ABSTRACT
The main objective of the Harm Reduction policies, health measures that have been wide-spread in Europe since the early 1980s, is to protect the health of the people who use drugs. The spread of COVID-19 has created new areas of vulnerability and exacerbated existing ones, posing unprecedented health challenges, including that of protecting drug users. Good practices have been disseminated to drug users in addition to the standard recommendations. Equally, current RdD policies will need to be strengthened and implemented in the light of the new COVID-19 pandemic, as foreseen in recent months by leading scientific societies and national and international associations. RdD messages focusing on the risks associated with injection will need to be remodeled in the light of the risk of infection through droplets that typifies practices considered until now "at low risk", such as sharing cigarettes, vaporization and inhalation tools. The territorial care should be strengthened with the help of telemedicine and toxicological and infectious screening services at home, based on the model applied in Hubei Province (China). The work of the forensic and clinical toxicology laboratories and the activation of additional early warning systems will be directed towards prevention and early warning of possible market changes in terms of changing demand, substitution and counterfeiting of substances. © 2020 Giuffre Editore SpA. All rights reserved.