Sub-Saharan Drug Abuse Research & Consultancy Center

mission

The SSDARCC’s mission is the scientific analyses of the consequences of international drug trafficking and its attendant hard drug use on Sub-Saharan Africa, especially West Africa. This mission encompasses the health, social, psychological, violence, crime, and economic problems associated with hard drug abuse at the local level as well as national security challenges that international drug trafficking poses for good governance. In order to address the emergent drug abuse at the individual, family, community, and national levels, the center provides the following drug education and prevention services:

Services

• • • The center provides evidence-based drug education and prevention program from early childhood intervention through high school. This includes: the
    • Community Drug Literacy Awareness Program (CDLAP) for at-risk community groups, and the
    • Drug Trafficking Education and Prevention Program (DTEPP) designed to discourage young people from becoming a mule or courier in the international drug trade.
    • The center offers library services to the public at large, parents, churches, teachers, schools, medical school students, families, and groups. The center’s library has up-to-date drug publications donated by the United States National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), books on drug abuse, drug abuse journal articles, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime publications (UNODC), and relevant publications.
    • One-time Drug Awareness Scholarship Award (DASA) for a talented needy junior high school student who has acquired basic drug prevention knowledge and ambassador to his/her peers.
    • The center also offers free referrals to appropriate drug treatment.
    • Research methods guidelines and consultations for NGOs.

SSDARCC’s programs and services place the issues of local drug abuse in the context of the international drug trade that is so disruptive to sub-Saharan societies. These programs and services are designed to alleviate the psychological, economic, medical, and social problems that have resulted. The center’s outcomes can be measured in drug abstinence and the transformation of individual drug victims into socially responsible, active, and productive members of society.