It is a market described as “extremely complex and rapidly evolving”. And it is not high-strength synthetic substances, new mixtures, or poly-consumption that will slow down the powerful drug market in Europe, on the contrary.
According to the director of the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) Alexis Goosdeel, “established illicit drugs are widely accessible and new high-potency synthetic substances continue to emerge.” A new threat among others detailed in the observatory’s annual report, published this Tuesday.
New psychoactive substances
The report points to consumers now exposed to “a wider range of psychoactive substances, which are often more potent or purer or appear in new forms, in new mixtures or in new combinations”.
Like every year, the document also takes stock of new psychoactive substances (NSP). In 2023, 26 new drugs were reported for the first time in Europe, bringing the total number of psychoactive substances monitored by the EMCDDA to more than 950.
More and more frequent cocktails
Polyconsumption – the fact of taking two or more psychoactive substances simultaneously or successively – is also closely monitored. The most common cocktails are the consumption of benzodiazepines with opioids or cocaine with alcohol.
Most of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan, where the ban on opium poppy cultivation since April 2022 risks soon reducing its availability on the markets, or even leading to shortages.
The authorities therefore fear that the lack of heroin will lead to filling the gaps in the market with high-strength synthetic opioids. The EMCDDA thus points to the emerging threat of nitazenes, 500 times more powerful than morphine. “In 2023, nitazenes were associated with a sharp increase in the number of deaths in Estonia and Latvia and with localized outbreaks of poisoning in France and Ireland,” underlines the report.
More and more cocaine
For the sixth consecutive year, cocaine produced in South America is on the rise, arriving in large quantities through its ports, hidden in maritime containers, with a total of 323 tonnes seized in 2022, after 301 in 2021.
The EMCDDA report is also alarmed by the presence of cocaine manufacturing workshops in the territory: 39 laboratories were dismantled there in 2022 (after 34 in 2021).
And its wide availability in Europe has an increasingly negative impact on public health: the white powder, consumed by 4 million adults, is associated with around a fifth of overdose deaths reported in 2022, often in combination with d other substances. “This is the second most frequently reported illicit drug both by people admitted to treatment for the first time (29,000 in 2022) and by those who present to hospital emergency departments,” warns the EMCDDA.
Cannabis derivatives cause concern
Far ahead, cannabis remains the first drug consumed by more than 22.8 million European adults in 2023, including 15.1 million among young adults. The report once again raises concerns this year about the impact of synthetic cannabis derivatives on public health, such as hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), the first semi-synthetic cannabinoid reported in the EU. As of March 2024, HHC has been included on the list of controlled substances in at least 18 EU member states.