On 30 September and 1 October 2021, the EMCDDA brought together more than 60 European and international experts for the annual meeting on the key indicator Drug-related deaths. The online meeting provided a space for sharing and discussing new data, studies and experiences at regional, national and European level. This meeting report provides an overview of presentations and discussion and is focused on the following topics.

1. The 2020-21 update on the activities of the EMCDDA and the DRD network
2. Preliminary analysis of the 2021 reports on drug-related deaths
3. The COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on drug-related deaths data and trends
4.  Responses to overdoses
5.  Mortality cohort studies to answer key policy questions
6. Drug-related deaths coding and assessment of the quality of the data

The DRD network meeting brings together invited experts and experts nominated by the Reitox national focal points from the EU Member States, Norway and Turkey, the Western Balkans (through the IPA7 project), and the European Neighbourhood Policy countries (EU4MD project). Participating experts come from ministries of health, public health institutes, drugs agencies, universities, research institutes and civil society. This year, invited experts from Austria, Canada and France joined the expert meeting, and several new national experts attended the meeting....