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European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
Annual report 2004:
the state of the drugs problem in the European Union and Norway
Selective prevention
Figure 2: Member States in which selective prevention (i.e. targeting vulnerable populations or areas) is mentioned in strategies and implemented
Notes
(1) Good practice examples available.
Sources: Reitox national reports and Report on selective prevention in the EU.
In contrast to the large-scale/low-dose focus of universal prevention, selective prevention policies concentrate on vulnerable individuals or groups. Selective prevention utilises existing (ideally local) research about risk factors, vulnerable groups and problematic neighbourhoods to target responses where the risk of sliding into drug problems is greatest. Selective prevention is receiving increasing attention in some countries, e.g. in Finland and Sweden, because of the increase in recreational cannabis and alcohol use (see Chapter 3), but is still limited to a few Member States (Figure 2), predominantly those that already have strategic policies for universal prevention. A sound theoretical base and evaluation are essential, so that selection of target groups or areas is supported by research data and the goals of interventions can be defined and interconnected. For example, in Hungary, several interventions focus on Roma populations and use peer-group approaches. Prevention in recreational settings as a specific subset of selective prevention is described in Chapter 4.