Perspectives on drugs: Preventing overdose deaths in Europe

It is estimated that over 70 000 lives were lost to drug overdoses in Europe in the first decade of the 21st Century. Reducing drug-related deaths, therefore, remains a major challenge for public health policy. This analysis describes some of the factors that increase the risk of fatal and non-fatal overdoses and a number of interventions developed to prevent these events.

Part of the ‘Perspectives on drugs’ (PODs) series, launched alongside the annual European Drug Report, these designed-for-the-web interactive analyses aim to provide deeper insights into a selection of important issues.