EU drug policy training & strategy series - Final report

Publications

EU drug policy training & strategy series - Final report

14 February 2023
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) International

This project intends to increase the capacity of youth-led organizations that engage in drug policy reform and young people to advocate at the European Union level. As the protection of young people is often sighted as one of the primary goals of drug policies, it is of the utmost importance that the youth voice is present in drug policy creation and implementation processes. Young people who use drugs are also a particularly vulnerable population as they are often dependent on families or the government for financial stability, housing, and education. As a highly vulnerable group, policies that are created to protect youth must be influenced by the insights that youth hold about drug use.

To achieve our goal of increasing the capacity of youth-led organizations and young people to engage with EU drug policy, we organized a training series that equipped young people with the necessary knowledge, skills, connections, and strategy to be able to engage with the EU Drug Policy Creation process and create a youth-led dialogue around EU drug policies.

This project intends to increase the capacity of youth-led organizations that engage in drug policy reform and young people to advocate at the European Union level. As the protection of young people is often sighted as one of the primary goals of drug policies, it is of the utmost importance that the youth voice is present in drug policy creation and implementation processes. Young people who use drugs are also a particularly vulnerable population as they are often dependent on families or the government for financial stability, housing, and education.

As a highly vulnerable group, policies that are created to protect youth must be influenced by the insights that youth hold about drug use.

This training has had a dual outcome of increasing the capacity of individuals and organizations to meaningfully engage with EU Drug Policy.