German national focal point

Following the establishment of the EMCDDA in 1993, the German Ministry for Health nominated the Federal Centre for Health Education (Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA), Cologne), the German Centre for Addiction Issues (Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen e.V. (DHS), Hamm) and the IFT Institute for Therapy Research (IFT Institut für Therapiefoschung, Munich) to act jointly as the German national focal point (NFP) within the Reitox network of the EMCDDA. Together, the three institutions form the German Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (DBDD) with the IFT as the institution responsible for the overall management of the NFP. Within the DBDD, the BZgA deals with prevention aspects, the DHS is mainly responsible for the working areas of addiction treatment and the IFT is responsible for epidemiology, drug policy, legal framework information, information on drug-related harms and harm reduction and the Early Warning System (EWS).