New European mini guides on responding to drug use in specific settings by EMCDDA

Focusing treatments on specific settings where problems may develop is an important approach to implementing health and social responses to drug problems. As a result, the EMCDDA's Health and social solutions to drug problems: a European handbook offers a series of mini guides on the subject. The agency is releasing the first three mini guidelines in this bundle this week, which look at business, community, and recreational environments. Mini-guides on inventions in prisons and schools will be published soon.

Workplace settings: Responding to drug-related issues in workplace settings. 

Community settings: Drug-related interventions in this setting include the development of drug policies and responses that address public nuisance and harms experienced by communities. 

Recreational settings: Drug and alcohol use in these settings can be associated with a range of health and social problems, including acute intoxication, loss of consciousness, unintentional injury, aggressive behaviour, violence, unsafe sex and sexual violence, and driving under the influence of these substances. 

Drawing on a fresh global review of the evidence, and insights from 29 countries (27 EU, Turkey and Norway), the EMCDDA mini guides are designed to support policymakers and practitioners in addressing the consequences of drug use. The resources are presented in a digital and modular format, designed to improve accessibility and to be easier to read across a range of devices.

The mini guides are divided into four bundles covering: patterns of use, harms, settings and vulnerable groups. Together, they make up the agency’s latest overview of actions and interventions currently available to respond to the consequences of illicit drug use.