Glossary Language: English

World Health Organization was founded in 1948 and main headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland. Now they have offices in more than 150 countries.

UNODC is a United Nations agency mandated to assist Member States in their struggle against illicit drugs, crime and terrorism. Established in 1997 through a merger between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, UNODC operates in all regions of the world through an extensive network of field offices. UNODC carries out a broad range of initiatives, including alternative development projects, illicit crop monitoring and anti-money laundering programmes.

Established in 1991, the Program works to educate the world about the dangers of drug abuse. The Program aims to strengthen international action against drug production, trafficking and drug-related crime through alternative development projects, crop monitoring and anti-money laundering programs. UNDCP also provides accurate statistics through the Global Assessment Programme (GAP) and helps to draft legislation and train judicial officials as part of its Legal Assistance Programme. UNDCP is part of the UN Office for Drug Control and the Prevention of Crime.

International treaties concerned with the control of production and distribution of psychoactive drugs. The first treaty dealing with controlled substances was the Hague Convention of 1912: its provisions and those of succeeding agreements were consolidated in the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (amended by a 1972 protocol). To this have been added the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

TAIEX is the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument of the European Commission. TAIEX supports public administrations with regard to the approximation, application and enforcement of EU legislation as well as facilitating the sharing of EU best practices.

Reitox is the European information network on drugs and drug addiction created at the same time as the EMCDDA. Reitox directly contributes to the EMCDDA’s core task of collecting and reporting consistent, harmonised and standardised information on the drug phenomenon across Europe. Members of the Reitox network are designated national institutions or agencies responsible for data collection and reporting on drugs and drug addiction. These institutions are called ‘national focal points’ or ‘national drug observatories’. The National Focal Points (NFP) is also help improve data collection methodologies and tools, and develop relevant guidelines for their implementation. The NFPs participate in the Early warning system and report to the EMCDDA on new trends in the use of existing psychoactive substances and/or new consumption patterns involving combinations of psychoactive substances which pose a potential public health risk.The three core functions of a national focal point are: data collection and monitoring; analysis and interpretation of data collected; reporting and dissemination of the results at national level.

Pompidou Group is an inter-governmental body formed in 1971 at the initiative of the late French President Georges Pompidou within the Council of Europe to contribute to the development of multidisciplinary, innovative, effective and evidence-based drug policies in its Member States. The Pompidou Group is made up of 37 Member States and Mexico as an Observer State. Its technical cooperation also involves other European states which are not members of the Pompidou Group, such as Albania, Latvia and Ukraine and states from the Mediterranean Basin such as Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Lebanon.

Narcotics Anonymous is a global, community-based organization founded in 1953 with a multi-lingual and multicultural membership. It offers recovery from the effects of addiction through working a twelve-step program, including regular attendance at group meetings. Today, NA members hold nearly 67,000 meetings weekly in 139 countries. Membership is free, and NA have no affiliation with any outside organizations including governments, religions, law enforcement groups, or medical and psychiatric associations.

The European Monitoring Centre was created in 1993 to provide member states within the EU objective, reliable and comparable information on drugs, drug addictions and their consequences. Statistical information, documents and techniques developed in the EMCDDA are designed to give a broad perspective on drug issues in Europe. The Centre only deals with information. It relies on national focal points in each of the Member States.

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) was established in 1946 by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It is thecentral policy-making body within the UN system for dealing with all drug-related matters. The Commission analyses the world drug abuse situationand develops proposals to strengthen international drug control.