New Psychoactive Substances among Problem Drug Users – Towards Effective and Comprehensive Health Responses in Europe.
The NPSinEurope.eu Project contributed to the development of innovative and effective health promotion interventions regarding emerging NPS use in Europe by bringing together quality research capacity a selected group of experienced service providers in the field of health promotion and harm reduction and the Correlation Network.
The focus of the Project was on people who experience problems related to their drug consumption or are vulnerable to such problems.
Specific objectives of the Project were :
- provide an overview of the use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in populations of problem drug users (PDUs) in the EU28 countries and identify the associated risks for harm and the existing legislative, preventive and harm reduction responses;
- assess, identify and describe harmful patterns of NPS use among PDUs, NPS related risks and harms in 5 selected countries, as well as identify and prepare adequate tailored public health responses;
- develop and implement targeted pilot interventions for prevention, demand reduction and harm reduction targeting NPS use among PDUs;
- build best practice guidance and capacity among harm reduction workers towards improving harm reduction responses;
- disseminate the results of the Europe-wide inventory, 5 country assessment and local pilots on public health responses, through an online resource centre and a training manual, and at regional and national conferences.