A twinning project between Malta and The Netherlands which has helped develop a national drugs policy and strategy has been concluded and the final report has been presented to Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina by the Dutch ambassador, Jan Heidsma.

“Reinforcement of the Drugs National Focal Point in Malta,” as the project was called, had as partners The Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, and the ministry’s National Commission on the Abuse of Drugs, Alcohol and Other Dependencies.

The project was a follow-up to another which was completed in 2004 and which aimed to give Malta an information system that enables the better monitoring of the drug situation.

Prof. Richard Muscat, chairperson of the national commission, said the ultimate aim was to have a system through which one could monitor the state of play “which is to have a drug information system in place that serves to guide policy formulation and the monitoring of such a policy.”

The projects have yielded a wider and more objective picture of the drug situation in Malta. The benefits of the two countries’ cooperation include an increased effectiveness in the provision of services, more awareness of society’s changing needs, and more control mechanisms.