The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures required to address it are cutting a swathe through people’s lives and the global economy. People with addictive disorders are particularly badly affected as a result of poverty, physical and mental health vulnerabilities and disruption of access to services. The pandemic may well increase the extent and severity of some addictive disorders. Current research is suffering from the termination of face-to-face data collection and other restrictions. There is an urgent need to coordinate efforts nationally and internationally to mitigate these problems and to find innovative ways of continuing to provide clinical and public health services to help people with addictive disorders.