Drug poisoning (overdose) deaths are a leading cause of avoidable death with rates increasing globally. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the mortality rate due to drug poisoning in the European Union in 2019 is estimated at 14.8 deaths per million population aged 15–64 years, with over three-quarters (77%) of these deaths among men.

Individuals who use cannabis are more likely to use other illicit substances, with several epidemiological studies showing that the use of cannabis is significantly related to the use of ‘harder’ illegal drugs, including stimulants such as cocaine and ecstasy.

There is ongoing debate regarding the relationships between early onset substance use and later use of other drugs. The common liability model states that a combination of risk factors places some people at increased risk of both early initiation and of subsequent progression to more serious and sustained drug abuse.

Until 2010, new psychoactive substances (NPS) could be bought legally in headshops in Ireland. However, recent finding from the Irish National Drug and Alcohol Survey 2019–20¹ show that the prevalence of recent NPS use remains very low.

In 2010, new psychoactive substances (NPS) were the subject of two pieces of legislation in Ireland.^1,2 The first (enacted in May 2010) expanded the list of substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Acts 1977−1984 to include over 100 NPS.¹ The second, the Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 (enacted in August 2010), covered the sale of substances by virtue of their psychoactive properties. It was aimed at vendors of NPS and effectively made it an offence to sell a psychoactive substance.

Published in July 2021, the latest National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) report presents trends in treated problem alcohol use for the seven-year period from 2014 to 2020.¹

The first Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study was conducted in Ireland in 1998 and has been repeated every four years ever since. In 2018, Ireland participated for the sixth time in the HBSC study.

The European Schools Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) has conducted surveys of school-going children every four years since 1995 using a standardised method and a common questionnaire. The seventh survey was undertaken in 35 European countries during 2019 and collected information on alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use among 15–16-year-old students.

The Self-Harm Assessment and Data Analysis (SADA) Project was set up in Ireland in 2016 to provide robust information relating to the incidence and profile of self-harm within prison settings as well as individual-specific and context-specific risk factors relating to self-harm. In addition, it examines patterns of repeat self-harm (both non-fatal and fatal). The Health Service Executive’s National Office for Suicide Prevention and the National Suicide Research Foundation assist the Irish Prison Service with data management, data analysis, and reporting. This article highlights findings from a report presenting data in the analysis of all episodes of self-harm across the Irish prison estate during the year 2019.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) is Ireland’s specialist agency for the surveillance of communicable diseases. Part of the Health Service Executive (HSE), and originally known as the National Disease Surveillance Centre, the HPSC endeavours to protect and improve the health of the Irish population by collating, interpreting, and disseminating data to provide the best possible information on infectious diseases. The HPSC has recorded new cases among injecting drug users of HIV since 1982, HBV (hepatitis B virus) since 2004, and HCV (hepatitis C virus) since 2006. The figures and tables presented in this summary are based on data extracted from the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) System in July 2021.