Czech National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

The Czech Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (National Focal Point) was officially established by Government Decree No. 643 from June 19, 2002 On Establishment of the Czech National Focal Point for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

The National Monitoring Centre is a Czech partner of the decentralized agency of the EU for drugs monitoring – the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction based in Lisbon - and is a member of the REITOX network.
The task of the National Monitoring Centre is to supply guaranteed, objective, quality, accurate and reliable information about the drug situation in the Czech Republic. For this purpose, within the framework of the so-called Drug Information System, the National Monitoring Centre actually carries out, initiates, and participates in monitoring and research activities, and coordinates activities of other institutions in this field. In particular, it closely collaborates with the Supply Reduction Focal Point (a common workstation of the National Drug Squad and the General Customs Headquarters).

The activities of the Drug Information System focus on collection, analysis, synthesis and interpretation of information, and dissemination of such information. The concept and methodology of this system is consistent with the information system of the EMCDDA; this especially involves the system of five key indicators that form the basic methodology, and the set of data about drug use and its´ consequences. However, the Drug Information System does not only specialize in the concept of five key indicators, it also lays emphasis on complex use and combination of different data sources and methods.

In brief, it is possible to summarize the basic principles of work of the National Focal Point in the following six slogans:

The National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction organizes activities of several working groups; the working groups are established by the Council of the Government for Drug Policy Coordination. Detailed information on the working groups is in Czech only.
The Advisory Committee for Data Collection is one of the working bodies of the Council of the Government for Drug Policy Coordination . The main task of the committee is to evaluate the plan activities of the National Monitoring Centre (National Action Plan of the Drug Information System) and “supervise” the preparation of the Annual Report.

The National Monitoring Centre has 7 permanent employees and 2 part-time employees. More information on employees is in the section Staff.