Theme Meeting on Using the Internet for Drug Abuse Prevention, 13-17 March 2002, Athens, Greece
From March 13-17, 2002, we organized a youth meeting in Athens, Greece on using the internet for drug abuse prevention. The idea was to bring together youth experts who have gained considerable experience in using the Net as part of their prevention programmes and ask them to help us write a short "How To" guide for other youth groups who would like to start using the Net but don't know how! While it is true that the Internet has revolutionized the nature of knowledge, it can be as much of a decorative trinket as ill-directed TV programmes on drug abuse prevention. Its great power and visibility also make it important for youth to familiarize themselves with the medium before they actually start using it to make social interventions. These and many other issues were discussed by youth who attended the meeting from groups from Norway, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Slovenia and Finland. This was the first time that the youth network teamed up with an ongoing "adult" event as the youth sessions were coordinated around the
1st Annual Telematics and Prevention Conference organized by the Prevnet Network (for details about Prevnet, see www.prevnet.net ). The interaction between the youth participants and the adult experts was, in fact, one of the highlights of the meeting. The stimulating discussions that we had on issues as diverse as the digital divide and the ethics of web-based prevention programmes will undoubtedly translate into an effective guide. We anticipate that this guide will be ready by the end of the summer. We would especially like to thank Oonagh Maley and Harvey Skinner from the University of Toronto, Tracey Powers Erkilla from the A-clinic Foundation in Finland and Tamara Maman from Vienna for all their help in organizing this meeting.