The Unit Illicit drugs is the key responsible for data collection, monitoring and research on drugs in Belgium. The unit consists of a multidisciplinary team of researchers and can rely an ongoing collaboration with a variety of national and international experts and practitioners. Specifically at European level, the unit was certified within its role as Belgian national focal point on drugs by EMCDDA in January 2024.
To gather all the relevant data and to provide a comprehensive picture of the Belgian drug scene, we collaborate with other teams within Sciensano:
- The Medicines and health products service that analyses the various substances to first and foremost identify the type of the substances and secondly to determine the purity level or adulterants added.
- The Epidemiology of infectious diseases service provides information on the occurrence of infectious diseases among people who use drugs.
- The Health surveys unit provides information about the broader situation on drug use among the general population.
- The Health indicators unit exchanges results in order to publish evidence-based indicators of drug use.
Besides the existing collaborations within Sciensano, the Unit Illicit drugs can also rely on a large range of public and private institutions, organisations and external experts:
Governmental institutions and federal agencies
such as the ministry of Public Health, Justice, Finance and Home affairs but also FAMPH participate in regular meetings and working groups about the latest trends and evolutions of the drug situation.
Regional partner organisations
more specifically the Flemish Centre of Expertise on Alcohol and Other Drugs (VAD) and the Socio-epidemiological Observatory for Alcohol and Drugs in Wallonia and Brussels (Eurotox) are appointed as the central points of contact in the framework of prevention.
Hospitals, treatment centres and umbrella organisations
are, among others, in charge of registering people who start a treatment via the Belgian treatment demand indicator register (TDI).
Toxicological, forensic and judicial laboratories
are important key actors in the identification of drugs. These laboratories submit case reports about components and other valuable information such as purity via the Belgian Early Warning System on Drugs (BEWSD) project.
Universities, colleges and other research organisations
(e.g. NICC) with which we collaborate in order to keep track of the latest research available about the drug situation and to collaborate on new research projects.
International organisations
ask Sciensano to report specific data about the national drug situation as drugs are a global topic and input from other (neighbouring) countries is of great value to understand the drug phenomenon. Similarly, Sciensano also relies on these international data in relation to the Belgian situation.
The most important organisations are the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Please visite our Unit Illicit drugs pagefor more information about our work on drug-related monitoring, research and support to policymakers.