The 21st annual conference of the European Society for Social Drug Research (ESSD) took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia, from 30 September to 2 October 2010. The principal aim of the ESSD is to promote social science approaches to drug research, with special reference to the situation in Europe. The three-day conference covered the following themes in drug research:  

The presentations by researchers based in Ireland, a fifth of the total number of presentations delivered at the conference, illustrate the strength of social drug research in this country. They were based on a mix of ongoing and completed empirical studies, focusing on a number of topical issues and using both traditional and new methods of social investigation. The book of abstracts of the 2010 conference is available at www.drugsandalcohol.ie/14196