Welcome to the tenth EDDRA (Exchange on Drug Demand Reduction Action) column and the first of 2005. The aim of this column is to inform people about the EDDRA online database, which exists to provide information to policy makers and those working in the drugs area on current demand reduction action across Europe, and to promote the role of evaluation in reducing the demand for drugs. The database is co-ordinated by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

In this issue, we present a summary of nine Irish projects added to the EDDRA database during 2004. Additional efforts were made during last year to identify demand reduction projects outside the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) area and to include them on the database. Inclusion of projects from outside the ERHA is an attempt to document a greater spread of activities in Ireland. To this end, we were able to add five projects from outside the ERHA area to the seven already on the database.

Projects on the EDDRA database represent ‘good practice’ interventionist work in drug demand reduction in Europe. This means that projects must be based on a logical theoretical model and must demonstrate that the aims and objectives, target group(s), activities and human and material resources required to carry out the work are consistent with the overall model. In addition, the project must include an evaluation component, meaning that it has been evaluated or an evaluation is being planned or in progress. The majority of the Irish interventions on the EDDRA database have been process evaluated in terms of the composition of the project, its implementation and the reaction of the target group(s).

Seven of the nine Irish projects (Table 1) added to the database in 2004 belong in the category of selective drug prevention. Selective prevention strategies target subgroups of the population that are deemed to be at risk of substance misuse. Subgroups can be deemed at risk by virtue of area of residence (e.g. where substance misuse is an emerging problem in an area), by membership of a particular population subgroup (e.g. experiencing social exclusion) or by age (e.g. young people). Of the remaining two projects, one delivered medical assistance to individuals with drug-related problems and the other involved harm reduction activities.

Table 1   Nine projects representing good practice in drug demand reduction action in Ireland added to the EDDRA database during 2004

 As of 1 February 2005 there were 492 projects on the EDDRA database from 16 countries plus the European Commission1 (Table 2). Ireland contributed 46 (9%) of these projects, placing it in the top one-third of contributors. Most of the Irish projects have been submitted since 2001. 

Table 2   Number of projects on the EDDRA database ranked by country (including the EU Commission)

Source: EDDRA database 1 February 2005

With nearly 500 projects, the EDDRA database is a valuable resource of quality information on good project design, good implementation processes and sound indicators of effectiveness in changing or modifying the initial problem. 

1. The European Commission is represented on the EDDRA database by projects that are primarily funded by the Commission and operate on a multi-city basis across EU countries.