In May 2025, it was announced that the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Drugs Use had been re-established. On 22 October 2024, the first iteration of the Committee published the Joint Committee on Drugs Use Interim Report,¹ but the dissolution of the Government in November 2024 saw an end to their work. A commitment was made in the Programme for Government 2025 to re-establish the Committee to continue its work.²

In May 2025, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in the United Kingdom (UK) published a report titled A Whole-System Response to Drug Prevention in the UK.¹ It is a comprehensive report that reflects on the evidence for the various components of an effective drug prevention system, including for prevention interventions.

While the report’s focus is on the UK, it should be of interest to prevention stakeholders in Ireland. This article is based on both the published report and a presentation made by the Chair of the ACMD, Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, at a seminar held by the the UK-based Drug Education Forum on 19 June 2025.^{1, 2}