Staff members of the Georgian national drug observatory (NDO) are at the EMCDDA this week for a workshop on drug monitoring and reporting. The event is taking place under the technical cooperation project EMCDDA4Georgia (EMCDDA4GE). The NDO, based at the Georgian Ministry of Justice, is the EMCDDA’s principal counterpart in the project and serves as the main coordinating body for drug monitoring in the country.
In sessions dedicated to the EMCDDA’s five key epidemiological indicators, the NDO representatives will hear presentations by EMCDDA staff and provide data available in their country. The sessions will help identify information gaps and highlight room for improvement regarding data collection and monitoring tools. Sessions will also be dedicated to crime and market indicators and to the EU Early Warning System (EWS) on new psychoactive substances, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
The EMCDDA4GE project focuses in particular on two key indicators: prevalence and patterns of drug use and drug-related deaths and mortality. Georgia launched a general population survey in February 2022. Since then, the EMCDDA4GE project partners have also been assessing barriers to collecting reliable data on drug-related deaths. New information collected through these initiatives, together with existing information from other data sources, will feed into the Georgian and European reporting systems.
Launched in May 2021, EMCDDA4GE is the first bilateral project between the EMCDDA and Georgia. It aims to enhance national responses to drug-related health and security threats and to familiarise Georgian partners with the EU drug information system and its methodologies and tools. The project focuses primarily on knowledge transfer and capacity-building in the areas of drug monitoring, reporting, prevention and treatment.
During the week, the participants will also visit a drug consumption room in Lisbon.
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