The major results of a World Health Organization consultation meeting which was organized to examine ways and means of improving the status of substance abuse education for health professionals in some European countries is presented. Conference participants included researchers, psychiatrists, advisers, clinicians, health administrators, and experts from 10 European countries and the United States involved in the design and implementation of substance abuse courses in the curricula of medical schools both at the postgraduate and undergraduate level. The report discusses several important aspects: (1) substance abuse problems in the European region including Austria, France, Spain, Sweden and the Soviet Union; (2) differences among national substance abuse policies in the European region; (3) substance abuse education in the United States; (4) the objectives of substance abuse training; (5) training methods; (6) structural conditions for the implementation of training programmes; and (7) postgraduate training programmes. A number of general and specific recommendations are provided for undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes. Specific guidelines for the training of general practitioners and general psychiatrists, and for implementing programmes for disciplines specifically related to substance abuse problems are outlined together with recommendations for training nonmedical health professionals. Participants, and their addresses and affiliations, are listed. (LPT)