João

Goulão

João Castel-Branco Goulão is currently the National Coordinator for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies and Chair of the Institute on Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies, P.I. (Ministry of Health), the national governmental structure within the Health Ministry responsible for the coordination of policy on illicit drugs, alcohol and other dependencies without substance (gambling, internet).

A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Goulão has over 25 years’ experience regarding drug-related issues, working in this field since 1987 as general practitioner and since then all his professional life has been devoted to addictions and health.

He was also a member of the Portuguese Committee which, in 1999, prepared the report on which the first Portuguese Drug Strategy was based and that included the Law on decriminalization, into force since in 2021.

He has a long experience in addictions field at international level, not only at the European level, but also in the United Nations context. He is the Portuguese representative at EUDA Management Board and he was Chairman of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) from 2009 to 2015. He was the Chair of the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe for the period 2019-2022 and Chair of the Horizontal Drugs Group during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union in 2021.