Study on Drug Use Prevention in Latvia from 2023 to 2025

The Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Latvia is the leading state administration institution in the field of internal affairs (national security and public order and safety) in Latvia. The Ministry implements the European Social Fund Plus projƒ2ect No. 4.1.2.4/1/24/I/001 “Implementation of evidence-based drug use prevention programmes and introduction of prevention quality standards”, carried out under specific support objective 4.1.2.4 of the EU Cohesion Policy Programme 2021–2027.

The study was commissioned within this project through the open competition “Conducting a study on drug use prevention in Latvia” (procurement identification No. IeM NVA 2025/55).

Drug use prevention in Latvia is decentralised: it is implemented by a wide range of state and municipal institutions as well as non-governmental organisations, therefore information about the prevention activities actually carried out is fragmented and scattered across institutional reports and publications. Before investing in evidence-based prevention programmes and introducing quality standards, the Ministry needed a systematic overview of the existing activities.

The objective of the assignment was therefore twofold – to map the universal, selective and indicated drug use prevention interventions implemented in Latvia over the last three years (2023, 2024, 2025), and to assess the compliance of universal and selective prevention interventions with the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS) – an evidence-based set of 35 quality standards which has not been formally adopted in Latvia, but which allows measuring the extent to which implementers take quality-management criteria into account when planning their activities.

The study provides the evidence base for the ESF+ project’s core purpose –  implementing evidence-based drug use prevention programmes and introducing prevention quality standards in Latvia.

Reliable knowledge of which interventions exist, who implements them, how they are financed and how far they meet internationally recognised quality criteria is a precondition for planning more effective preventive measures and for deciding which programmes to support and scale.

All deliverables – the research toolkit, the final report in Latvian, the intervention descriptions (fiches) and the standards-compliance assessment – had to be delivered within a strict five-month timeline from contract signature.

Civitta designed the assignment as a mixed-methods study, combining qualitative research (literature analysis and semi-structured interviews) with quantitative research (two online surveys and a numerical scoring of interventions’ compliance with the EDPQS), built around the EDPQS.

Data collection combined four instruments:

1. literature analysis of reports, studies, guidelines and other sources on drug use prevention activities implemented in Latvia;
2. two online surveys – one addressed to all municipalities and one to other institutions and organisations implementing addiction prevention measures – completed by 141 representatives of different institutions (social services, education boards, schools, municipal police) from 40 municipalities and by eight institutions;
3. 29 semi-structured interviews with representatives of institutions and organisations that had implemented drug prevention interventions, capturing information not publicly available (rationale for choosing an intervention, practical implementation details, data and feedback collection); 
4. assessment of 52 universal and selective interventions against the 35 EDPQS standards, structured in eight consecutive blocks of standards plus four horizontal considerations, scoring each standard as fully fulfilled (1 point), partially fulfilled (0.5), not fulfilled (0) or not applicable (no value assigned and the standard excluded from the calculations), with a compliance threshold of at least 25 standards.

As some standards are not applicable to every intervention, an adjusted compliance threshold was applied, transferring the original proportion (25 of 35 standards, i.e. 71.4%) to the number of standards applicable to each intervention.

To limit subjectivity, every assessment followed the four-eye principle, with each intervention reviewed and discussed by at least two researchers.

Interventions were classified into six types – programmes, support groups, lectures/classes/discussions, informational events and campaigns, events for specialists, and indicated prevention programmes – according to their actual content rather than the name given by the implementer: the sole exception were support groups, which were all retained in the support-group category even where their content resembled cycles of educational sessions.

Indicated prevention interventions were mapped but, in line with the technical specification, not assessed against the standards, since they involve individualised treatment or counselling governed by different quality criteria; events for specialists were likewise not assessed, as they build professionals’ capacity rather than constitute prevention interventions as such.

The work was carried out in close cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior: the client provided the initial data-collection questions and toolkit, methodological and coordination support, training on evidence-based prevention, and information on the activities implemented by the State Police prevention units, while progress meetings or online calls were held at least once a month throughout the study, and each deliverable was reviewed under the contractually agreed acceptance procedure.

The study delivered the first systematic mapping of drug use prevention in Latvia for 2023–2025: 64 interventions identified and described in a structured dataset of intervention fiches, divided into six types – programmes (13), support groups (7), lectures, classes and discussions (25), informational events and campaigns (7), events for specialists (7) and indicated prevention programmes (5).

Of the 52 interventions assessed against the EDPQS, only 23% (12 interventions) reach the 25-point compliance threshold, and 31% (16) when the threshold is adjusted to the number of applicable standards.

Compliance was highest for programmes – 85% (11 of 13) – reflecting their comprehensive and structured character, and substantially lower for support groups (29%), informational events and campaigns (14%) and one-off lectures, classes and discussions (8%). “Ethical prevention” was the only standard fully met by all interventions, while the weakest results concern evaluation: final evaluation planning was fulfilled by only 4 interventions and outcome evaluation by 6.

The assessment revealed a substantial quality gap between structured, evidence-based programmes and short-term, one-off measures such as lectures and informational campaigns, and diagnosed its causes: weak needs assessment and evidence base outside programmes, the absence of systematic monitoring and evaluation mechanisms (driven by lack of data and funding), and a sustainability risk stemming from dependence on external financing, particularly EU funds, with activities often discontinued once project funding ends.

On this basis the study recommends strengthening the evidence-based approach and systematic evaluation, and planning prevention as targeted, strategic and long-term cyclical interventions rather than one-off, spontaneously implemented events.

Overall, the study lays a solid foundation for an evidence-based drug prevention policy in Latvia. All project deliverables – the research toolkit, the final report, the intervention descriptions (fiches), and the assessment against EDPQS standards – will serve the Ministry of Interior as a practical, reusable evidence base for the continued implementation of the ESF+ project.

These tools will empower authorities to strategically select and scale the most effective programs, introduce European quality standards, and replicate similar assessments in the future. In the long term, this will ensure a more targeted allocation of public funds, potentially reducing addiction risks within society.

The importance and quality of the results is highlighted by the feedback received from the client:

“The subject of the study is highly specialised, and Civitta Latvia assembled a professional team to carry it out. The team performed exceptionally well, particularly given the considerable data collection and methodological challenges encountered during the study.”

• Mapping a decentralised policy field is feasible even where information is fragmented, provided surveys, interviews and literature analysis are systematically triangulated and implementers are asked to clarify unclear cases.
• Classifying interventions by their actual content rather than their name is essential for a meaningful quality assessment.
  An adjusted compliance threshold keeps interventions of very different scale comparable.
• The results also confirm the prevention-science consensus embedded in the EDPQS: one-off informational lectures do not secure lasting behaviour change without structured follow-up, which is where the most policy-relevant findings emerged.
• Civitta’s expertise and dedicated approach delivered significant value, providing crucial insights into the existing drug prevention interventions.
• We combined public-policy research methodology (mixed-methods design, EDPQS-based assessment, transparent scoring and threshold rules) with a demanding multi-stakeholder field programme — municipalities, state institutions and NGOs across Latvia — within a strict five-month timeline, delivering decision-ready deliverables: a report, a structured fiches dataset and a standards-compliance data file.
• The approach is directly transferable to the mapping and quality assessment of any decentralised set of public-health, social-policy or prevention interventions, and is equally relevant to governments and agencies that wish to introduce internationally recognised quality standards in a field where such standards have not yet been formally adopted.