The Department for Anti-Drug Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers is the support structure for the promotion and coordination of the Government's anti-drug actions. Since 12 November 2022, the delegation for anti-drug policies has been assigned to the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, delegated authority for the security of the Republic.
Office
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The Department for Anti-Drug Policies was established by the ministerial decree of 20 June 2008 and incorporated with a decree of 29 October 2009 into the permanent general structures of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. It is currently regulated under the decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of 1 October 2012 and organized with the dpcm of the following 20 November. The Department, in particular, aims to promote, direct, and coordinate the Government's actions to counter the spread of the use of narcotic substances, of drug addiction and related alcohol dependencies, and also to promote and implement activities in collaboration with public administrations competent in this specific sector, associations, therapeutic communities, welcoming centers operating in the field of prevention, care, rehabilitation, and reintegration, taking care of the collection of documentation on drug addictions, defining and updating methods for detection, archiving, processing, evaluation, and external transfer of data and information on drug addictions.
The Department oversees the definition and monitoring of the national anti-drug action plan, consistent with European guidelines on the matter, defining and concurrently coordinating forms of coordination and intervention strategies with regions, autonomous provinces, and accredited private social organizations, also promoting agreements in a unified conference setting. It also oversees the Government's institutional information and communication activity on anti-drug policies. As provided for by European guidelines on the subject, through early warning systems, it highlights risks and activates prevention activities for potential significant health consequences and mortality of the population resulting from the circulation of narcotics, ensuring surveillance and control of the phenomenon's trend and ensuring the regular flow of data required by European structures and administrations competent in the sector, as well as by regions and central administrations and other international organizations.
It prepares and drafts the report to the Parliament on addictions. It promotes, finances, and coordinates research and prevention activities in the field of accidents related to the use of drugs and alcoholic beverages. It ensures support to guarantee the Government's presence in international institutions competent in anti-drug policies, promoting inter-ministerial coordination, international activities on anti-drug policies, and collaboration agreements with foreign countries, also through the promotion of common European and international projects, in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Within the Department, the National Permanent Observatory on Drugs and Drug Addictions operates, overseeing and coordinating the centralized collection of data, flows of data from competent central administrations, archiving, processing, and interpreting statistical-epidemiological, pharmacological-clinical, psychosocial data, and documentation on consumption, dealing, and trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances, and prevention and counteraction activities; it addresses informational and documentation needs.
Organization
editThe department is led by the Head of the Department, Counselor Paolo Molinari, and is divided into the following structures:
- Technical and Scientific Office and General Affairs
- Service I National Addictions Observatory and International Relations
- Service II Administrative Accounting and General Affairs
Technical and Scientific Office and General Affairs
editThe office performs research, definition, and management of technical-scientific aspects of drug addictions; provides assistance in managing general affairs, economic planning, and the department's administrative-accounting management. It also coordinates the activities of the observer and the administrative service.
The office coordinator is lawyer Elisabetta Simeoni.
National Addictions Observatory and International Relations
editThe observatory is a support institution to the head of the Department in institutional reporting, such as the Annual Report to the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic, and other reports to international institutions, the alert system, and the maintenance of the constantly updated database. It defines, monitors, and evaluates the National Action Plan against drugs, the design, management, and monitoring of national projects.
The observatory deals with the intergovernmental coordination of ministries and central public administrations, as well as national representations in European and international drug institutions and organizations. It provides support for relations with countries of the European Union and non-European countries and with community bodies, in collaboration with the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation.
The observer is the institution for maintaining and coordinating the flow of incoming and outgoing information to the involved organizations, including the European Observatory on Drug Addictions and the Reitox Focal Point. It promotes and manages activities related to drug counteraction and collaboration agreements with other countries on anti-drug policies, even through the realization of common international projects.
Administrative Accounting Service and General Affairs
editThe service collaborates in defining the Department's programming by checking the accounting feasibility of the proposed activities to be included in the program. It provides operational and administrative support to the Department's actions, handles and coordinates general administrative affairs, manages flows of administrative-accounting documents, and ensures the operation and implementation of computerized procedures operating at the presidency of the Council of Ministers, in collaboration with the appropriate secretariat structures.
The service manages personnel administration. It coordinates the economic management activities of the Department and takes care of relations with the Budget Office and, for administrative-accounting regularity, with the presidency of the Council of Ministers.
The service also prepares contractual acts and regulates relations with third parties, as well as the administration of project accounting.
National Early Warning System
editThe Department and the Higher Institute of Health collaborate on the executive project with the aim of organizing and managing, in an advanced manner, an early warning system called S.N.A.P.ISS. The project is designed to promote collaboration activities with public administration, research, and police forces that are competent in this sector.
More specifically, the agreement focuses on the following points:
- the advanced organization and management of the warning system for the identification of new narcotics and their respective consumption methods, in order to highlight the health risks, encouraging every idea for the prevention of its spread and its consequences;
- surveillance of the phenomenon through the flow of information for Central Administrations, for public entities, for international bodies, for the Regions, and for the State Police;
- the collection and processing of information for the Permanent Observatory to verify the phenomenon;
- the preparation of informative datasets that flow into the report to Parliament on addictions, drafted by the DPA;
- information and communication activities.