Kian in the article.
Read the whole interview in Norwegian here.
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in order to make it easier for you to find the Conference venue (Eiganesveien 64) , Welcome Reception on Sunday (at Ledaal, Eiganesveiein 45), Conference Dinner on Monday (at Olavskleivå 25, Klubben), and Skagenkaien for the Boat Tour on Wednesday we have prepared a map for you down here.
Klick here to view the map: Conference logistics
Your Hotels,Thon Hotel Maritim and Scandic Forum, are on map too. We hope you will find it useful.
ECAD Executive Board Meeting will take place on Sunday at 16.00 at Övre Kleive Gate 15, close to Klubben, is also on the map.
Map for Stavanger Conference logistics (klick here)
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The UN General Assembly convened in New York City last week to reaffirm the global commitment to the international drug conventions.
These conventions, created to prevent and reduce drug use worldwide, remain the cornerstone of global drug policy.
ECAD was present at the meetings among over 300 NGOs that came together at the UN in New York to support the policy of drug prevention with the message:
"Prevent. Don`t Promote".
"Prevent. Don't Promote." is a campaign sponsored by numerous organizations that support the UN international drug conventions and want to see a public health and safety based policy centered on the prevention of drug use and drug problems.
A new discussion paper on the Future of Drug Policy was issued and distributed at the event in collaboration with Drug Policy Futures. It is a concise version of the certain aspects of the report "Future of Drug Policy - Real Solutions Grounded in Global Evidence", published at the end of last year and available at http://drugpolicyfutures.org
The Future of Drug Policy Discussion Paper is available at ECAD Head Office.
"Despite the rhetoric about rifts in the global consensus on drug policy, the reality on the ground is the UN and member states are upholding principles in line with the drug conventions," remarked our Secretary General Erik Leijonmarck.
"Moreover, this same misleading rhetoric obscures the real progress being made to scale up public health interventions in drug policy."
Though NGOs were supportive of the meeting and outcome, there remains room for improvement on international drug policy.
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!