The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has published reports on the evidence and recommended policy actions for reducing the harm caused by alcohol via its pricing and marketing regulations.^{1, 2} The reports are intended to be a resource for governments and those implementing policies across Europe.

A paper by Darcy (2021) outlining a toolkit for those delivering drug education was published in the Health Education Journal entitled ‘Drug education best practice for health, community and youth workers: a practical and accessible tool-kit’.¹ It aims to support health, community, and youth workers by providing best practice guidance on drug education with children, young people, and adults. As well as outlining effective approaches to adopt when delivering drug education and issues to consider when setting up and delivering a programme, the paper sets out to provide conceptual clarity on the distinction between drug education and other approaches to drug issues, in particular drug prevention.

In his paper outlining a toolkit for those delivering drug education, Darcy (2021) refers to the EMCDDA’s Best Practice Portal.^1,2 The Best Practice Portal is designed to help practitioners find practical and reliable information on what works (and what does not) in the areas of prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and social reintegration. It aims to help them identify tried and tested interventions quickly, allocate resources to what is effective, and improve interventions applying tools, standards, and guidelines. The portal is divided into four broad areas.

The voice of people who use drugs (PWUD) is often missing from the debate on drug policy. In an effort to address this gap, Leonard and Windle in 2020 published the findings of a qualitative study carried out in Cork: ‘I could have went down a different path’: talking to people who used drugs problematically and service providers about Irish drug policy alternatives.¹ The findings are placed within the broader context of international literature on the topic.