Transcript Slide 1

Overview of EMCDDA’s Scientific Work
Paul Griffiths, Roland Simon – Scientific committee Meeting, February 2008
Objective of this presentation
• Provide you with a overview of the scientific work at the
EMCDDA so that we share a common understanding of
how we have got to this particular point in our
development, and why our current work programme
looks like it does
• Apologies to those who know us well already…
More concretely
• Historical, structural & external factors that shape our
work
• Organisation & working practices
• Overview of current areas of work
• Show how these are manifest in the current 3 year
and 2008 Work programmes
• Overview a few of the forthcoming outputs that may
be of interest
First… a few things to remember that are
obvious but easy to forget…
• We work at the European level
• We are not a research institute
• We work at the interface between policy, practice, and
science which can be a difficult place to be!
• As an information centre our credibility is dependent on
produce independent, methodologically sound and
scientifically rigorous analysis
• Scientific Committee is likely to play an increasingly
important role in ensuring this
Historical, structural & external factors shaping
our work – the context
Historical
• Information collection ongoing for around 12 years
during this period emphasis has been on capacity
building, instrument development and standardisation
• Developed based at first on existing areas of work &
reflected concerns of the day
• Move from externalised to internalised activities
• Move from epidemiology to interventions
• Move from demand to supply
Structural & external factors
• Founding regulation basis for work
• Commitment to annual reporting
• Recast to regulation in 2007 gave more emphasis
• New trends
• Identification and dissemination of best practice
• Poly-drug use including combined use licit & illicit
substances
• Supply information has always been collected but need to scaleup activities
• EU – drug strategy and action plan(s) have become increasingly
important
• EU Enlargement remains an important factor
EMCDDA’s contribution to current Action Plan
(2005-2008)
• Ongoing work of EMCDDA informs assessment drug
situation
• Drafting of thematic papers (coordination, drug demand
reduction and information/research/evaluation)
• Preparation of a snapshot on the drug situation in the
EU 2004-2008
• Helped to define the assessment tools/indicators for the
Action Plan
Challenges of working in a growing family
• Currently reporting
• All EU member states
• Norway by special arrangement
• Candidate countries - Croatia & Turkey
• The Russian Federation and Ukraine have growing
interest in EMCDDA work
• The needs of countries and reporting ability varies
considerably
• Quality control and the analysis of data can raise
political as well as scientific issues
Organisation of the work
In-house structure
Director
Reitox and international cooperation
Scientific
Coordination
Epidemiology, crime and markets
Interventions, law and policies
Scientific partners and documentation
Communication
ICT
Administration
In-house structure
Director
Reitox and international cooperation
Scientific
Coordination
Epidemiology, crime and markets
Interventions, law and policies
Scientific partners and documentation
Communication
ICT
Administration
In-house structure
Director
Reitox and international cooperation
Scientific
Coordination
EPI
RES
Scientific partners and documentation
Communication
ICT
Administration
Resources - scientific staff – EPI / RES
• Two Head of Units
• 24 Scientific analysts coming from sociology,
psychology, medicine, law, economics, biology …
• 6 Data managers / project assistance
• 4 Secretaries
• Occasional stagiaires etc...
Data Collection
• Annual reporting exercise
• Main data provider is the network of national focal points
(Reitox)
• Common methods and reporting tools (in online
interface)
• National reports (contextual & text based)
• Standard tables (quantitative data – reporting cycle
annual)
• Structured questionnaires (more qualitative / reporting
cycle more flexible)
• Supported by standing technical working groups, ad hoc
meetings and studies
The Units
• EPI
• RES
Current areas of interest
• Drug situation
• Patterns and scale of
use
• Public health impact
• Crime and Interdiction
statistics
• Drug Market information
• Price
• Purity
• Identification new
trends & threats
• Policies developments
• Legal developments
• Responses
• Prevention
• Treatment
• Harm reduction
• Supply reduction
• Interdiction practice
• Economic modelling
Challenges
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More heterogeneous drug situation
Improved classification of drug use patterns
More integrated approach to treatment
Integration of supply and demand data
Improving the timeliness of our data
Monitoring tools - Epidemiology
• 5 key indicators (politically endorsed in EUAP)
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Prevalence & patterns of drug use
Prevalence & patterns of problem drug use
Drug-related infectious diseases (HIV, HCV, HBV)
Drug-related deaths and mortality of drug users
Demand for drug treatment
• Core data
• Drug law offences and market information
• Youth prevalence and patterns of drug use + ESPAD
• Joint Action on New Synthetic Drugs EWS
ES (2005/06)
IT (2005)
UK (E&W) (2005/06)
FR (2005)
CZ (2004)
LU (1998)
AT (2004)
DE (2003)
NL (2005)
BE (2004)
IE (2002/03)
DK (2005)
PT (2001)
NO (2004)
LV (2003)
SK (2004)
FI (2004)
CY (2006)
HU (2003)
EE (2003)
PL (2002)
EL (2004)
16%
BG (2005)
18%
LT (2004)
SE (2006)
LMP of cannabis among 15-64, 15-34, 15-24
20%
All adults
Young adults (15-34 y.)
Younger adults (15 to 24 y.)
14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
%
Estimated number of new clients entering
treatment by primary drug used
90000
80000
number
70000
60000
Heroin
50000
Cocaine
Cannabis
40000
Other Stimulants
30000
Other drugs
20000
10000
0
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Indexed trends in reports for drug law offences
in EU MS 2000-2005
180
162
147
140
136
All reports
100
Cannabis
85
Heroin
Cocaine
60
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Monitoring tools – Strategies, laws and responses
• Support for EU strategy and Action plan on drugs and
cooperation at the European level
• Monitoring laws, policies and strategies
• Relevant to transversal analyse: cost studies, policy
evaluation…
• Responses
• Prevention
• Treatment
• Harm Reduction
• Identification and dissemination of best practice
Year of introduction of MMT and HDB
treatment in 26 EU MS and Norway
Cumulative number of countries providing MMT and HDBT
30
25
20
Methadone maintenance
high dosage buprenorphine
15
10
5
0
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Estimated number of clients receiving opioid substitution
treatment in EU-15, 1993-2005
700000
45% of problem opiate user in EU
Clients in substitution
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
1993
1995
1997/1998
2001/2002
2003
2005
EMCDDA – best practices - the portal
• The EMCDDA is developing a best practices portal
• will provide an overview on the latest evidence on
the effectiveness of interventions (prevention,
treatment, social reintegration, harm reduction)
• present tools and standards aimed at improving
the quality of interventions
• highlight best-practice examples from the field
• Primarily aimed at professionals, policy-makers and
researchers
• Collaboration: Cochrane, SANCO, UNODC
The Work Programme
Triennial and annual work plans
• Three year work-plan and strategy (2006-2009) is
implemented through three annual work plans
• The Scientific Committee provides the MB with an
opinion on triennial and annual work- plans
The 3 Year Work programme - priorities
• Consolidate
monitoring and
reporting activities
• Enhancing analysis
of data
• Communicate
effectively with
target audiences
• rationalisation and
review reporting tools
• focus given to core
reporting areas
• Improved tools (Fonte)
• More emphasis on
technical assistance
quality control &
standards
The 3 Year Work programme - priorities
• Consolidate
monitoring and
reporting activities
• Enhancing analysis
of data
• Communicate
effectively with
target audiences
• Moving beyond simple
description
• Better exploitation of
historical data
• More transversal
analysis
• Better integration with
scientific literature and
research
The 3 Year Work programme - priorities
• Consolidate
monitoring and
reporting activities
• Enhancing analysis
of data
• Communicate
effectively with
target audiences
• New communications
strategy
• Better demarcation of
products
• More output focussed
• More emphasis given to
scientific publishing
2008 Work Programme
Breaks down the 3-year programme into annual
activities and products, e.g.
• Analysis of trends: long- and medium-term trends in drug
use in Europe (evaluation of the EUAP, UNGASS
evaluation)
• Increase emphasis on best practice and analysis of the
extent to which European responses meet estimated needs
• Developing a strategy for supply
• Treatment and poly-drugs use working group
2008 Work Programme
EMCDDA Scientific Monograph
• Release of the Cannabis monograph
• Preparatory work on Harm reduction Monograph
EMCDDA Manuals
• Update of KI protocols: TDI, DRD
Drug profiles
• Benzodiazepines, Piperazines….
EMCDDA Insights
• Assessing illicit drug use in wastewater
Drugs in focus – policy briefings
• Drug use and old age – a new problem
• Cocaine and heroin trafficking in Europe…
In summary
The 3 year WP and 2008 WP are intended to meet the needs:
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To consolidate and rationalise the data collection process
To use and analyse the information collected more efficiently
To improve the monitoring of new developments
To continue developing new areas:
• supply issues
• economic analysis
• best practices
• cross indicator analysis, etc...
• To better tailor EMCDDA products to different audiences
• To further improve collaboration with scientific community
• To continue and reinforce international and technical cooperation
Concluding remarks
What we would like to get from this ScC …