16th EUSPR Conference and Members’ Meeting

The global dissemination of the UNODC Guiding Document on the Role of Law Enforcement Officers (LEO) in Drug Use Prevention within School Settings: Interactive science-informed training material supporting the preventive role of LEO in and around schools.

26 Sept 2025, 09:15

15m

Innere Medizin/2-402 (Virchowweg 9)

Oral presentation Substance Use Prevention Parallel session 6B: School-based prevention

Speaker

Ali Yassine (Associate Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer)

Description

Authors: Ali Yassine (Associate Drug Control and Crime Prevention Officer), Wadih Maalouf (Coordinator of Prevention Programme), Zila Sanchez

Background: While law enforcement officers (LEOs) often engage in school-based drug prevention, their efforts are usually improvised and not science-based. In this regard, the UNODC developed a guidance document to align LEOs’ roles with scientific evidence and broader prevention efforts, whenever they are implicated in prevention.
Building on the success of the pilot training in Panama in 2022, and the regional Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) workshop that took place in Abu Dhabi in 2023, the UNODC developed structured and interactive training materials geared towards law enforcement officers implementing prevention services in line with the guidance documents.
Methods: This new set of interactive training material was piloted in Lebanon in 2025 with a group of law enforcement officers from the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (Drug Enforcement Department). The training spanned over 3 days and participants ranked up to “Major”. It was clear throughout the training and discussions that participants’ long involvement in school-based prevention often relied on improvised activities or approaches not aligned with the International Standards on Drug Use Prevention.
Results: At the feedback as well as assessment exercises, the vast majority of participants reported a positive change of attitudes towards drug prevention, acknowledging the developmental aspect of prevention, and the importance of collaboration between schools, parents, communities and law enforcement. Furthermore, participants collectively acknowledged the environmental role of law enforcement in the prevention of drug use in the context of schools and the safety of their surroundings.
Discussion: Such results are promising for a cultural shift among law enforcement to adopt a more science-informed and environmental approach to drug prevention in school settings.