For this pilot study, the survey is being conducted in different countries across Europe. The countries are: Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The surveys are running at different times. Below, you can find more details, links to live surveys including the dates on which they are running.

The EMCDDA is currently developing estimates of the size of the drug market in the EU based on data provided routinely to the EMCDDA by National Focal Points. One key component of such market size estimates, for which there is no routine data collection and only limited data available, is the quantities of substances used by different groups of drug users. The data that is available has tended to come mainly from small scale studies of specific heavy user groups, for example of people entering treatment. On the other hand, General Population Surveys generally do not have sufficiently large samples of drug users to provide robust information on amounts.

For the report Further Insights into the EU drug markets, researchers from Trimbos Institute coordinated an online survey of drug users in seven EU countries, which included the collection of information about amounts used as well as frequency of use and sources of supply. The data collected provided valuable information on the variation in quantities used per occasion by different user groups in different countries. It also demonstrated the potential of this approach for obtaining information from drug users in different countries in a quick and cost-effective manner, while highlighting areas requiring further development to improve the method for the future.

The EMCDDA is therefore undertaking a pilot project in collaboration with the researchers from the Trimbos Institute to build on the earlier survey experience and develop a system and the capacity within EMCDDA for collecting such data. This would not only be of value to the EMCDDA but would also be a valuable resource for National Focal Points allowing them to obtain valuable information for policy development at the national level quickly and at low cost. If successful, it is anticipated that the range of topics covered would be developed further in the future.

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Pilot project: European web survey on drugs: Patterns of use

The NSW premier, Mike Baird, has dismissed a planned trial of pill testing at music festivals as “ridiculous”. “We are not going to be condoning in any way what illegal drug dealers are doing,” he told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

His comments follow reports the Sydney doctor Alex Wodak, the president of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation, wants to begin a privately funded pill testing trial – and is prepared to break the law to do so – to save lives. Wodak and an emergency medical specialist, David Caldicott, say they will begin a privately funded trial with or without the Baird government’s approval. “I am prepared to break the law to save young people’s lives,” Dr Wodak told Fairfax Media.

In January, the New South Wales government threatened to shut down some music festivals after a spate of drug overdoses. The threat followed several people being rushed to hospital suffering suspected drug overdoses at Sydney’s Field Day music festival, which is held on New Year’s Day. More than 180 others were charged with drug offences. There were three drug-related deaths at similar events in 2015.

The NSW premier, Mike Baird, said in January that ministers would be asked to review the regulations for granting permits for events on public land. “Enough is enough, this simply has to stop,” he told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

On Saturday, seven people were charged with drugs offences after the first day of the Secret Garden Music Festival in Camden, south-west of Sydney. Police said they searched more than 100 people at the three-day festival on Friday and those arrested face 11 charges between them. They were all granted conditional bail to appear at Picton Local Court on April 26.

Mike Baird attacks drug experts' vow to trial pill testing even if it breaks the law 

Have you ever wondered why ending the War on Drugs isn't as simple as passing a few laws in Congress? Well, it has to do with some pretty bad pieces of international law that tie the hands of national governments to policies that even they know kinda stink. Fortunately, there's a coalition of really smart people working at the highest levels to untangle what is a really bad knot. Here's what I mean...

This April 19 to 21, many of the world's countries, together with human rights and advocacy organizations from around the world, will meet in New York at the United Nations to discuss global drug policy in an event called the "UNGASS," which is UN-speak for United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs.

See, the reason so many drugs are harshly criminalized is because there are three international treaties - the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971, and the Convention Against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 - that require countries who sign the treaty (including the United States, Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe), to "establish as a criminal offense" the "cultivation, production, extraction, possession, sale, distribution, purchase, and delivery" of several drugs and to "prosecute and punish," "particularly by imprisonment," individuals or groups who violate the terms of the treaties.

These treaties have thus established drug criminalization and the drug war as an "international norm," or a commonly accepted international standard of behavior, which means that because they signed the treaties, governments have to pass national laws in line with the treaty or face damage being done to their reputation on the international stage. Because of a principle in international law called 

, which is Latin for "agreements must be kept," going against the treaty would, in theory, damage their "soft power," their ability to use their reputation and influence to achieve their foreign policy goals, without having to rely on hard power threats of military force. And because countries don't want to become known as not being good on their word when they sign treaties, they therefore enact the drug war at home.

An edited version of this article was originally published on the Drug Policy Alliance blog.

Here's why the UN's big meeting on drugs matters to you

People working in law enforcement, drug treatment, harm reduction and social services, are calling for drug policy reform to end the punishment of people who use drugs in Asia.

This film was produced with support from the European Union through the Asia Action on Harm Reduction programme.

Click here to access the Support Don't Punish website.

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Pilot project: European web survey on drugs: Patterns of use

Mike Baird attacks drug experts' vow to trial pill testing even if it breaks the law

Here's why the UN's big meeting on drugs matters to you

Support. Don't Punish - Voices for drug policy reform from Asia, Trailer