Connections Project

What`s new

‘Drugs, Alcohol and Criminal Justice:

ethics, effectiveness and economics of interventions'
Friends House, London, UK -24-25 June 2010

Report & presentations >>>

10-11-08: Heroin is still a major problem within the European drug phenomenon says the EMCDDA

The newly released 2008 Report of the Lisbon based European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction refers to heroin use as a continuous serious public health issue which still accounts for a large proportion of the overall health and social costs associated with drug use and for around 60% of those in drug treatment in Europe.

Interesting findings relate also on trends in criminalisation of drug use and drug users in prison.

The British National Treatment Agency publishes Good Practices in Harm Reduction

The aim of the "Good practice in Harm Reduction" report is to highlight good practice based on interviews with local drug partnerships that performed well in the reviews to identify good practice in interventions to reduce drug-related harm related to blood-borne virus and overdose.

The report is one of the outputs from Reducing Drug-Related Harm: An Action Plan, which sets out the broad streams of action to be taken in England to enhance harm reduction activities within drug treatment services.

EU Action Plan on Drugs 2009-2012 announced

At the end of September, the European Commission adopted a Communication on "An EU Drugs Action Plan for 2009-2012". The Commission proposes wide-ranging measures to strengthen European cooperation to curb drug use and its consequences and to reduce the crime related to it.

The Action Plan 2009-2012 builds on the existing approach of the EU Drugs Strategy 2005-2012 which set out a European model for drug policy based on a balanced approach to reduce both supply and demand for drugs.

The first CONNECTIONS Training Academy takes place in Canterbury, 15-19 September 2008

15 participants from Prison Administrations, NGOs and Health Authorities from Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovenia attended the 1^st Training Academy of the CONNECTION project, which took place at the University of Kent in the beautiful surroundings of Canterbury, on the week of the 15 September 2008.