About INES
INES is an imaginary name we have given to our project. INES represents any student who enters into the "tunnel” but who, thanks to the contribution of an authentic and inclusive education program promoted by his/her school context (together with other important actors), succeeds in getting out of it, by changing the course of his/her life. Therefore, INES represents a positive and powerful image of possibility, an example of success that something can really change with respect to the contrast and spread of new drugs of abuse at school. New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) represent a large and increasing group of compounds mainly of synthetic nature, characterised by pharmacological and toxicological properties particularly dangerous for the health of consumers. The emergence of NSP in recent years is a worrying phenomenon that is taking on ever more imposing dimensions: NPS have become a global phenomenon with over 110 countries and territories from all regions of the world having reported one or more NPS. Up to December 2017, more than 800 substances have been reported by governments, laboratories and partner organisations. (source: https://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/NPS_leaflet_2018_EN.pdf). As underlined in the last European Drug Report (EMCDDA, 2018) the “New psychoactive substances continue to challenge public health”: [the priority is] to identify and respond to the emergence of drugs that has been lacking elsewhere”. Furthermore, it is also relevant to clearly identify the specific characteristics of the “market” where the NPS are available, and who are the target groups (consumers) of this type of compounds. The ESPAD Report (2015) identified, for example, a growing number (3-4%) of 15-to 16-year-old school students in 24 European countries which frequently use NPS. Under this framework, INES project intends, on one side, to valorise, adapt and reuse - in the context of secondary education - the results of “Learning Toxicology through Open Educational Resources - TOX-OER” E+ project; on the other side, INES aims to strengthening the teaching profession by developing learning contents and innovative teaching methods to overcome the NPS abuse phenomenon, starting from the more vulnerable and exposed target group: secondary school students. In order to promote prevention and early intervention focusing on risk of new drug abuse, processes of didactic innovation in secondary education, are to be mediated by a transversal use of digital technologies. INES project intends - within an action research approach - to create the conditions to support the collaborative networking of teachers, academic partner and students to find, test, adapt and use (in the ordinary teaching practices) didactic strategies & resources to tackle the NPS problem. Action research is deemed to support teaching in coping with the challenges of carrying innovations in a reflective way while introducing NPS abuse. In this direction, INES aims to enhance the collaboration with existing networks and stakeholders, active in each partner’s area, which may contribute to increase the knowledge and awareness about the NPS topic. By doing so, INES promotes knowledge acquisition on NPS and supports the development of a variety of learning approaches, including the use of digital technologies in education, training and learning settings and promotes collaboration to educational staff development supporting learning processes to enhance key competences and skills of students. With the aforementioned premise that the majority of the “new consumers” of NPS comes from the age group 15-16 years old, the school can certainly represent a significant context where to improve knowledge and propose effective strategies to tackle the abuse of the above-mentioned substances