On this edition of Century of Lies: European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.
The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, ESPAD for short, is the world's largest cross-national research project on adolescent substance use and other risk behaviors. The 2024 ESPAD report, released in May 2025, marks 30 years of monitoring adolescent risky behaviors across Europe, with 37 countries currently participating. The focus remains on substance use behaviors and trends, but this edition introduced a new focus on mental well-being and prevention activities, recognizing the growing importance of these aspects in shaping health outcomes. The European Union Drugs Agency held a webinar recently to discuss the report’s main findings.
On this week’s Century we hear portions of that webinar, including presentations by Dr. Sabrina Molinaro, Senior Research Director and Head of Epidemiology and the Health Services Research Department at Italy’s Institute of Clinical Physiology - National Research Council, and Coordinator of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs; and Dr. Elisa Benedetti, a Researcher at the Laboratory of Epidemiology at Italy’s Institute of Clinical Physiology - National Research Council and Project Manager of ESPAD.
- KBOO