Brussels, 27/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - New particularly strong synthetic drugs, increasing numbers of overdoses in some countries and higher concentrations of substances: according to the annual report published on Tuesday 27 May by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the drugs consumed in Europe are having an increasingly damaging impact on health.
According to the report presented in Lisbon, more than 80 million Europeans (a quarter of the adult population in EU) has consumed an illegal drug at some time in their lives. In the preface to the document, Wolfgang Götz, EMCDDA Director, said that, despite the fact that “progress has been made in Europe on some of the major health policy objectives”, “worrying developments in a few member states” and the emergence of “new threats” mean there is no room for self-satisfaction.
“New psychoactive substances” (NPS or “new drugs”), not regulated by international law because there is not enough information about them, are constantly appearing on the drugs market, where they seek to imitate or even replace regulated drugs, according to the report. These drugs are produced in secret European laboratories or imported from China and India and are often sold on the internet as “legal highs” or “research medicals”. With 81 new drugs detected in 2013, the European Early Warning System (EWS) is “coming under growing pressure”. In total, the Centre is monitoring more than 350 psychoactive substances that have often been suspected of having led to intoxication or death. This is the example with the case of MDPV, the main component of the so-called “bath salts” drug associated with 99 deaths, particularly in Finland and the United Kingdom. Very powerful effects are obtained by small doses in the blood which are sometimes almost undetectable in fatal cases. Götz warned that “extremely small quantities can be used to produce multiple doses. We are only just beginning to become aware of the future consequences of this trend on public health and drugs control”.
Although the number of deaths linked to drugs has been falling overall in Europe (6,100 deaths due to overdoses in 2012, compared to 6,500 in 2011), some countries, such as Estonia, Norway, Ireland, Sweden and Finland, have experienced a worrying increase in the numbers of deaths due to overdosing, points out the report.
Heroin consumption is declining but is still implicated in many overdoses, although deaths linked to this drug have generally been falling. On the other hand, fatality rates linked to synthetic opiates that have replaced it, have increased in some countries.
Although cocaine consumption is not rising and may ion some instances be in decline, more than 500 deaths were linked to it in 19 countries in 2012.
Another concern involves the use of methamphetamine, which previously appeared limited to the Czech Republic and Slovakia but which now seems to have spread to Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Latvia and Turkey, along with the risky practices associated with its consumption.
The EMCDDA also notes the re-emergence of high dosage ecstasy powder and pills in several European countries. According to the EMCDDA, the market for these products appears to be taking off again and the Centre highlights the dismantling of the two largest drug production sites, in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2013, ever discovered in the EU.
The most drug consumed in Europe is cannabis and its consumption has remained stable overall or is fallening. There has also been a trend involving an increase in the main psychoactive substance in the drug (THC), for both cannabis resin, which is mainly imported from Morocco, and marijuana or “grass”, for which local production has increased in many countries. The EMCDDA has underlined the emergence of similar synthetic cannabis products such as cannabinoids, which can be “extremely powerful” and with worryingly harmful effects.
As in 2013, this year's report also deplores that “outbreaks of HIV among drug users in Greece and Romania, together with ongoing problems in some Baltic countries, have stalled Europe's progress in reducing the number of new drug-related HIV infections”.
Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström stated: “I am deeply concerned that the drugs consumed in Europe today may be even more damaging to users' health than in the past”. She is also concerned that ecstasy and cannabis sold in the street is stronger. The commissioner also notes that the European Union's Early Warning System is “under increasing pressure”. (LC)