Report on the meeting on indicators for monitoring alcohol, drugs and other psychoactive substance use, substance-attributable harm and societal responses, Valencia, Spain

Overview

In monitoring the extent of psychoactive substance use, substance-attributable harm and societal responses, the use of a key set of standardized indicators would increase the capacity of national, regional, and global observatories to reliably detect and interpret key trends, and make international comparisons. In this context, the WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Management of Substance Abuse convened a technical meeting on indicators for monitoring alcohol, drugs and other psychoactive substance use, substance-attributable harm and societal responses from 19-21 October 2009 in Valencia, Spain. The document outlines a set of indicators, based on the discussions during the meeting. These indicators can be used for setting up monitoring systems at the national, regional and global level.