The knowledge about substance use and treatment among migrants and ethnic minorities is scarce in the European Union. In light of recommendations to optimize data gathering and processing, the aim of this paper is to identify which migration and ethnicity related indicators are used in the EU-28 treatment demand indicator (TDI) registries. We present results of a systematic TDI report analysis and an online survey. Because of the importance of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality in the European Union, we base the discussion of the results on survey responses of experts in the member states. We subsequently discuss considerations related to 1) optimizing migration and ethnicity related indicators in TDI and other drug related indicator protocols, 2) using unique identifiers, and 3) enhancing purpose specification and informed consent. These suggestions are formulated against the backdrop of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as the growing need to ground comprehensive drug treatment policies in tiered modelling and multi-indicator analysis.
Keywords: GDPR; Migration and ethnicity related indicators; drug treatment data.