Drug Problems in Europe

Overview of the report

Chapter one focuses on policies and law regarding drugs as a whole, Chapter two presents an overview of responses to drug problems in Europe through prevention, treatment, harm reduction, social reintegration, law enforcement, and health and social responses in prison. The next three chapters portray the patterns of cannabis, amphetamines, ecstasy, hallucinogenic substances, cocaine and crack cocaine use. Finally the two last chapters (Chapter seven and Chapter eight) propose an outline of drug-related infectious diseases and deaths, as well as, new drugs and emerging trends.

Europe is dealing with an increased sophisticated drug market

Due to the illegal nature of drugs, data on the drug market and trafficking are lacking. The data that does exist is not always disseminated successful, however, some trends are clear: cannabis consumption is decreasing, the spread of cocaine and heroin is increasing and the internet is becoming increasingly used as a tool for the circulation of information and goods.

Wolfgang Götz, Director of the EMCDDA, stated that, “The past year has been an important one for drug policy, at European and global level. Almost in parallel, the European Union and the United Nations both renewed their drug policy documents, which reflect a strong international commitment to reducing drug use and the harms it can cause. Attaining the goals set out in these documents now constitutes a major challenge and one that can only be met if the actions planned are implemented widely. Monitoring and evaluation are key elements in this process, as they allow policies to be kept on course and progress to be charted.”

Drug use is, of course, detrimental to health as it is linked to the spread of communicable diseases, such as, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B and C, as well as drug-related deaths. Therefore, the increasing availability and affordability of drugs is increasing the threat to health of people living in Europe. Today, Europe is dealing with an increasingly sophisticated drug market. It is no longer possible to tackle this issue at the national level.

Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Justice, Liberty and Security, commented on this topic, "the European Commission has been trying hard for over ten years to overcome these national barriers in Europe... Today, we call on Member States to act in a united and coordinated manner to use more and more not only the figures and the reports of the EMCDDA, but also the tools that they themselves have put in place."

For more information:
 The EMCDDA website

 To read the annual report click here.

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