Towards No Drug Abuse

The use of alcohol and tobacco is widespread in most countries and this has been the case for centuries. The age, at which young people begin to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol varies across the countries, but young adolescence and adulthood is a period in life when this is likely to occur. In this period in life young people are also at the greatest risk of trying other psychoactive substances as well. The spread of illicit drugs in the western world resulted in an increasing number of young people experimenting with drugs. In many industrialized societies, drug use has become one of the most serious problems. The "Towards no drug abuse" project started from this premise and lasted 2 years and involved 6 European countries involved in the topic of drug addiction and non-formal education with young people. The project had a dual objective, namely: 1) Adapt and transfer the identified best practices relating to prevention methodologies based on non-formal education to the 6 partner countries; 2) Spread these best practices at local, regional, national and European level by involving a multi-actor partnership that starts from youth organizations, to schools. The project led to the creation of a Tangible Output, That is: The creation of an Intervention Guidelines for educators and Youth workers in the field of drug prevention (Peer Exchange Guidance) within which the Good Practices cataloged and tested are explained. Main Activities: 1.6 TPM 2.1 Training Activity in Braga; 3.Catalogation of Best Practices; 4.Analysis and evaluation; 5.Testing of the Cataloged Best Practices; 6. Booklet creation; 7.Dissemination activities. Impact: - encourage the spread of prevention methods through non-formal education in schools and youth sectors; - help to provide adequate information to different target groups of the population, in particular teachers, youth workers, parents, students and adolescents; - provide youth workers with teaching tools to be used in their association activities to promote prevention activities.