Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson

ECAD Mayor Meeting (European Cities Against Drugs)

20. september 2007

We live in a world where information is instantaneous, - and constant change is among our few certainties. The breaking down of cultural and national boundaries, - as a result of expanded media and communication technologies have affected our lifestyles to a great extent.

Geographical mobility is also greater than ever before. Cities have grown, economies have advanced, educational opportunities abound, and democracy has become our shared experience.

Iceland is no exception here.

Not so long ago, Iceland was an isolated society in the midst of the Atlantic ocean. This is no longer the case. Icelanders have now become active participants in the global family of nations, influenced from all directions.

A European culture has emerged - an international culture, bringing every advantage one can possibly imagine. Many of these changes are very beneficial, - accompanied by opportunities and equality, unknown to us a while ago.

At the same time, for decades we have seen that rapid societal change may reduce social stability and contribute to a higher frequency of substance use and mental illness.

That is the OTHER side on our new and exciting world.
That side is dimmer, - A side that is accompanied by both sorrow and pain.

The free flow of people and products from one country to another, - in most cases an opportunity and blessing, has also made the flow of substances easier, - and indeed provided the drug industry with a whole new range of opportunities to affect our younger generations.

And although, I am a center right politician that appreciates freedom to a great extent, this is world that I do not wish for my four children. Freedom has to be accompanied with responsibility. And we are all responsible.

It is disturbing to view trends in substance use in Europe in the last few years.
Out of 28 countries participating in a European survey, - in 23, there was a constant and substantial increase in substance use among primary school students between the years 1995 and 2003.  

In Iceland, the situation WAS similar. Through the nineties, alcohol use, smoking and the use of other drugs increased constantly among Icelandic adolescents.

In 1998 approximately 17% of 16-year-olds had tried hashish, which was the highest frequency to be measured in Iceland and over 80% reported that they had used alcohol once or more in their lives.

I know that many of you, participating in the Youth in Europe project, are familiar the approach  used in Iceland to fight this vicious upward trend.

In short, a group of researchers, policy makers and practitioners decided to gather their strengths in order to establish a RESEARCH based policy and practice, to deter substance use among adolescents.

The core elements of the project were three;

• community based approach
• collaboration between researchers, policy makers and people in the field, and
• evidence based work

This new approach was in a number of other ways different from the work in prevention that up till then had been the norm in Iceland. Before, prevention had focused on educating young people about the negative sides of substance use, - and had mostly been carried out within schools.

Prevention had not before relied on research in this way, - and indeed, this was the first time that researchers, policy makers and practitioners made systematic use of this phenomenon.

The basic idea was to tackle the problem in reference to the local community, letting experts, politicians and drug-prevention workers collaborate in planning the methods. Last but not least, all operations were to be built on evidence-based approaches.

This focus - to initiate the collaboration of experts, researchers, politicians and drug-prevention workers - was innovative for the Iceland of ten years back.

Research showed us how stronger family bonds, participation in sports, more time spent together as a family, and general parental interest in bringing up children could help considerably in lowering the risks that face youngsters.

Based on research findings,  we put forth a policy that was meant to be right on, - for example, - by reaching out to parents with a clear message: on the importance of spending time together, - that all teenagers should be home by 10 o´clock in the evenings and  that unsupervised adolescent gatherings should be avoided.  Participation in organized youth work and sports was encouraged and most importantly, that every participant in adolescents’ lives, - parents, teachers, coaches, cops, needed to work together in order to succeed in fighting substance use.

By turning this into common public knowledge, and by various measures intended to influence youth behaviour, we managed to reverse negative trends, to a degree which caught attention.

AND, - surveys suggest that this approach indeed is working. Substance use declined dramatically among Icelandic adolescents, while time with parents, and participation in organized youth work increased. The proportion of adolescents that had become drunk in the last 30 days went from 42 percent down to 23% percent in the years between 1998 and 2007. At the same time the proportion of those who smoke daily went from 23 percent to 10% percent, - and the ratio of adolescents who had tried hashish went down from 17 percent to 7% percent.

This model is the one that I genuinely would like to promote in Europe. I view it as my duty, both as the Health Minister of Iceland, but also as a father, who is raising two adolescents and two youngsters that in 10 years will face the challenges of adolescence.

I realize that the work will not be successful unless Europeans gather their strengths. We are all in this fight together.

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As Iceland's Minister of health, I have emphasised prevention. It is my strong belief that we should approach the discussion of health services not with the main focus on illnesses, but also - and preferably - with an emphasis on health. Our goal must be to improve health and minimise the probabilities of sickness. By decreasing substance use, we greatly succeed in improving public health and quality of life.

As the Minister of Health in a European country, I wish to support the project Youth in Europe, since I consider it to be an extremely important programme towards victory in this battle.

Driven by the belief that in creating safer and healthier communities, we can decrease substance use among young people, - we should strive for the success in cities around Europe. By focusing on a few main principles, - by joining forces, by learning from each other and basing our work on trustworthy research, we CAN succeed in fighting substance use. By involving communities, by addressing the whole population of adolescents, - we will proactively seek to make Europe a better place.

We need to involve all at once, the peer group, the school, the family and those who organize youth activities, politicians and public leaders.

We will not change anything by single project solutions. Prevention needs to be consistent and comprehensive.

It is not an easy task. But it can be done – However, it can only be done if we ALL join forces.