The main topic of the conference will be the minimum standards in drug demand reduction developed under the Italian and Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. During the two days more than 20 presentation will be delivered, including more than half by foreign experts.

Since 2008 the National Bureau for Drug Prevention (KBPN) has been holding a national conference for local governments. This year’s event, similarly to the previous two, will be attended by international experts, who are going to give more than a dozen presentations. The information on the minimum standards will be provided by Ms Agnese Zile-Veisberga (National Drugs Coordinator of Latvia), the person responsible for developing thereof. The minimum standards are to be presented as conclusions of the European Council. Moreover, Mr Alessandro Pirona, PhD is going to present the 2015 European Drug Report published by the EMCDDA as well as the latest results of the 2015 CBOS Foundation survey into psychoactive substances and behavioural addictions. The speakers will also include Prof. Harry Sumnall of the UK and Ms Angelina Brotherhood of Austria, coordinators of the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards. One of the conference sessions will be devoted to the cannabis-related issues.  Mr Jean Paul Grund, PhD (author of “Coffee shops and compromise”) will outline the Dutch drug policy.  Moreover, presentations on New Psychoactive Substances will be delivered by experts from Poland and abroad.

The conference will be attended by nearly 150 participants from Poland as well as Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey and United Kingdom. The conference agenda is available here.

The meeting venue is the JM Hotel (http://www.jmhotels.pl/en), 45 Grzybowska Street, Warsaw.