Statistical bulletin 2004

This publication is the first issue of the EMCDDA’s statistical bulletin. It is available only as an Internet publication and is presented only in English. The bulletin is a companion publication to the EMCDDA annual report and provides a complementary information source. It supplies the user with the data tables collated by the EMCDDA from the information submitted by the national focal points Reitox network. These tables constitute the epidemiological basis on which the annual report is written and are frequently referenced by it.  In addition to the tables of data and the accompanying graphics, the bulletin gives detailed technical commentaries, notes and descriptions.

The Commentary section in this edition of the bulletin reports on the general development of data availability for monitoring purposes. In this first edition of the bulletin, some attention had been given to providing data that reach back historically into the EMCDDA data bank and that in future, for the main part, will not be provided in such breadth. Future issues of the bulletin will, however, comment more fully on recent trends and on the latest position of the drugs problem in Europe in more technical detail than can be presented in the annual report.

The Methods and definitions section of the statistical bulletin collects together the information on the EMCDDA guidelines and protocols, summarising the main points for each of the key indicators and the associated developing areas of core data. It briefly describes the definitions used in collecting the data for the main tables, and comments on their rationale and implications. This section contains links to the more detailed descriptions of the guidelines and protocols found elsewhere on the EMCDDA website.

The tables are presented for screen browsing in the Data tables section and also in an accessible and editable form for downloading. For information on downloading tables in spreadsheet format and on printing the user should consult the Downloading and technical information section of the bulletin. Some of the information recorded at the EMCDDA is held in tables that are very large – typically this information consists of lists of research studies in the key indicator fields. These have not been included in the bulletin itself, but have been included as an Annex that is available online on the EMCDDA website.

In this year, 2004, the EU has enlarged considerably to cover new countries that in earlier years have not fully been integrated into the data-gathering network the EMCDDA reflects. This unavoidably means that many tables are incomplete, some with a large number of missing items of information, and they necessarily show only a partial picture of the European drug situation. The gaps in information also arise from earlier EU countries and in some areas the data is sparse, occasionally leading to a table not being presented at all. The table structures in the 2004 bulletin may therefore change in coming years, as the data collected progresses towards providing a fuller pan-European picture.

Edition: Statistical bulletin 2004/November