A message from ISSUP Chief Executive Joanna Travis-Roberts.
This month many of us were together for the Abu Dhabi International Conference Uniting the Global Community to Face the Challenge of Addiction. On behalf of ISSUP I want to thank all those who participated whether in-person or virtually.
Our goal is to make every ISSUP workshop and conference as inclusive and accessible as possible. This was the first time ISSUP purposely designed a hybrid conference experience that enabled virtual participation and interaction alongside an in-person programme.
It was our pleasure to bring you many different voices and perspectives from around the world and to hear how the issue of substance misuse and addiction transcends national boundaries. We hope you found the experience informative and enriching.
Very special thanks go to our collaborating partners without whom the event would not have been possible. We thank our hosts ISSUP UAE and the National Rehabilitation Center (NRC), Abu Dhabi, for their unwavering support and hospitality. We thank H. E. Dr. Hamad Abdullah Al Ghafri, Director-General of NRC, whose vision, generosity, and warm welcome made this a truly exceptional event.
We sincerely thank the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction (ICUDDR) whose vision and support were instrumental in making this event happen. The leadership from our Board has been invaluable every step of the way and we thank them for their guidance and commitment to ISSUP.
The event was a platform to gather, foster engagement and facilitate the vision necessary to advance the quest for evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery support worldwide. This vision would be impossible without the vital contribution and expertise provided by the international drug demand reduction community.
We would like to thank the dynamic panellists, speakers and trainers from INL, ICUDDR, NRC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) of the Organization of American States (OAS), The African Union (AU), The Colombo Plan, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), the Global Centre for Credentialing and Certification (GCCC), the International Technology Transfer Center (ITTC) Network, and ISSUP National Chapters. A very big thank you goes to every speaker who presented and shared knowledge at the event.
We thank CICAD/OAS for providing interpretation services, training courses, and supporting National Chapter members from Latin America to attend the event in-person.
We also thank The African Union for creating fresh opportunities for knowledge exchange and launching a new Global Dialogue on Drug Demand Reduction between Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean at the event - a development that will foster international collaboration to address today's most pressing substance use challenges.
The conference featured a distinguished list of keynote speakers, and our thanks go to Dr. Nora Volkow (Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse), Professor Michael Farrell (University of New South Wales), Former U.S. Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, Dr. Diana Fishbein (University of North Carolina), Ms. Giovanna Campello (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), Professor Dr. Harry Sumnall (Liverpool John Moores University), Peer van der Kreeft (University College Ghent), Vladimir B. Poznyak MD (World Health Organization) and Zili Sloboda ScD (President of Applied Prevention Science International) for their thought-provoking analyses and expert contributions.
We were delighted to have the opportunity to host another dynamic and vibrant Youth Forum. Our thanks and appreciation go to all the young changemakers working to help their communities by developing innovative programmes for preventing substance use. You are the future of drug demand reduction globally.
The opportunity to meet in-person was a major highlight and we thank NRC for kindly hosting the 2022 National Chapters meeting and the team at ADNEC for providing us with an excellent venue for the main event. It was wonderful to be reunited with more than two thousand friends and colleagues from across the world after two years of virtual meetings. We hope that you will be able to join us for the Regional Conference in Latin America planned for 2023.
ISSUP exists to address global substance use challenges by uniting us as a diverse international prevention, treatment, and recovery support community. It is a network for building professional capacity, sharing the latest evidence and science, and enabling new ways to work together to help our communities and save lives.
We may face huge challenges, not least because substance use disorders remain amongst the most stigmatised and misunderstood of all physical and behavioural disorders. But there is cause for optimism because we know that substance use disorders are preventable, treatable and recovery is possible.
Thank you all for your support and commitment. Your presence helped to make this event a great success. We hope you will be inspired to invite others to become members of ISSUP and we look forward to welcoming you to future events.
Joanna Travis-Roberts, ISSUP Chief Executive