The goal of this thesis is to examine how substance abuse prevention is put into practice in the city of Kotka and to find out if the procedures are carried out at the level of the latest laws, stat-utes and recommendations. The substance abuse law defines what should be taken into ac-count in programs and operations planned in municipalities. Substance abuse prevention is ambiguous and it includes many agents, organizations and resources.

The thesis is based on interviews of four experts working in the field of preventive substance usage operations. The material was gathered through theme interviews, which were later trans-literated, and analyzed using inductive analysis of the material. The answers to the thesis questions were picked from the interview material. From the theme interview we have chosen the most essentials questions which are related to the preventive substance abuse work carried out in Kotka city, and to the follow-through of the laws and regulations.

According to the theme interviews, the preventive substance abuse work is carried out as a part of the city’s own operations, through outsourcing and partly through supporting different associations. The working committee named Hyvinvoiva Kotka is responsible for carrying out the preventive substance abuse work. A yearly report is assembled by the committee, and re-ports are used to follow the indicators from the previous year, as well as to set up goals within the municipality, which shall be reached in order to strengthen the wellbeing of the citizens. In Kotka city, the preventive substance abuse work is carried out according to the Finnish law of preventive substance abuse work. Because of the broad field of abuse usage, the resources given to the work are not sufficient to carry out all desired operations.

At the beginning of 2019 the reform of province, social- and healthcare service structure will come into effect. Because of this the operations of substance abuse prevention are postponed and the activities are mainly focused on mapping the competences, establishing work models and training professionals. The above mentioned cases are additionally affected by the change that Kotka city has taken substance abuse services as part of their own services during 2016.

The Health Promotion Unit of Kotka city acts as the commissioner for our thesis and the Health Promotion coordinator is our supervisor.