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 scale-

up 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

Director

Reitox and international cooperation

Epidemiology, crime and markets

Interventions, law and policies

Scientific partners and documentation

Communication

ICT

Administration

Scientific Coordination

In-house structure

Director

Reitox and international cooperation

Epidemiology, crime and markets

Interventions, law and policies

Scientific partners and documentation

Communication

ICT

Administration

Scientific Coordination

In-house structure

Director

Reitox and international cooperation

EPI

RES

Scientific partners and documentation

Communication

ICT

Administration

Scientific Coordination

In-house structure

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

• 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)• 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

LMP of cannabis among 15-64, 15-34, 15-24

%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

SE

(20

06)

LT (

2004

)

BG

(20

05)

EL

(200

4)

PL

(200

2)

EE

(20

03)

HU

(20

03)

CY

(20

06)

FI (

2004

)

SK

(20

04)

LV (

2003

)

NO

(20

04)

PT

(20

01)

DK

(20

05)

IE (

2002

/03)

BE

(20

04)

NL

(200

5)

DE

(20

03)

AT

(20

04)

LU (

1998

)

CZ

(20

04)

FR

(20

05)

UK

(E

&W

) (2

005/

06)

IT (

2005

)

ES

(20

05/0

6)

A ll adults

Young adults (15-34 y.)

Younger adults (15 to 24 y.)

Estimated number of new clients entering treatment by primary drug used

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

80000

90000

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

nu

mb

er

Heroin

Cocaine

Cannabis

Other Stimulants

Other drugs

Indexed trends in reports for drug law offences in EU MS 2000-2005

136

162

147

85

60

100

140

180

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

All reports

Cannabis

Heroin

Cocaine

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

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Cu

mu

lati

ve n

um

ber

of

cou

ntr

ies

pro

vid

ing

MM

T a

nd

HD

BT

Methadone maintenance

high dosage buprenorphine

Estimated number of clients receiving opioid substitution

treatment in EU-15, 1993-2005

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

1993 1995 1997/1998 2001/2002 2003 2005

Cli

en

ts i

n s

ub

sti

tuti

on

45% of problem opiate user in EU

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:• 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 …