"Growing threat"

New drug mixtures make consumption more dangerous

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Highly potent synthetic substances, new drug mixtures and changing consumption patterns are a growing threat in Europe. This is according to the European Drug Report 2024, which was presented by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in Lisbon on Tuesday. Consumers sometimes do not know what they are taking "and thus expose themselves to greater health risks, including potentially fatal poisoning".

It is estimated that at least 6392 deaths in the EU in 2022 were due to drug overdoses (2021: 6166). Opioids, often in combination with other substances, were detectable in around two thirds of cases. According to the report, heroin played a role in more than 1,800 deaths, 142 of which were in Austria. In only a few western countries is the majority of fatal overdoses associated with heroin - in Austria, however, this proportion was 77 percent and in neighboring Italy 57 percent.

Dangerous mix of sleeping pills and tranquillizers
The combination of opioids with benzodiazepines increases the risk even further. Prescription sleeping pills and tranquillizers were found to be responsible for the majority of overdose deaths in several countries, including Austria.

Simultaneous or consecutive use of two or more psychoactive substances is widespread. Whether benzodiazepines with opioids or cocaine with alcohol, the risks are greater and help, for example in the case of overdoses, more difficult. One of the priorities of the new European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA), which starts work on July 2, is to improve the monitoring of such poly-drug use patterns.

Fentanyl has so far been a marginal phenomenon
Heroin is the most commonly consumed illegal opioid. Compared to North America, where fentanyl in particular is responsible for countless deaths and experts are already talking about a veritable epidemic, synthetic opioids play a relatively minor role, but are of great importance in the Baltic countries. Concern is also growing in other EU member states.

Fentanyl leads to countless drug-related deaths in the USA.

(Bild: Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP (Symbolbild))

In 2023, six of the seven new synthetic opioids in the EU Early Warning System (EWS) were nitrazones. They are sometimes sold as "synthetic heroin" and have been found in counterfeit medicines. They are also stronger and more lethal than heroin. Last year, nitazene was linked to a sharp rise in deaths in Estonia and Latvia and local spikes in poisonings in France and Ireland.

Record quantities seized
Most of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan, where the Taliban imposed a ban on opium poppy cultivation and opium production in April 2022. UNODC figures for 2023 show an estimated 95% decrease for Afghanistan compared to 2022. The report states that this has not yet had a noticeable impact on the supply situation in Europe. A future heroin shortage could lead to more consumption of synthetic opioids. Europe must be better prepared for such "market shifts".

Smuggled cocaine was even found in these wooden boards.

(Bild: AFP)

Record quantities of cocaine were seized in EU Member States for the sixth consecutive year: 323 tons in 2022 (303 tons in 2021). European seizures now exceed those in the United States. Belgium (111 tons), Spain (58.3 tons) and the Netherlands (51.5 tons) account for 68 percent of the total.

According to the report, cocaine is the second most reported illicit drug, both among people entering drug treatment for the first time (29,000 in 2022) and in hospital emergency admissions. The drug is also thought to have been involved in around a fifth of reported overdose deaths in 2022, often along with other substances. Cocaine was used by around four million of Europe's adults (aged 15 to 64) last year

Cannabis remains number one
In 2023, the EU Early Warning System received reports of nine new cannabinoids, four of which were semi-synthetic. The most frequently detected semi-synthetic cannabinoid is hexahydrocannabinol (HHC). There have been reports of intoxication, including in children who had consumed edibles containing HHC.

It is estimated that around eight percent (22.8 million) of European adults have used cannabis in the past twelve months. Around 92,000 people entered treatment for problems with it in 2022, representing around a third of all treatment entrants. Cannabis was also the substance most frequently reported by the Euro-DEN Plus hospital network in 2022 and was detected in 29 percent of cases of acute drug intoxication.

Narcotics come mainly by sea
"The European drug market is fast-moving and volatile, fueling violence and corruption," said Ylva Johannson, Member of the European Commission responsible for Home Affairs. Drugs come mainly via the ports. The European Ports Alliance was founded to combat this. The Chairman of the EMCDDA's Management Board, Franz Pietsch, pointed out that the latest drugs report was also the last one to be published by the EMCDDA before it becomes the European Union's drugs agency next month. In its new form, it will continue to be of great benefit in combating the causes and consequences of drug use.