Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #103663

Anne Lévy, Section Alcohol, Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Schwarztorstrasse 96, Bern, 3003, Switzerland, +41 31 325 12 66, anne.levy@bag.admin.ch, François Van der Linde, President of the Swiss Federal Commission for Drug Issues, Forchstrasse 405, Zurich, 8008, Switzerland, and Swiss Federal Commission for Drug Issues, Division of National Prevention Programmes, Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, Schwarztorstrasse 96, Bern, 3003, Switzerland.

The Swiss Federal Commission for Drug Issues (SFCDI) presents with its newest report a new approach for dealing with psychoactive substances. It is based on a fact driven policy respecting evidences and is free of ideological debates. Although those recommendations are given to the Swiss Government, it is not the official Swiss policy on substance abuse. The SFCDI recommends to leave a substance specific policy and to approach a coherent policy, in which the state has different possibilities to react. For this, a new model is presented, called the “cube model”. The model is based on the existing Swiss Fourfold drug policy, extended to legal drugs and type of consumption. Further on, the four pillars of the Swiss Drug policy (prevention, therapy, harm reduction, repression) are discussed and new definitions added. a) Extensive Prevention: embraces promotion of health as well as early detention. b) Therapy and Options of Treatment: do not aim solely on abstinence but primarily at social integration. c) The goal of Individual and Social Harm reduction: individual prevention of health (i.e. needle exchange programs) and protection of the society from the negative effects of substance use (i.e. smoke-free environment). d) Regulation of the market: includes all possibilities, from prescription to prohibition and gives special attention to youth-protection (i.e. drinking-age laws). This presentation will discuss this new model and its application in different social environments.

Learning Objectives:

After the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to
• know the advantage of a coherent substance abuse policy
• learn how to develop a drug policy
• discuss new approaches on prevention strategies

Keywords: Drug Abuse, Population

Related Web page: www.psychoaktiv.ch

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.