About Us

The International Task Force on Strategic Drug Policy (ITFSDP) is a network of professionals and community leaders from across the globe who support and promote effective drug demand reduction principles and strive to advance communication and cooperation among non-government organizations (NGO’s) who are working to stem illicit drug use and promote sound drug policy around the world.

The ITFSDP convenes annual meetings of the members of Drug Free America Foundation, the International Scientific and Medical Forum on Drug Abuse and the Institute on Global Drug Policy and Drug Prevention Network of the Americas to continuously train global leaders on drug policy issues. The training reinforces effective demand reduction principles and programs. It enables the attendees to mobilize their communities to push back against substance abuse and efforts to legalize drugs in their communities. The key individuals being trained are decision makers who advise governments, intellectuals, researchers, doctors and other community leaders and who are willing to commit to the following:

1. To train in their own communities.



2. Utilize what they learn and share it through various ways such as writing papers and articles; presenting at local, regional, national and international conferences and meetings; and participating in media appearances.

The meetings provide training to the attendees to develop and enhance an international drug demand reduction task force that is skilled in writing papers and articles, and conducting lectures and other public appearances to push back against drug legalization issues such as harm reduction, medical excuse marijuana, hemp, maintenance drug treatment, etc. These task force members are able to educate the public about the negative aspects of social, health and economic costs of drug legalization and permissive drug policies. The meetings also focus on the development of an international communication system and a rapid response mechanism to create and disseminate responses to refute false claims and misinformation advanced by drug legalization advocates in print media around the world.

The meetings focus on an exchange of information. Effective strategies are also developed to combat the drug legalization campaign that is being waged worldwide.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
As a result of previous meetings, attendees have accomplished the following:

1. Obtained a broader understanding of patterns and impacts of drug use, legalization initiatives that weaken demand reduction policies and how drug use promotion, commonly referred to as “harm reduction,” has been used to promote drug use among youth.



2. Understood the role that drug use enabling strategies play in drug legalization efforts.



3. Obtained knowledge about innovative technologies and current scientific information to combat drugs of abuse.



4. Learned media strategies to effectively get their messages out to the public.



5. Obtained training materials to assist them in their local drug demand reduction efforts.



6. Developed definitive strategies to combat drug legalization and permissive drug policies.



7. Developed a level of competency in presenting and disseminating in a variety of ways the materials that have been presented.