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- Category: News
Discussions embraced the new up to date activity plan, a budget for 2014, ECAD trademark and the Constitution, including more arguments explaining why we are against drugs and why it is simply not smart, if not plainly illegal, to work in favour of drug legalisation.
ECAD is a network for cities in action for a drug free society. This says it all about our work.
We will capitalize on our trademark visible in the social media and expand further into the South Western Europe, these are among many of the priorities for the organisation in the nearest future. More about ECAD activities will come up here in the coming days.
(Picture: Victory Celebration Monument in Rome, Italy)
At the same time, ECAD biggest project Youth in Europe is running in full swing and we are happy to announce a new international conference that will be based on the best prevention practice of our Icelandic colleagues:
Reykjavik City celebrates success in drug prevention amongst youth in March 19-20, 2014. How did we do it?
Venue: Hilton Reykjavik - Nordica Hotel
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Under the rules proposed by the Commission today, harmful psychoactive substances will be withdrawn quickly from the market, without jeopardising their various legitimate industrial and commercial uses.
The proposals follow warnings from the EU's Drugs Agency (the EMCDDA) and Europol about the scale of the problem and a 2011 report which found that the EU’s current mechanism for tackling new psychoactive substances needed bolstering.
Read more here
This piece of news will be particularly interesting for our Latvian colleagues. As we mentioned in the previous article, Latvian market is full of illegal psychoactive substances and the legislative authorities experience remarkable difficulties countering the challenge today.
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ECAD Swedish network held its annual conference on September11-12 in Linköping, where lots of discussions on how to influence young people`s attitudes to drugs.
Swedish drug policy analysts, politicians and practitioners from 9 Swedish cities were received at Konsert & Kongress with enthusiasm and support from Ann-Cathrine Hjerdt, Mayor of Linköping.Annual prize went to Tomas Flink of Ystad city for his engagement in prevention work.
At the same time, Jörgen Svidèn and Janina Romanova from ECAD head office visited two Latvian cities, Jurmala and Riga. A number of politicians at Riga City Council showed interest in re-activating Riga city as a member of ECAD and ECAD joined a press conference, organised on September 11th in Latvian Parliament, Saeima, to discuss the current challenges in Latvian legislation and international experience in prevention. Riga Social and Welfare Committee wished to cooperate with other ECAD cities in order to tackle an extensive illegal trade with psychoactive substances, such as Spice and its modifications.
Media, the police, young people and politicians are equally concerned about the growing out of proportion amount of Spice powders being sold close to homes and schools all over the country. New illegal substances appear on Latvian market at a spaceship speed and local legislation cannot catch up with this pace.
ECAD representatives discussed international experiences in this regard.
Jurmala has been one of the most active cities in ECAD for the last 6 years despite economic obstacles and the notorious crisis of 2009. By today the city established a team-work cooperation between the police, social services, politicians and school administrations.
A lot of work is done today to stop the spread of illegal substances, and to help the families of drug addicts and co-dependent relatives. This October a delegation from Jurmala city council will visit SanPatrignano Community together with many other representatives of ECAD cities.
Latvian Association for Criminologists had a conference on September 13 at Riga Stradina University. This is an annual event organized for the 26th time by ECAD representative in Latvia, Assoc. Prof. Andrejs Vilks. ECAD director Jörgen Svidèn made a presentation on Innovative ways in tackling the challenge of illegal drugs.
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ECAD presents here a report by Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) that will attempt to track the impact of marijuana legalisation in the state of Colorado.The purpose is to promote a debate in regards to cannabis legalisation and to attract the attention of policy makers to have enough accurate data before any decision making.
The report uses a comparison of three drifferent eras in Colorado`s legalization history 2006- 2008 (early medical marijuana era); 2009-2012 (Medical marijuana expansion era) and 2012-today (Medical merijuana expansion and recreational use era) to document the impact of marijuana legalization for medical and recreational use.
Download "The Legalization of Marijuana in Colorado: the Impact. A Preliminary Report" (PDF)
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ECAD network of Swedish cities will hold its annual assembly meeting and conference in Linköping, September 12-13, 2013. 
ECAD member cities and all interested cities in Sweden are welcome to join the Swedish network meeting.
Send your registration email and all inquiries to Anders Netin This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
before September 2, 2013.
Download Preliminary Programme (PDF) here
Read more in Swedish under ECAD Sweden in the menu to the left.
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!