ul. Dereniowa 52/54
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e-mail:kbpn@kbpn.gov.pl

History of the National Bureau for Drug Prevention

The National Bureau for Drug Prevention was established in response to the worrying trends on the Polish drug scene that were taking place at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Along with the political, social and economic transformation a host of unfavourable social phenomena were gathering momentum. One of them was increasing prevalence of drug use, particularly among young people. In the mid-1980s first cases of HIV infections among injecting drug users were revealed and in the 1990s this trend started to grow at an alarming rate. In consequence, a number of social organizations provided assistance to problem drug users. However, they looked forward to specialist support of a governmental body, which would act as a partner in performing their statutory tasks.

The above developments led to the establishment of the Bureau for Drug Addiction by the Minister of Health and Social Care in 1993. The Bureau was responsible for reducing demand for drugs. By 1999 the Bureau’s basic activities comprised drug prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration in cooperation with non-governmental organizations.

As a result of the reform of the social security system and the administrative reform of 1999 the tasks of drug treatment were taken over by regional health funds. This situation and the ongoing process of Polish accession to the European Union necessitated the verification of the Bureau’s statutory tasks.

In 2000 pursuant to the Regulation of the Minister of Health of 13 November 2000 the Bureau for Drug Addiction was transformed into the National Bureau for Drug Prevention. The change of the name was connected with the change of the organizational structure as well as broadening the Bureau’s scope of activities. The provisions of the amended Act of Law on Counteracting Drug Addiction extended the Bureau’s competence to coordinating any activities of drug demand reduction and cooperate with supply reduction sector.

International cooperation took on a new dimension and importance, especially in relation to adjusting Polish law to acquis communautaire. Within the Bureau the National Focal Point was set up to collect data on drug problem in compliance with the standards recommended by the European institutions and to monitor the implementation of the National Programme for Counteracting Drug Addiction. Poland’s accession to the European Union actively involved Polish representatives into the process of creating EU law. Hence the participation of the Bureau in sessions of the Horizontal Drugs Group of the Council of the European Union that devises inter alia EU Anti-Drug Strategy for the coming years.