CERIS workshop on illicit drugs: challenges and opportunities for introducing innovative and science-based approaches

There are two main triggers of this workshop: recent EU policy developments on drugs and the coming change of mandate of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). Thanks to the latter, the role of EMCDDA in the overall EU security research cycle related to drugs and drug abuse will be strengthened. Thus the main objectives of this workshop are to:

• raise awareness within CERIS about the new role of EMCDDA and bring the Agency and CERIS closer together, 
• showcase what has been going on in research in this domain, both at the EU level (either through EMCDDA or funded through the EU security research programme in the area of Fighting Crime and Terrorism, FCT, and Border Management, BM) and at the MS level,   
• discuss about possibilities of bringing different initiatives together and increasing cooperation,    
• address ways through which these research activities can provide support to the EU policy and practitioners in this domain, and 
• network and brainstorm together on other possible ways forward, improvements, gaps and needs.

Main aspects that will be addressed are: EU drugs policy, analysis of drug use and markets through data from novel information sources, as well as drugs-related forensics, organised crime and sensors.

For more information, please contact HOME-CERISec [dot] europa [dot] eu (HOME-CERIS[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu).