Prevention of drug use

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.

Preventing drug use among youth works

Drug use 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, good progragrammes for the prevention of drug use among youth can save up to 9 dollars! 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 use 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.

Our prevention work focuses on three core areas: Families, Schools and the Workplace.