Authors: Patricia J. Conrod, Maeve O’Leary-Barrett, Nicola Newton, Lauren Topper, Natalie Castellanos-Ryan, Clare Mackie, Alain Girard.

Selective school-based alcohol prevention programs targeting youth with personality risk factors for addiction and mental health problems have been found to reduce substance use and misuse in those with elevated personality profiles.

The findings of this article further support the personality-targeted approach to alcohol prevention and its effectiveness when provided by trained school staff. Particularly novel are the findings of some mild herd effects that result from this selective prevention program.

Author: EMCDDA

EMCDDA raised concerns over complex stimulant market and plethora of powders and pills in its 2012 anual report. According to this report, Europe is faced with an increasingly complex stimulant market, in which consumers are confronted with a wide variety of powders and pills.
The report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe presents the EMCDDA's yearly overview of the drug phenomenon. Published every autumn, the report contains non-confidential data supported by an extensive range of figures.

A review of the monitoring of drug-related acute emergencies in 30 European countries, published in April 2014 by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). 

The report aims:

• To present a summarised literature review of the most common health problems caused by cocaine use, focused on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and neurological problems.
• To describe the sources of information on drug- and cocaine-related health emergencies in Europe and analyse relevant data from European countries’ recent annual National reports to the EMCDDA.
• To discuss the limitations of the data collected on cocaine-related acute emergencies and the public health implications of the cocaine-related results.
• To discuss the broader issue of using data from emergency settings to help monitor problems related to drug use.

Author: European Union

The new EU drug strategy for 2013–20 was adopted on 7 December 2012.  The framework, aim and objectives of the Strategy will serve as a basis for two consecutive four-year EU Drugs Action plans. The strategy directs and requires collective EU action in international forums, such as the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the UN General Assembly, and the strategy will have an important role in EC funding priorities. The strategy sets out the need for evaluation of outcomes achieved in supply side enforcement as well as demand reduction. “Risk and harm reduction” is a notable feature of the strategy and the strategy has a focus on HIV, HCV, and overdose. The strategy has more emphasis on human rights than the previous strategy and seeks to encourage civil society participation in policy, including the involvement of young people and people who use drugs.

Author: WHO Regional Office for Europe
The action plan was endorsed by 53 European Member States at the Regional Committee for Europe in September 2011 in Baku, Azerbaijan. It includes a wide range of policies and programmes that are relatively easy and cheap to implement, can reduce the harmful use of alcohol, promote health and well-being, improve productivity, and enhance human, health and social capital across the life course from birth to old age. This action plan proposes a range of options for the 10 action areas of the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol that all European Member States can engage in.