The Tobacco Control Scale 2025 shows that progress in tobacco control across Europe has slowed, with more countries recording lower scores than in previous years. Key reasons include the failure to regulate heated tobacco products in the same way as cigarettes and the lack of adjustments to tobacco taxes and prices to keep pace with inflation.

While some countries, including the Netherlands, Slovenia, Belgium, and Portugal, strengthened their tobacco control policies, most countries saw little progress or declined in performance. Several countries were penalized for regulatory gaps related to...

The UNODC Early Warning Advisory highlights a continued global expansion of new psychoactive substances (NPS), with nearly 1,400 substances reported worldwide. In 2024 alone, a record number of substances were identified, including over 100 newly detected compounds.

Synthetic opioids—particularly fentanyl analogues and nitazenes—are a growing concern, now reported across all regions. At the same time, benzodiazepine-type substances remain widely present in drug samples. A key emerging risk is polysubstance use , with a significant share of deaths involving multiple substances.

Overall, the...

The European Union Drugs Agency has released updated data sheets providing a clear and comparable overview of drug-related indicators across six Western Balkan partners under the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA). These include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.

The data sheets bring together health and security information in one place, making it easier for policymakers and practitioners to access and use routine data. They are part of ongoing EU support to help these countries strengthen monitoring systems and align with EU...

Drug trafficking in the Pacific is rapidly expanding, shifting countries from transit points to consumer and production markets. However, many national laws remain outdated, as they were designed for earlier challenges like cannabis and are not equipped to address synthetic drugs and cocaine.

Governments are under pressure to respond, leading in some cases to tougher punitive proposals, but legislative reform alone is not keeping pace with the evolving threat. Fiji’s recent approach shows a more integrated model, combining law enforcement, public health, and community engagement through broad...

The 2025 Global Organized Crime Index shows that overall crime levels in Europe remain stable, and the region continues to rank among the least affected globally. However, this stability hides a more complex reality, with criminal markets and actors evolving and expanding.

Financial crime is the most widespread threat, driven by online fraud and cross-border schemes, while cybercrime continues to grow, often linked to state-backed or hybrid actors. Drug markets are also shifting, with cocaine and synthetic drugs increasing, while trafficking and smuggling networks remain deeply entrenched.

A...

Secondhand smoke (SHS) continues to be a major global health risk, contributing to cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, and respiratory illnesses. Using data from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 study across 204 countries, this analysis examined the burden of SHS exposure through Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) across different socio-demographic regions. The findings show notable sex and regional disparities: ischemic heart disease caused a higher burden among males, while diabetes and stroke affected females more. COPD had the highest burden in lower-middle SDI regions...

Smokeless tobacco use is very common in South Asia, but there is limited evidence on effective ways to help users quit. This randomized study evaluated a face-to-face behavioural support program (BISCA) compared with self-help materials among adult smokeless tobacco users attending a dental hospital. One hundred participants who were motivated to quit were included. The BISCA group showed better outcomes for most tobacco withdrawal symptoms and slightly higher quit rates than the self-help group, though the difference was not statistically significant. Given the high prevalence of smokeless...

The WHO Africa Mental Health Dashboard, accessible via WHO AFRO Mental Health Dashboard, consolidates key indicators into a single, interactive platform that enables users to track progress, identify gaps and align national efforts with regional and global targets. It is designed to support ministries of health, policymakers, WHO staff, technical partners and the public in making informed decisions and driving action.

The dashboard features an AI-powered chatbot that simplifies complex insights for users, making the data more accessible.

Data is sourced from WHO, GBD, the Mental Health Atlas...

The Mental Health or Nurses and Doctors (MeND) survey, conducted by WHO Regional Office for Europe under a contribution agreement with the European Commission, aimed to explore the mental health, well-being and working conditions of doctors and nurses in the 27 European Union countries plus Iceland and Norway.

The survey was disseminated from October 2024 to April 2025 across all 29 countries, obtaining 122 048 responses, of which 90 171 were valid. The findings indicated a high prevalence of mental health conditions and unsafe working conditions – including violence, extended working hours...

The ESPAD report presents the results of the eighth data-collection wave, which took place in 2024, and marks an impressive 30 years of data collection by this long-standing collaboration. More than 113 000 15- to 16-year-old students from 37 countries, including 25 EU Member States, took part. Since 1995, over 800 000 students have contributed, making ESPAD the most extensive harmonised data collection on substance use and risk behaviours in Europe, and the largest cross- national research project on adolescent substance use worldwide.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) transforms complex data into insights that reflect real human experiences. Every aspect of the Canadian Substance Use Cost and Harms (CSUCH) project represents individuals with lived or living experience of substance use, along with their families, workplaces, and communities.

A new resource highlights these journeys and the human cost of substance use through illustrated stories from people with lived experience and their families. The illustrations cover three key areas of the CSUCH project: healthcare, lost productivity, and...

Introduction

Prevention science is interdisciplinary, drawing upon multiple fields of research and practice to develop integrated knowledge. A challenge facing the field is the proliferation of different terms with the same meaning, and of terms with different meanings. This can create confusion in communication, affect evaluation standards, and ultimately also affect the implementation of preventive interventions. Contributing to the development of evidence standards for preventive interventions, this article describes the process and results of interdisciplinary prevention terminology...

In this reading list, we provide resources to help engage our members with the latest knowledge, tools, and case studies on quality standards in substance use disorder treatment . These materials highlight international frameworks, research-backed practices, and country-level initiatives designed to improve access, strengthen systems, and ensure safe, ethical, and effective care. 

Together, they offer a practical foundation for policy-makers, service providers, researchers, and healthcare professionals to reflect on what “quality” means in treatment and how to achieve it across diverse...