The European Drug Addiction Prevention (EU-Dap) trial project took place between 2003-2005. Results indicate a positive shift to prevent the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs among European students aged 12-14 years. 

Today, the EU-Dap project continues by offering access to the study trial information, classroom resources for teachers and students, a dissemination guide; for spreading better practices and an evaluation of the dissemination strategy.

The aims of the EU-Dap project:

• To develop a drug use prevention programme  for the European school setting

• To evaluate the effectiveness of this programme

• To encourage the use of effective drug use prevention programmes in the European Community and to share of better practicesTo decrease prevalence of smoking, unhealthy drinking and use of other drugs among European youth.

Schools are important for implementing drug use prevention programmes because:

• Schools can focus on prevention of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use when students are young in order to foster healthy children and adolescents.

• The school setting offers the most systematic and efficient way to reach young people.

• Schools are in a position to supervise school policies that when applied fairly and consistently can support students to abstain from alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

Phase II of EU-Dap officially started with a kick-off meeting, held in Turin, Italy 20-21 October 2006. The steering committee discussed strategies to:

• Revise the EU-Dap program “Unplugged”.

• Introduce the EU-Dap programme to new countries.

• Disseminate effective prevention programmes.

• Conduct a field study to evaluate the effectiveness of the dissemination strategies.

Read more about phase II

The phase I countries that will continue to phase II are: Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Poland and the Czech Republic have joined the EU-Dap steering committee to implement the programme as new participating countries.

EU-Dap was granted by the European Commission within the 2002 and 2005 Public Health Programme for drug prevention (Grant #SPC 2002376 and Grant #SPC 2005312).