Ireland’s “Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery” strategy sets out the Government’s response to addressing the harm caused by substance misuse in our society over the next eight years. It identifies a set of key actions to be delivered between 2017 and 2020, and provides an opportunity for the development of further actions from 2021 to 2024.

CHAPTER 1 – Introduction p.7
CHAPTER 2 – Vision, Values and Goals p.16

CHAPTER 3 – Goal 1: Promote and protect health and wellbeing p.19
Objective 1.1: Promote healthier lifestyles within society p.21
Objective 1.2: Prevent use of drugs and alcohol at a young age p.22
Objective 1.3: Develop harm reduction interventions targeting at risk groups p.28
Performance indicators related to Goal 1 p.32

CHAPTER 4 – Goal 2: Minimise the harms caused by the use and misuse of substances and promote rehabilitation and recovery p.33
Objective 2.1: To attain better health and social outcomes for people who experience harm from substance misuse and meet their recovery and rehabilitation needs p.33
Objective 2.2: Reduce harm amongst high risk drug users 49
Performance Indicators related to Goal 2 p.53

CHAPTER 5 – Goal 3: Address the harms of drug markets and reduce access to drugs for harmful use p.54
Objective 3.1: Provide a comprehensive and responsive misuse of drugs control framework which ensures the proper control, management and regulation of the supply of drugs p.54
Objective 3.2: Implement effective law enforcement and supply reduction strategies and actions to prevent, disrupt or otherwise reduce the availability of illicit drugs p.59
Objective 3.3: Develop effective monitoring and responses to evolving trends, public health threats and the emergence of new drug markets 61
Performance indicators related to Goal 3 p.62

CHAPTER 6 – Goal 4: Support participation of individuals, families and communities p.63
Objective 4.1: Strengthen the resilience of communities and build their capacity to respond p.63
Objective 4.2: Enable participation of both users of services and their families p.66
Performance Indicators related to Goal 4 p.68

CHAPTER 7 – Goal 5: Develop sound and comprehensive evidence-informed policies and actions p.69
Objective 5.1. Support high quality monitoring, evaluation and research to ensure evidence-informed policies and practice p.69
Performance Indicators related to Goal 5 p.72

CHAPTER 8 – Strengthening the performance of the strategy p.73
CHAPTER 9 – Conclusion p.81
CHAPTER 10 – Strategic action plan for the period 2017-2020 p.82

APPENDIX 1 – Membership of the Steering Committee on the National Drugs Strategy p.98
APPENDIX 2 – List of relevant inter-connected strategies and policies 99
Glossary of Terms p.100
References p.102