Results and challenges of running the Web Survey on Drugs in Luxembourg: a major contribution to understanding the drug situation

This paper shows how the second wave of the European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD) led to a better understanding of the drug situation in Luxembourg. Until the EWSD, detailed information on the drug situation in Luxembourg was very limited, with only a few surveys, often small-scale, having been conducted in the country since the late 1990s. As shown in the paper, the EWSD was able to provide new and complementary information that allowed for deeper insights into patterns of drug use in the country, for example by comparing the survey results with those of the 2014 general population survey. The paper also offers reflections on the methodological challenges and lessons learned in conducting the survey. Among these are the role played by social media platforms in recruiting participants, the use of paid and unpaid advertisements, and importance of linking with national partners to implement the survey. The paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges faced with implementing a targeted web survey in general and in Luxembourg specifically, such as the importance of including languages spoken by large minority groups to gain better survey coverage.