The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), known until 2024 as the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), is an agency of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

headquartered in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, and established in 1993. In June 2022, the

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and less formally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven institutions of the European Union (EU) a ...

approved a reform of the organization which lead to an extension of its mandate. The EUDA strives to be the "reference point" on drug usage for the European Union's member states, and to deliver "factual, objective, reliable and comparable information" about drug usage, drug addiction and related health complications, including

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver parenchyma, liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), Anorexia (symptom), poor appetite ...

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

and

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. Though the EUDA primarily serves

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, it also works with other partners, scientists and policy-makers around the world.

Mission and role

The Agency was founded on the principle that independent scientific research is a "vital resource to help Europe understand the nature of its drug problems and better respond to them." Its stated missions are to: * Provide the Community and EU Member States with: 'factual, objective, reliable and comparable information at European level concerning drugs and drug addiction and their consequences' * Collect, register and analyse information on 'emerging trends', particularly in polydrug use, and the combined use of licit and illicit psychoactive substances * Offer information on best practice in the EU Member States and facilitate exchange of such practice between them Among the Centre's target groups are policy-makers, who use this information to help formulate coherent national and EU drug strategies. Also served are professionals and researchers working in the drugs field and, more broadly, the European media and general public. At the heart of the Centre's work is the task of improving the comparability of drug information across Europe and devising the methods and tools required to achieve this. As a result of efforts to date, countries can now view how they fit into the wider European picture and examine common problems and goals. A key feature of the drug phenomenon is its shifting, dynamic nature, and tracking new developments is a central task of the Agency. The new mandate as of July 2024 includes new mechanisms such as a ''European Drug Alert System, European Threat Assessment System and a European Network of Forensic and Toxicological Laboratories''. This way the agency should better anticipate future drug-related challenges and their consequences, alerts on new drug risks and threats to health and security, strengthen the responses to the drug phenomenon and facilitate knowledge exchange for evidence-based drug policies.

Network, reports and partnerships

The Centre obtains information primarily from the "Reitox network": a group of focal points in each of the 28

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Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, the candidate countries to the EU, and at the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

. This human and computer network links the national information systems of the 28 Member States, Norway, and their key partners to the Agency. It acts as a practical instrument for the collection and exchange of data and information. The annual report on the state of the drugs problem in the

and Norway and an online statistical bulletin offer a yearly overview of the latest European drug situation and trends. Meanwhile, online country situation summaries provide a pool of national drug-related data. The Agency works in partnership with non-EU countries as well as with international bodies such as the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

, the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

's Pompidou Group, the

World Customs Organization The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Notable projects include its collaboration with the WTO on trade facilitation and the implementation of the SAFE Framework of Standar ...

, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and the European Police Office. There are also partnerships with

non-governmental organizations A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

such as with the Trans-European Drug Information (TEDI) in relation with drug checking services.

Critical Evaluation

Limits to the effectiveness of the organisation have been identified as possible disparity in research standards and rigour between member countries. Efforts to standardise research and data collection are an essential element to maintaining consistency and validity in universal application throughout the European Union. Benefit may be gained also from more detailed and timely monitoring of emerging drug trends in fulfilling the organisation's role of providing pre-emptive responses to drug related issues. An additional challenge to the Agency is ensuring limited resources are effectively managed so as not to provide replication of research and risk becoming redundant. The Agency is proactive in suggesting positive policy change, based on their data collection, to the organisations that can implement these changes. One such change was presented in their 2015 annual report titled 'Alternatives to punishment for drug-using offenders'. Razmadze and colleagues in their review of the Agency's report supported the contention that incarcerating drug users is placing a large financial burden on states as well as doing more harm to drug users and their families. The evidence shows that this option criminalises offenders and promotes recidivism whereas treatment and rehabilitation programs provide the better option to keep both the drug user and the public safer. This alternative approach towards drug users is in keeping with the guidelines by the United Nations 1988 and the Council of the European Union in 2012.

Acknowledgements

In 2013, The American Library Association recognised three Agency’s publications among the notable government documents of 2012.EMCDDA publications recognised by the American Library Association
EMCDDA 30.10.2013.

References

External links