EMCDDA news

This report was prepared based on materials from the Reitox Academy ‘Drug law offences in the Western Balkan region: from definition to monitoring’ which took place on 2 and 3 April 2014, and was organised by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in the framework of IPA4 project ‘Preparation of IPA beneficiaries for their participation with the EMCDDA’ funded by the Instrument for Pre-Accession.  

This report was prepared based on materials of the Reitox Academy ‘Prevention of infectious diseases among people who inject drugs in some Western Balkan countries which took place on 29-30 October 2013, and was organised by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in the framework of IPA4 project ‘Preparation of IPA beneficiaries for their participation with the EMCDDA’ funded by the Instrument for Pre-Accession.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the EMCDDA released a joint risk assessment on wound botulism among people who inject heroin in Norway and the United Kingdom in February 2015. At the time of publication, a total of 23 cases of wound botulism had been reported in the two countries. The source of infection was thought to be a batch of contaminated heroin.

One of the three core principles of the EMCDDA 2013–15 strategy is a commitment to efficiency. This is to be achieved, among others, via an improved quality assurance framework for the statistical procedures employed by the agency. In this light, an EMCDDA Internal statistics code of practice was developed in 2014. The code was drawn up in consultation with the EMCDDA Scientific Committee, the Reitox network and Eurostat, whose European statistics code of practice formed the basis of the work, and adopted by the EMCDDA Management Board.

The EMCDDA code establishes a set of principles that provide the agency with guidance and objectives for its own work. It serves as a declaration of the EMCDDA’s intent to pursue a programme of continuous improvement and evaluation of efforts in order to provide ‘factual, objective, reliable and comparable information’. The EMCDDA code, in line with Eurostat’s, is based on 15 principles covering: the institutional environment; statistical production processes; and the output of statistics. A set of statements on good practice for each of the principles provides guidance for the implementation of the code.

The EMCDDA has published today its 2015 annual work programme, adopted by its Management Board on 5 December. The new programme sets out the objectives for the final year of the agency’s 2013–15 strategy (1) and promises to build a solid bridge between current priorities and those defined for the next three years (2016–18).

The EMCDDA’s 2015 annual work programme sets out the objectives for the final year of the agency’s 2013–15 strategy. Among the core principles are: delivering a relevant, timely and responsive analysis of the drug situation; achieving efficiency and ensuring that maximum value is delivered from activities and investments; and enhancing communication and a customer-focused approach. This work programme promises also to build a solid bridge between current priorities and those defined for the upcoming strategy (2016–18).

In this issue: New EMCDDA trendspotter study explores online supply of drugs | EMCDDA scientific paper award 2015 | New review studies the effectiveness of overdose antidote, naloxone | Finland updates controls of NPS | New EMCDDA products and services | EMCDDA former premises sold

This paper examines the overall number of lives lost due to drug use. All-cause mortality among problem drug users is investigated by means of cohort studies, which link data from death registries to drug treatment records. Building on earlier work, the paper presents data from nine European countries not previously studied using the same methodology. The study finds that the risk of death among problem drug users is typically 10 or more times that among their peers in the general population. The analysis shows that the deaths of problem drug users are overwhelmingly premature and preventable.