The Civil Society Forum on Drugs (CSFD) is an expert group of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the European Commission that supports the commission in its drug policy formulation and implementation.¹ One of its four working groups focuses on supporting and promoting the European Union’s (EU) 2015 minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction.² In January 2020, CSFD published its guidelines and recommendations for the implementation of minimum quality standards by CSOs,³ followed in 2021 by a CFSD advocacy plan for the promotion and implementation of minimum quality standards in drug demand reduction.⁴

As previously outlined in Drugnet Ireland, the Best Practice Portal of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) 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.¹ It aims to support these stakeholders to identify tried and tested interventions quickly, allocate resources to what is effective, and improve interventions applying tools, standards, and guidelines. As part of the portal, the EMCDDA hosts and maintains the Xchange prevention registry² and the Healthy Nightlife Toolbox (HNT).³ Stakeholders can use these registries to make evidence-based decisions about effective interventions.

The Tabor Group is a provider of residential addiction treatment services in Ireland. It aims to offer hope, healing, and recovery to clients suffering from addictions through integrated and caring services. In addition to three residential facilities, the organisation provides a continuing care programme to clients who have completed treatment in order to assist with their recovery. It also offers counselling to families whose loved ones are struggling with an addiction. In 2020, the Tabor Group published its annual report.¹ This article highlights services provided by the Tabor Group to individuals with a substance use addiction in 2019.

AcoRN, the UK-Ireland Alcohol Research Network, was formally launched on Thursday, 29 April 2021.¹ The aim of AcoRN is to generate and build capacity for interdisciplinary research into the development, adoption, implementation, and evaluation of alcohol policy innovation in Ireland and the United Kingdom (UK).

The National Family Support Network (NFSN)¹ ceased operations on Monday, 26 April 2021. The original Family Support Network was established in 2000 following the successful organisation by family support groups of the first Service of Commemoration and Hope. This spiritual, multidenominational service is held in remembrance of loved ones lost to substance misuse and related causes and to publicly support and offer hope to families living with the devastation that substance misuse causes. Subsequent to the success of this event and the evident desire of families to continue with such events, the Family Support Network was formed under the auspices of the CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign.

The HRB National Drugs Library,¹ based within the Health Research Board, supports those working to develop the knowledge base around drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in Ireland. In February 2021, staff of the library asked visitors to its website to fill in a short survey about their experience of the website and library services. Forty-two responses were received and some of the survey findings are presented here.