This is the final report of the EMCDDA project 'Review of scientific studies of mortality among drug users and feasibility study for a common methodology for monitoring overall and cause-specific mortality among drug users in Member States.' The project was developed according to the following phases:
1. Collection of published studies on mortality among drug users;
2. Critical revision of the methods used and the results obtained in the selected studies;
3. Oganisation of a meeting to discuss the major issues to be taken into account for developing a standardized methodology to assess overall and cause-specific mortality rates among drug users in Member States of European Union;
4. Draft of a standardized protocol for a cohort mortality study among drug users in different European Countries.