INES - Innovative teaching and learning paths for the prevention of new drugs abuse

New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) represent a large and increasing group of chemical compounds mainly of synthetic nature, characterized by pharmacological and toxicological properties particularly dangerous for the health of consumers. As underlined in the last European Drug Report (EMCDDA, 2018) the “New psychoactive substances continue to challenge public health: [the priority is] to identify and respond to the emergence of drugs that has been lacking elsewhere”. It is important to clearly identify the specific characteristics of the “market” where NPS are available, and who the target groups (consumers) of this type of compound are. At a European level, it is estimated that about 5% of young Europeans aged between 15 and 24 years had already consumed, at least, one of these new drugs (Flash Eurobarometer, 2011). The ESPAD Report (2015) identified, for example, a growing number (3-4%) of 15-to 16-year-old school students in 24 European countries who frequently use NPS. In the EU countries involved in this project, some scientific studies (DGS, 2012), underline a greater NPS consumption trend among minors. With the aforementioned premise that the majority of the “new consumers” of NPS comes from the 15-16 years old age group, the school can certainly represent a significant environment where knowledge can be improved and effective strategies can be developed to promote student’s agency, students’ reflexive capacity, and key competencies to tackle early school leaving and to tackle the abuse of the above-mentioned substances. In order to promote “secondary school system” processes of didactic innovation, also mediated from a transversal use of digital technologies, the INES project aims to create the conditions to support the collaborative networking of teachers, external experts, and students to find, test, adapt and use (within common teaching workflows) didactic strategies and resources to tackle the NPS problem. The project needs to be carried out transnationally in order to complete and integrate all the partners’ expertise and share their know-how.