The Bulletin of the World Health Organization is an international journal of public health with a special focus on developing countries. Since it was first published in 1948 the Bulletin has become one of the world's leading public health journals. As the flagship periodical of the World Health Organization (WHO) the Bulletin draws on WHO experts as editorial advisers reviewers and authors as well as on external collaborators. In this month's issue: Scaling up opioid dependence treatment in low- and middle-income settings; Opioid substitution: improving cost-efficiency; Human resources for universal health coverage: a call for papers; Methadone maintenance treatment and mortality in HIV-positive people who inject opioids in China; Mortality among people who inject drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis; ementing methadone maintenance treatment in prisons in Malaysia; Human resource development and capacity-building during China s rapid scale-up of methadone maintenance treatment services; Methadone maintenance treatment in Spain: the success of a harm reduction approach; Arguments in favour of compulsory treatment of opioid dependence; Advocates need to show compulsory treatment of opioid dependence is effective safe and ethical; Voluntary treatment not detention in the management of opioid dependence; Mitigating the risk of HIV infection with opioid substitution treatment; Delivery models of opioid agonist maintenance treatment in South Asia: a good beginning; Managing tuberculosis in people who use and inject illicit drugs.