Europe’s drug supply and use back to pre-pandemic levels, report says

The supply and consumption of drugs, slightly slowed down in 2020 by the health crisis, returned in 2021 to their high pre-pandemic level, warns the European Observatory of drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in its annual report.

Ecstasy down

The analysis of wastewater from 75 cities in 25 countries (23 from the European Union, Turkey and Norway) revealed “an overall increase in detections” of cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamines.

L’ecstasy (and its active ingredient, MDMA) is the only drug “for which residues have decreased in the majority of cities studied”, perhaps because nightclubs in many countries were still closed in the spring of 2021 when this large study found. been carried out.

Cannabis in the lead

Le cannabis remains by far the most widely used substance, with “more than 22 million European adults reporting” having taken it in 2021, according to the report. This is followed by cocaine (3.5 million), MDMA/ecstasy (2.6 million) and amphetamines (2 million).

The supply of drugs “remains high across the EU” and even exceeds “pre-pandemic levels” for cocaine: a “record volume of 213 tonnes” was seized in the EU in 2020, the year of the latest available data even though it was marked by travel restrictions and closures of festive places linked to Covid.

Drugs increasingly accessible

In general, “conventional drugs have never been so accessible and new high-dose substances continue to appear”, the report warns.

“Almost everything that has a psychoactive potential today risks appearing on the market”, develops the Observatory. In 2021, 52 new drugs were “reported for the first time”, including “15 new synthetic cannabinoids”.

These molecules produced in the laboratory, sometimes very highly dosed and toxic, imitate the hovering effect of THC​ (the mind-altering substance in cannabis) and are often sprayed on weed, sometimes without the knowledge of consumers.

An alarming new report

The 2021 report was already alarmed by the growth of these products. That of this year is also concerned regarding the increase in “synthetic cathinones” (6 new ones detected), resulting from a mixture of cocaine, MDMA/ecstasy and amphetamines.

The two most common are “3-MMC” and “3-CMC”, which can be sold legally and are diverted for recreational purposes. The Netherlands found that the number of poisonings suspected of involving 3-MMC rose from 10 in 2018 to 64 in 2020, the report noted.