There has been a call to teach young people social and emotional skills alongside the academic curriculum in schools. Schools are required to promote wellbeing and foster a safe and nourishing environment that caters to the broad range of needs of all students.

The Society for Prevention Research has recently published an education policy brief entitled 'Schools Can Help Every Student Succeed by Using Evidence-based Programs and Practices'  that outlines the steps for implementing evidence-based programmes in schools.

Some of the key points include:

• There is a need to promote and make...

These booklets for teachers, parents and students contain evidence-based information on illegal drugs.

For parents and teachers, the booklets include guidance about how to talk to a young person about illegal drugs, common reasons for drug use, how to help someone who has taken a drug, and information about school-based prevention programs.

The student booklet provides accurate information on ways to prevent related drug-related harms and make informed choices.

This booklet series was funded by the Australian Government and was developed following expert review by researchers from:

• The...

From 17 - 21 June 2019, UNODC trained a total of 16 trainers in Pakistan on the Universal Prevention Curriculum (UPC) Course-5 which covers school-based interventions. The training of trainers (ToT) of UPC in Pakistan consists of 3 selected courses from the UPC coordinator series that includes an introduction, school, and media. The participants work for national educational institutes, NGOs, media agencies, federal or provincial governments related to drug use prevention in Pakistan. 

This project is funded by USA INL and started together with national policymakers training in February 2018...

Global Initiative on Substance Abuse (GISA) has commenced the training of secondary schools principals in Lagos state, Nigeria on the Universal Prevention Curriculum (UPC) for Substance Use Disorders.

Leading on from the first batch of a 6 days training, which was held between 6th and 11th of May, 2019, the Lagos state government was tasked on the need to appoint a teacher or an administrative staff as a drug control officer in every primary and secondary school in the state.

The National Coordinator for the Universal Prevention Curriculum (UPC) in Nigeria and the Founder of Global...

More than 27 Laotian policymakers from the Narcotic Control and Supervision Bureau, Vientiane Narcotic Control and Supervision Bureau, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security, Civil Society Organisations, treatment centres and other entities, participated in a three-day workshop on creating humane, effective and evidence-based drug use prevention and drug dependence treatment and care services.

This training was held from 17 – 19 June 2019 in Vientiane, Lao PDR and was co-chaired by Lao National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision (LCDC) ( Pol. Lt. Col. Mr.  Onphiew...

This paper provides many pieces of research in the search for the most effective treatments for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). They touch on the effectiveness of Medication-Assisted Treatment. The authors also describe the most at-risk populations of OUD and the importance of recognizing the comorbidity of other disorders. 

More than 60 policy-makers participated at UNODC Workshop on the Nature, Prevention and Treatment of Drug Use Disorders for Policy Makers in Siem Reap, Cambodia from 12 to 14 June 2019. This high-level workshop was inaugurated by H.E Prof. Eng Huot, Secretary of State from Ministry of Health and was organized in coordination with WHO Representative Office for Cambodia, UNODC Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific and the generous support of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), United States. The goal of this training is to support Member States...

Following an assessment mission in 2017 and two policy maker training on the nature, prevention and treatment of drug use disorders in 2018, UNODC and the Ministry of Health (on behalf of the Ecuadorian government) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on drug demand reduction during the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) on March 15, 2019. The MoU comes with a Menu of Services including 5 pillars of action: 1) Research for service planning; 2) Prevention of drug use based on the International Prevention Standards of UNODC/WHO; 3) Treatment of drug use disorders within the framework of the...

Back in the 1990s, results from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs (ESPAD) highlighted concerning levels of adolescent substance use in Iceland. Since the publication of the ESPAD results, Icelandic authorities have made a considerable effort to reverse these trends, with a fair level of success.

Through detailed analysis of the typical risk and protective factors, adolescents are exposed to, social scientists began to develop an evidence-based approach to adolescent substance use prevention- the Icelandic Model. The Model follows a community-based, bottom-up...

The European Drug Addiction Prevention trial team (EU-Dap) have put together their first 'Unplugged' newsletter!

The aim of the EU-Dap project is to contribute to the evidence concerning the effectiveness of drug prevention programs. Part of the teams work has involved designing and evaluating the "Unplugged" curriculum for youth between the ages of 12 and 14. 

The Unplugged Newsletter offers an update on the progress and results of Unplugged in Nigeria, and discusses proposed mechanisms that explain the effectiveness of the intervention. Implementation has not always been smooth, and the...