Potent synthetic substances, new drug mixtures and changing patterns of drug use are a growing threat in Europe, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in its European Drug Report 2024 published on Tuesday 11 June.
The EMCDDA notes that the availability of drugs remains high in Europe, where the market offers a wide range of products. People who use drugs are now exposed to a wider range of psychoactive substances, which are often more potent or purer, or appear in new forms, mixtures or combinations.
As products are sometimes mis-sold, consumers may be unaware of what they are consuming and expose themselves to the risk of more serious health problems, including possible fatal poisoning.
The report “highlights concerns around potent synthetic opioids, sometimes mis-sold or mixed with medicines and other drugs; MDMA adulterated with synthetic cathinones; and cannabis products adulterated with synthetic cannabinoids”.
At the end of 2023, the EMCDDA was monitoring more than 950 new psychoactive substances (NSP), 26 of which had been detected that year for the first time in Europe.
One of the report’s key messages is that “polysubstance use”, i.e. the simultaneous or successive consumption of two or more psychoactive substances, is common in Europe today.
Whether it involves using benzodiazepines with opioids, or cocaine with alcohol, this pattern of drug use can increase health risks and complicate the delivery of interventions (e.g. overdose response). These difficulties are even greater when people consume mixtures of drugs without their knowledge.
“One of the challenges facing drug surveillance in 2024 is to gain a deeper understanding of what drugs are actually being consumed and in what combinations”, the Observatory sums up.
Heroin remains the most commonly used illicit opioid in Europe and accounts for a significant portion of the health problems associated with illicit drug use.
“Europe’s opioid market, however, is increasingly complex, featuring a variety of substances, including synthetic opioids. A total of 81 new synthetic opioids have appeared on the European drug market since 2009”.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/cm3 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)