Author: The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

The major features of the European drug landscape have remained relatively stable in recent years. Drug use remains high by historical standards, but positive changes can be seen, with record levels of treatment provision accompanied by some signs of erosion in injecting, new heroin use, cocaine consumption and cannabis smoking. Any optimism, however, must be tempered by concerns that youth unemployment and service cuts could lead to the re-emergence of ‘old’ problems.

Moreover, a closer examination suggests that the drug situation may now be in a state of flux, with ‘new’ problems emerging that challenge current policy and practice models: new synthetic drugs and patterns of use are appearing, both on the illicit drug market and in the context of non-controlled substances.

How many new drugs were detected in Europe over the last year? Is cannabis getting stronger? How many Europeans have ever used an illicit drug? What are the latest drug policy developments in the region? These are just some of the questions explored in the European Drug Report: Trends and developments. This report provides a top-level overview of the long-term drug-related trends and developments at European level, while homing in on emerging problems in specific countries. Such a perspective is valuable, as it allows differing national experiences to be understood within the broader European context.

Part two in this report, entitled “European status report on alcohol and health 2014”, is now available and presents alcohol policy data for all 53 Member States in the WHO European Region. The chapters are categorizedaccording to the 10 action areas of the "European action plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol 2012–2020"

The chapters can be accessed at:

Author: Peter Anderson (Maastricht University)

This report commissioned by the WHO Regional Office for Europe shows that there is a substantial evidence base on the effectiveness of different policies in reducing the harm done by alcohol. Policies that regulate the economic and physical availability of alcohol are effective in reducing alcohol-related harm. Enforced legislative measures to reduce drinking and driving and interventions individually directed to drinkers already at risk are also effective. The evidence shows that information and education programmes do not reduce alcohol-related harm; nevertheless, they have a role in providing information, reframing alcohol-related problems and increasing attention to alcohol on the political and public agendas. In all parts of the European Union, population-based interventions represent a highly cost– effective use of resources to reduce alcohol-related harm. Brief interventions for individual high-risk drinkers are also cost–effective, but are harder to scale up because of their associated training and manpower needs.

Author: Lila Rabinovich, Priscillia Hunt, Laura Staetsky, Simo Goshev, Ellen Nolte, Janice Pedersen, Christine Tiefensee (RAND Europe)

In spite of extensive evidence that raising alcohol prices reduces alcohol consumption and harms, the real price of alcoholic beverages is decreasing across the EU. This trend has fuelled debate among policymakers, public health practitioners and other stakeholders across the EU about the opportunities, and challenges, of alcohol pricing policies. This study, produced by RAND Europe for the European Comission, DG SANCO and the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers, aims to contribute a robust evidence base to inform pricing policy in the region. Towards this aim, the study examines in greater detail a number of issues such as tax changes to consumer prices, trends in on- and off-trade alcohol consumption, and the nature and scale of price promotion and discount activity in the EU.