European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
Established in Lisbon in 1994, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is a Community agency aimed at gathering and disseminating information on: - Demand and reduction of the demand for drugs; - National and Community strategies and policies (with special emphasis on international, bilateral and Community policies, action plans, legislation, activities and agreements); - International cooperation and geopolitics of supply (with special emphasis on cooperation programmes and information on producer and transit countries); - Control of trade in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors, as provided for in the relevant present or future international conventions and Community acts; - Implications of the drugs phenomenon for producer, consumer and transit countries, within areas covered by the Treaty, including money laundering, as laid down by the relevant present or future Community acts. The Centre's main tool for collecting and exchanging information is REITOX, the European Information Network on Drugs and Drug Addiction, which is composed of 15 specialist national centres (National Focal Points) and the Commission Focal Point. The EMCDDA coordinates the action of the National Focal Points in conjunction with the Member States' authorities and with the Commission's "Coordination of the Fight against Drugs Unit". The European Commission is also supporting the EMCDDA through the Community's Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) programme, particularly with regard to the setting up of an effective telematics communications network for REITOX. The dissemination of data is ensured through a variety of publications produced by the Centre. These include: a general report on the Centre's activities in 1995; a bi-monthly newsletter, "Drugnet Europe", launched in September 1996; the first Annual Report on the State of the Drugs Problem in the European Union (1995). The European Commission has completed a report on the activities of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) during its first three years of operation (1994-1996). The Commission's report on the Centre's activities provides an inventory and analysis of the Centre's activities in the first three years and sets out the priorities for the Centre's next working period, 1998-2000.