A project to encourage the development and dissemination of a global credential and related credentialing or certification program based on international standards for substance use professionals. Drug use disorders extensively harm health, including mental health, safety,
economic well-being, fuel organized crime, and negatively impact political, social, and economic
stability. Many governments as well as individual drug demand reduction professionals provide
services but have little experience and few methods to determine if those programs or their efforts
are effective, evidence-based, and meeting international standards or their own program goals. To
encourage and document the improvement of the prevention, treatment, and recovery services,
the workforce requires training to an agreed international standard and then an agreed global
credential to ensure that the substance use disorder workforce is performing to that standard.
Project Vision: Drug demand reduction is the field of counternarcotics that recognizes that an
epidemic only ends when we reduce the number of new cases. Through a well-trained,
credentialed, and enthusiastic professional workforce in the combined fields of prevention,
treatment, and recovery support, we will reduce the number of those suffering from substance use
disorder globally and provide a social framework that supports recovery and ongoing prevention of
substance use disorders.
Project Goal(s) and Objectives: Professionals that work in the drug demand reduction field
including prevention, treatment, and recovery support services come from a variety of academic
and non-academic backgrounds. Given the sensitive personal, political, and cultural nature of
substance use disorder, it is critical to ensure that those entrusted with positions in these areas
can be readily identified as having the skills, experience, and understandings of the international
standards and the implementation of those standards as they work. While some nations have
their own processes for testing and certification, most do not. Poor services, especially those that
violate human rights, in any country negatively impact the substance use disorder field. This
negative impact has far-reaching consequences globally based on historical misunderstandings of
the nature of substance use disorder. For these reasons, we seek to foster a climate where
training and expertise are recognized and required for participation as a professional in the
practice of prevention, treatment, and recovery support services.
Credentialing should also be encouraged as many working in this field work as volunteers or are
working in related fields such as education or youth services. The overall goal of this project is to
promote and develop the framework for the credentialing or certification of professionals in this
field, in order to improve overall care of persons with substance use disorders, similar to other
medical professionals. Through the development of an international credential secured through
standardized examination, the project will also work to decrease the stigma associated with work
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related to substance use disorders. All competencies and testing should promote and encompass
those international standards developed under the auspices of the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), which have been accepted
globally.