On the occasion of 26^th June - the International day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking, the Committee on Education, Science, Culture and Sports, and the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare held a theme meeting.

Apart from the members of these two committees, the meeting was attended by the representatives of the following relevant institutions: Dr Boban Mugoša docent, director of the Public Health Institute of Montenegro;Dr Ljiljana Golubović, representative of the Public Health Institute of Montenegro; Dr Jasna Sekulić, Head of Office for Drugs of the Ministry of Health; Ms Vesna Vučurović, Assistant to the Minister of Education; Mr Saša Mijović, executive director of the NGO 4Life; Ms  Milica Kovačević, Advisor of the Protector of Human Rights and Freedoms, and Ms Vesna Cimbaljević, representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.

At the meeting, the Public Health Institute of Montenegro presented the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs – ESPAD 2011. The ESPAD is being carried every four years, since 1995, now already in 36 countries, and Montenegro has been a part of this project since 2008. 

The last survey was carried out in 2011 by the Public Health Institute of Montenegro, among the sixteen-year-olds, students of the first and second grade of all high schools in Montenegro.

The survey results have shown that the use of psychoactive substances by Montenegrin high school students is significantly lower than the European average, but at the same time they warn that a further growth may be expected, so that the preventive action should be continued with the same intensity as now, or even more intensively.

The data shows the need to develop adequate strategies that would enable the children to better understand and learn about the risk and damaging consequences of the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs.