The EMCDDA is one of the European Union’s agencies and was created in 1993 to provide the Community and its Member States with "objective, reliable and comparable information at European level concerning drugs and drug addiction and their consequences".
According to the 2005 report, there are currently over 2 million problematic drug users in the EU, more than half of whom are likely to be injecting drug users (IDUs). It is also reported that around 9 million Europeans (3% of adults) have experimented with cocaine at one time or another, and over 62 million (more than 20% of all adults) have used cannabis at some stage in their lives.
European Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini and Commissioner for Freedom, Security and Justice, stated that the problem of drugs in the EU was not one that could be solved by Member States alone. It is therefore the role of the Commission to ensure a coherent approach in solving the drugs problem by ensuring actions are taken based on objective and reliable data.
The European approach to tackling the Union’s drug problems has been developed through the EU’s Drug Strategies and Action Plans. This model involves achieving a balance between prevention, education and treatment on the one hand, and the enforcement of laws against drug manufacturing and trafficking on the other.
Related EPHA article:
Consultation on EU Action Plan for Drugs
