This article outlines the policy areas, cross-cutting themes, and strategic priorities of the EU Drugs Strategy 2021–2025.

The new European Union (EU) Drugs Strategy 2021–2025¹ was published in December 2020 and is discussed in other articles in this issue of Drugnet. It is informed by the findings of the evaluation of the EU Drugs Strategy 2013–2020 and the EU Action Plan on Drugs 2017–2020, which was published in July 2020.^2,3

October 2018 saw the much-anticipated enactment of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act¹ and heralded a recognition by the Irish Government that our nation’s harmful relationship with alcohol could no longer be ignored. The legislation seeks to limit the damage to the nation’s health, society, and economy by reducing alcohol consumption; delaying the initiation of alcohol consumption by children and young people; reducing the harms caused by the misuse of alcohol; and ensuring the supply and price of alcohol is regulated and controlled in order to minimise the possibility and incidence of alcohol-related harm.

The alcohol industry and the public health community formed two opposing coalitions during the policy debate.³ The alcohol industry’s success in resisting population-level approaches to alcohol policy has been identified in Ireland^4,5,6,7–11 and elsewhere.^12–20 In contrast, public health advocates have typically had limited success. Yet in this case, public health advocates in Ireland have developed sophisticated political strategies to foster major alcohol policy change.