This article considers the differences between drug problems and community drug problems. Community drug problems arise when there are concentrations of individual drug problems in the community. The most obvious impacts on the community are an increase in local crime rates, increase in the number of young people who have died from AIDS related illness and greater demands on local health and social services. Other, more debilitating effects for the community include a loss of community morale and a sense that the drug problem has little public interest beyond sensational media reports and political sound bites. The author outlines recent developments in relation to government and health board drug strategy, but emphasises the need for community based teams, such as the pilot schemes in Ballymun and Rialto. He also calls for a clear policy from the government in relation to the Drug Treatment Centre Board and its role in developing community based programmes, and non-abstinent methadone maintenance programmes. The author concludes that community drug problems should not be separated from the social and economic context in which they occur. He highlights the importance of local responses, which are designed to tackle issues of local structures, representation and development.