Brussels, 21/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - When presenting journalists in Brussels on 20 November with the 2001 Annual Report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) based in Lisbon (see EUROPE of 15 November, p.18) at a launch attended by the President of the EP's Freedoms Committee, Graham Watson, and the President of the EMCDDA's Board, Mike Trace, the Agency's Director, Georges Estievenart, said that the Report aimed to analyse drugs trends in the EU and candidate countries, along with how the Member States responded politically, the EU's common response and the EU's anti-drug action plan for 2000-2004. Georges Estievanart pointed out that:
Substances.
1) Cannabis remains the most commonly used illegal drug in all EU countries with lifetime experience among those aged 15 to 64 ranging from around 10% in Finland to 20-25% in Denmark, France, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK. 2) The new phenomeonon of amphetamines, ecstasy and synthetic drugs is growing quite fast and is of considerable concern because young people tend to take them with other drugs, whether legal (like alcohol) or illegal (like cocaine). 3) There has been a rise in cocaine use, which had in the past been limited to the leisure activities of the wealthy. There is currently an upmarket trend of smoking cocaine in recreational nightlife but it is also used by poorer people in rave parties. 4) Heroin use is reported by less than one in 100 adults in the EU, but causes the most serious problems (AIDS, crime, infectious disease and death by overdose, etc). New data show that heroin use has rise in Greece, Luxembourg, Finland, the UK and Sweden; has not changed in Germnay, the Netherlands and Austria; and has fallen in Spain and France.
Use.
Several EU countries are affected, but problem drug use seems highest in Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and the UK, with 5 to 8 in every 1,000 15-64 year olds affected.
Measures.
EU Member States are taking more proactive measures linking up various strategies (medical, repression, etc) setting clear targets and increasing the importance of sceintific and information programmes. There has been a significant improvement in the quality and comparabilty of data supplied by Member States and to enhance this progress, five epidemiological indicators are now being impelmeted EU-wide under the Agency's aegis ( a resolution to this effect will be adopted by the next EU Health Council, indicated the EMCDDA's Director).
Mr Estievanart noted that comparing the EU with the rest of the world, there was no particular reason to be particularly optimistic, or pessimistic either for that matter, but great vigilance was required in terms of new synthetic drugs, the rise in cocaine use and the increase in poly-use and poly-drug addiction. Graham Watson stressed the utility and importance of the Agency's work and the need for greater harmonisation of data from the different Member States. He added that the strategy being implemented was effective and the EU's policies had led to various criminals being arrested.
In response to a question about co-operation with candidate countries, the EMCDDA's representatives stressed that candidate countries are stepping up their anti-drug measures, but drug use remained much higher than in the EU. The number of 15 to 16 year olds in candidate countries who have used an illegal drug at least once doubled between 1995 to 1999.
The report is available in all 11 official EU languages, and also Norwegian, at http: //annualreport.emcdda.org.