Preparing for the future — applying a foresight approach in the drugs field

Objective: This webinar marks the official launch of the EMCDDA’s foresight toolkit for the drugs field entitled How to run a trends workshop in the drugs field. The event also aims to promote a foresight approach and increase foresight literacy among the EMCDDA’s stakeholders and to take stock of current initiatives in this area and reflect on possible ways forward. Background: We live in an era of fast and fundamental changes. The pace of social transformation and technological innovation is accelerating and can outpace existing policies and responses. In such an interdependent and complex world, the analysis produced to support decision-making processes needs to go beyond specific areas of expertise. We need to recognise that a single-issue focus is often insufficient to identify future threats or opportunities. There is a clear need for tools and processes to support organisations, institutions and services to better understand potential future changes and their implications. The governments and EU institutions have already begun to explore a set of foresight approaches that promote systems thinking, anticipatory knowledge and participatory processes and that deliberately cut across traditional policy boundaries and institutional silos. Since 2019, the EMCDDA has been exploring how a foresight approach can benefit its work. As part of these activities, the agency has produced a foresight toolkit that is intended to facilitate the work of others wishing to conduct drug-related foresight exercises.