The consumption of alcohol and other drugs is a serious problem worldwide, characterized as one of the global priorities of public health, mental health and sustainable development. Therefore, considering the public health perspective, the planning of programs and public policies must consider large portions of the population. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agenda 2030, recommended by the United Nations (UN), indicate in their third objective, good health and well-being and, as a specific objective, to strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance use, including the use of alcohol and other drugs. Estimates regarding the use of alcohol and other drugs released in 2021 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) indicate that among 275 million users of any type of drug, approximately 36.3 million, or almost 13%, may present disorders due to drug use, which represents the need for treatment for dependence. This corresponds to a prevalence of drug use disorders of 0.7% globally among the population aged between 15 and 64 years, representing one of the main risk factors for death and disability in Brazil and in the world, also demonstrating the extent of its use and its impact on the health of the population.2As the analysis shows, the population growth projection for 2030 translates into a potential 11% increase in the global population that uses drugs, with a greater impact in low-income countries than in high-income countries. Consideration of a broader context, including other projected demographic changes related to age, sex distribution and urbanization, could result in an even greater increase in the total number of people who use drugs in low-income countries. Added to the fact that in the year 2020, humanity was affected by COVID-19, and that its social impact caused an increase in inequality, poverty and mental health conditions, especially among already vulnerable populations, with the the sum of these factors can lead more people to consume drugs. In Brazil, these estimates point to the need to invest in the production, dissemination and sharing of knowledge and technologies to strengthen the Unified Health System (SUS) and contribute to the promotion of health and quality of life for the population, in the sense of promoting the reduction of social inequalities and producing innovation projects, defending the right to health and citizenship.Thus, we affirm the need for the development of research that can use population surveys as subsidies for the formulation and evaluation of public policies, which are becoming increasingly popular in several countries as a tool to support health planning. Brazil has some research groups working in this area in relation to the use of alcohol and other drugs, but there is no systematic monitoring, along the lines of what is carried out by the European Observatory on Drugs, the European Monitoring Center for Drug and Drug Addiction. (EMCDDA), mapping the consumption of different substances in different regions of Europe. Given the above, this proposal aims to search for studies of population health surveys that address strategies for collecting and analyzing data on the epidemiology of the use of alcohol and other drugs.