Drug abuse prevention

UNODC assists Member States in developing prevention activities that provide people, particularly the young, with the information, the skills and the opportunities to make healthy choices, including the choice to avoid using illicit drugs.

Drug abuse prevention among youth works

Drug abuse prevention programmes are effective when they respond to the needs of a community, involve all the relevant sectors and are based on evidence; effective programmes should also incorporate strong monitoring and evaluation components. Such programmes are also cost effective. It has been shown that, for every dollar spent, at least four dollars are saved in costs for drug abuse treatment and counselling. If other costs to society were to be counted, such as the costs resulting from crime, unemployment and ill-health, the cost effectiveness of good drug abuse prevention programmes is likely to be even greater.

UNODC has been working for many years to identify good practices with the help of youth and community-based organizations through two major projects, the Global Youth Network against Drug Abuse and the Global Initiative on Primary Prevention of Substance Abuse. With the help of other experts (academics, practitioners and representatives of United Nations agencies), we have identified what works and what does not work in prevention. You can find all the results of this work, including publications and training materials, as well as resources from many other organizations, by visiting the websites of the projects. We hope that our publications will be useful to youth and community-based organizations involved in prevention around the world.

Preventing drug abuse in the workplace

UNODC has many years of experience in working with employers and employees together to develop and implement policies against substance abuse in the workplace. Such policies are designed to promote the health of employees by preventing substance abuse and assisting those with a drug dependence problem. Moreover, through such policies employers can achieve substantial savings by reducing absenteeism and increasing productivity. For example, a successful UNODC project in Brazil led to a decrease of:

• 16 per cent in the number of smokers
• 12.5 per cent in the use of alcohol
• 28.7 per cent in the use of illicit drugs
• 10 per cent in employees taking sick-leave
• 30 per cent in employees being late
• 34 per cent in accidents in the workplace due to the abuse of substances