Since the last quarter of the 20th Century, public policies in different countries have highlighted the goal of reducing the demand for legal and illegal drugs. The same orientation is followed by international organizations which, allied to governments, are developing programs to facilitate the achievement of this goal.Among these, the World Health Organization stands out.On the American continent, in addition to WHO -represented by its regional office -Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), whose headquarters are located in Washington -and its representations in 35 countries in the region, the Organization of American States (OAS) also plays a prominent role. This organization has a strategy of training and motivating professionals to work towards drug demand reduction, complementing other initiatives of countries in the American region. In the context of OAS, the function of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission -CICAD -is to put forth this strategy. Since 1996, it has significantly contributed to the training of specialized professionals to work with and lead programs and actions aiming for drugs demand reduction.Based on an experimental project applied in Latin-American Nursing Schools, selected by their academic profile, CICAD/OAS joined with these institutions to coordinate the project and be responsible for academic, administrative and logistic actions. On the other side, CICAD/OAS assumed the political and financial coordination, collecting funding for the implementation of the project, articulating with participant institutions, governments and financial sources, to present the results of each project developed; this articulation involves the selection of key professionals who receive the investment and assume the commitment and responsibility to work as multipliers in their countries of origin (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)