Editorial
We are very pleased to announce that the European Commission (DG5) has agreed to give financial support to the production of 4 issues of the Newsletter. For one year, the Newsletter will be published every three months in four languages: English, French, German and Spanish. In this issue, you will find information on the provision of methadone in various parts of Europe, both on a national and city level: Denmark, Germany, Dublin, Sofia and Lisbon. We hope that this panoramic view will stimulate discussion and an exchange of ideas. Earlier this year, DRUGLINK (Volume 11, issue 1) published two articles on methadone. To catch the attention of the readers, the front page had a picture of a bottle of methadone. A drawing of a skull and cross-bones and the word ‘Methadone’ on the label left no room for misunderstanding: ‘methadone is a potential killer!’. One of the articles (Preston and Bennett) described the history of methadone, the other (Russell Newcombe) analysed mortality connected with the use of methadone in the United Kingdom. We asked Marcel Buster and Giel van Brussel, both working in the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service, to write a reaction to Newscombe’s article. We have also received a contribution from Alex Wodak and James Bell with the title ‘Methadone overdose deaths in Australia’. We hope that these two articles will contribute towards proper use of methadone and the prevention of casualties.