Abstract
Historically, harm-reduction has been heroin-focussed and driven by concern over the risks of injecting. However, patterns of drug use vary widely across the European region.
Different patterns of use can have different impacts on the burden of drug-related harms. The aim of this chapter is to highlight this diversity and to discuss the implications for harm-reduction priorities and interventions.
The chapter does not provide an overview of drug use patterns in Europe but focuses on selected key themes together with illustrative case studies to underline the importance of innovative harm-reduction responses that are adapted to the particular harms that different drug use patterns may incur. The emphasis is on health-related harms.
For reasons of space, social harms such as drug-related crime or public order, though important, are not covered.