Last year, the PREMIUM project by the Politie Limburg focused on raising a dialogue on the illegal use of hard drugs with the goal of reducing the demand among young people. One of the recommendations flowing out of that project was to cooperate with Mondriaan and INKOM. So here we are, joining forces, looking for a new team of PREMIUM students to follow up on that recommendation.

We hope to organise, with the help of the PREMIUM students, at least one but preferably several effective drugs prevention “events” (interventions) with the target group of students and/or young adults in Maastricht and/or the Limburg region. If reactions are positive, we hope these events will get follow up on a yearly basis (for instance during INKOM).

The intervention(s) that this year’s team will develop should focus on:
• harm reduction
• reducing peer pressure

As Politie Limburg’s, we take issue with the growing dumping of drugs waste in Limburg and possibly the (Eu)region (border NL, BE. DLD) and the criminal groups, and crime that is connected to this. Therefore, we aim to gain from this project a lower demand for drugs. Without demand for drugs there is no supply. Less supply results in less drug waste dumping in the region.

Mondriaan sees a lot of peer pressure amongst young adults in Limburg that result in drugs (ab)use and/or increase of alcohol consumption. This is concerning. From their viewpoint it would be beneficial if the topic of peer pressure is tackled during this project, and first year’s students would feel ‘not drinking alcohol’ is also a possibility and choice one can make without being shamed or persuaded into drinking alcohol.  Concerning the use of drugs, Mondrian would like to explore what students would find missing in the current landscape of prevention/harm reduction and what they would like to see realised.