To schedule interviews, obtain informed comment, request written contributions or receive the latest news on the agency, please contact our media relations unit:
Kathy Robertson
Head of sector
Media relations and marketing
Tel: (351) 211 21 02 00/32
Fax: (351) 21 813 1711
Maria José Louro
Media relations assistant
Tel: (351) 211 21 02 00/40
Fax: (351) 21 813 1711
The EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) will open their doors to the public this Thursday 20 June on the occasion of the inauguration of Praça Europa, the square on which the agencies are located in Lisbon’s Cais do Sodré area.
Record levels of treatment provision for Europe’s drug users are among the positive changes seen in the current European drug landscape, according to the European Drug Report 2013: Trends and developments published today by the EMCDDA in Lisbon. Yet, the agency warns that considerable challenges remain for treatment services.
Europe’s drugs problem is in a ‘state of flux’, with new threats emerging that challenge current models of policy and practice. This is according to the European Drug Report 2013: Trends and developments, published today by the EMCDDA in Lisbon. In its annual review, the agency describes positive developments in relation to the more established drugs, such as fewer new users of heroin, less injecting and declining use of cannabis and cocaine in some countries.
The number, type and availability of new drugs in Europe continued to increase in 2012, according to a report released today by the EMCDDA and Europol. Driven by globalisation, technological advancement and the Internet, an open market for new drugs has now developed which presents significant challenges to public health, law enforcement and policymaking.
Leading European and international experts will meet in Lisbon from 6–8 May to review the state of the art of a rapidly-developing scientific discipline known as ‘drug wastewater analysis’. The event, ‘Testing the waters: the first international multidisciplinary conference on illicit drugs and wastewater’, is being organised by the EMCDDA, in collaboration with: the EU-funded SEWPROF project; the Italian Mario Negri Institute; and the Norwegian Institute for Water Research.
The EMCDDA has reshaped the way in which it reports on Europe’s drugs problem. On 28 May, the agency will present its annual overview of the European drug situation in a new information package designed to be ‘more timely, interactive and interlinked’. Central to the package is the European Drug Report 2013: Trends and developments which replaces the former Annual report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe, traditionally published in the autumn. Released six months earlier, the shorter, graphic-rich report summarises the latest trends across the 27 EU Member States, Norway, Croatia and Turkey.
Today we are launching our latest publication in the field of prevention. ‘Drug prevention interventions targeting minority ethnic populations’ is a Thematic paper that comes as part of the agency’s monitoring of action 20 of the European Union drugs action plan 2009–12 on developing services for minority groups, including migrants. »
Europe has responded today to concerns over the use of the stimulant drug 4-methylamphetamine (4-MA) by subjecting it to ‘control measures and criminal penalties’ throughout the Union. The Decision of the Council of the EU was adopted in the final stage of the three-step legal procedure designed to respond to potentially threatening new psychoactive drugs entering the market.
The national drug policy of Ireland comes under the spotlight in the latest volume in the EMCDDA series of Drug policy profiles released today.
Drug trafficking is a highly profitable commercial activity and a core business for organised crime groups across Europe today. Understanding the reality of the European drug market requires a holistic approach, following the economic chain from production, via trafficking, to consumption. In today’s EU drug markets report, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol have joined forces to provide the first state-of-the-art overview of this market in its entirety.
Europe is entering an important new era in the supply and demand for illicit drugs — a development which is challenging current policies and responses. This is according to the first joint EU drug markets report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol released today in Brussels.
Drug trafficking is a highly profitable commercial activity and remains a core business for organised crime groups across Europe today. Understanding the reality of the European drug market requires a holistic approach, following the economic chain from production, via trafficking, to consumption. Taking such an approach, two EU agencies — the EMCDDA and Europol — have joined forces to provide the first state-of-the-art overview of this market in its entirety. The EU drug markets report — a strategic analysis will be launched in Brussels on 31 January.
The EMCDDA and the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague will be cooperating in training and research activities in the field of drugs in future, thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two parties today in the Czech capital.
The Lisbon-based Instituto Superior das Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE-IUL) and the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) are currently collaborating on their second summer school project entitled: 'Illicit drugs in Europe: supply, demand and public policies'. Registration opens today for the course which will take place in the Portuguese capital from 1–12 July 2013.
The use of illicit drugs and psychoactive medicines amongst drivers, particularly when combined with alcohol, is described today in a new report from the EMCDDA. The ‘state of the art’ review presents the results of the largest research project ever carried out in the EU on Driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol and medicines (the ‘DRUID’ project), which ran between 2006 and 2011.
This week, the EMCDDA is hosting three meetings in Lisbon on the topic of drugs and wastewater. Wastewater analysis is a rapidly developing scientific discipline with the potential for monitoring real-time population-level trends in illicit drug use. On 10 December, the results of an EMCDDA multicity project will be presented by an international consortium of researchers. »
João Goulão, Portuguese national drug coordinator and Head of the General-Directorate for Intervention on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD), was re-elected Chairman of the EMCDDA Management Board today for a second three-year term. Claude Gillard (Belgium), a founding member of the agency, was also re-elected today to the position of Vice-Chairman.