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Annual report 2008: the state
of the drugs problem in Europe
NB Embargo 6 November 2008 10:00 CET (Brussels time)
Latest on the drugs problem across Europe
• Overview of the European drug
phenomenon in 30 countries
• Data and analyses: across Europe
and by country
• Latest trends and responses
• Selected issue:
Drugs and vulnerable groups of young people
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A multilingual information package
Annual report 2008 in print and online in 23 languages
• http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/events/2008/annual-report
• Additional online material
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Statistical bulletin
Country overviews
Selected issue
Reitox national reports
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Overview 2008: progress
• Drug use in Europe entering a more stable phase
• Amphetamine and ecstasy use: overall steady or declining
• Cannabis: ‘stronger signals’ of declining popularity
• Treatment availability growing (although still insufficient)
• Common approach: 26 EU Member States, Croatia, Turkey
and Norway, have a national drug policy document
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Overview 2008: challenges
• Warning signs over heroin
• Problems with synthetic opioids (e.g. fentanyl)
• High rates of drug-related death
• Continued increases in cocaine use
• Innovations on the illicit drug market
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Part I. Opioids, still at heart of our drug problem
• Estimated 1.3 to 1.7 million problem opioid users (EU + Norway)
• Heroin: largest drug-related health and social costs
• In most EU countries, opioid use accounts for between 50 %
and 80 % of all treatment demands
• 80 % of fatal overdoses are associated with opioid use
• 7 000 to 8 000 drug-induced deaths in Europe annually
• 600 000 in substitution treatment for opioid use per year
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Warning signs over Europe’s biggest drug problem
• Signs of change in heroin and synthetic opioid problem
• Countries need to be vigilant and prepared to respond
• Data call into question ‘slowly improving heroin
situation’ reported last year
• Now ‘a stable, but no longer diminishing, problem’
• But not an epidemic growth in heroin problems as seen
in Europe in 1990s
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We cannot ignore…
• Threat posed by glut of heroin on world market (record
Afghan opium production in 2007: 8 200 tonnes, UNODC)
• Concerns raised by indicators of heroin use
o seizures
o treatment demand
o drug-related deaths
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Warning signs (i)
i. Seizures
• Number of heroin seizures increased by over 10 %
in most reporting countries (2003–06)
• Quantity of heroin seized in Turkey, an important
transit country, more than doubled in this period
• Overall, heroin seizures reached an estimated
19.4 tonnes (48 200 seizures) in Europe in 2006
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Warning signs (ii)
ii. New demands for treatment
• Increased in around half of the countries reporting
data in 2006 (primary drug: heroin)
• New recruitment to heroin use is still occurring
• New injectors: large proportions (20 %) in some
countries
• Young injectors: large proportions (40 %) of injectors
under 25 in some studies
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Proportion of young and new injectors in samples of injecting drug users
(Chapter 6, Figure 9)
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Warning signs (iii)
iii. Drug-induced deaths
• Heroin is the drug most associated with drug-related
deaths, but other opioids are also reported
• After falling deaths (2000–03), now a static or growing
problem: most countries report rises since 2003
• Average age of those dying from overdose = mid-30s,
but some countries report a high proportion of
overdose deaths among the under-25s
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Indexed long-term trend in drug-induced deaths in the EU 15 Member
States and Norway, 1985 = 100 (Figure DRD-8)
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Proportion of drug-induced deaths occurring under the age of 25 (Figure DRD-2)
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One death per hour
• One of our young citizens dies every hour from
an overdose that could have been avoided
• Need to prioritise overdose prevention measures
and target high-risk groups (e.g. those leaving
prison or relapsing after treatment)
• Reducing drug-related deaths is an explicit goal
of most national drug strategies
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Problems related to synthetic opioids
• Indications of growing problems caused by
availability of 3-methylfentanyl
• Fentanyl is considerably more potent than heroin
• Over 70 fentanyl-related deaths in Estonia (2006)
• Methadone is identified in the toxicological reports
of some deaths in Europe
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Part II. Stimulants
• Stimulant drugs — such as amphetamines, ecstasy
and cocaine — 2nd most commonly consumed drug
type in Europe today, after cannabis
• But within this group, data reveal a very mixed
picture in terms of prevalence, trends and market
developments
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Lifetime prevalence
• Some 12 million Europeans (15–64 years) have
tried cocaine in their lifetime
• 11 million for amphetamines
• 9.5 million for ecstasy
• Stabilising or even declining trend in the use of
amphetamines and ecstasy
• But continued rise in cocaine use, albeit in a
limited number of countries
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Amphetamines and ecstasy: situation stable
• Around 2 million young Europeans (15–34 years) have tried
amphetamines in the last year and 2.5 million have tried ecstasy
• Stable/falling trends in last-year amphetamine use in this group
since 2003; on average 1.3 % of young adults report annual use
• Last-year ecstasy use also largely steady over the last five years;
on average 1.8 % of young adults report annual use
• School surveys (Czech Republic, Spain, Sweden, UK) show stable
situation or decline in the use of both drugs among 15–16-year-olds
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Trends in last-year use of amphetamines among young adults
(15–34 years), measured by population surveys (Figure GPS-8, i)
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Trends in last-year prevalence of amphetamines, ecstasy and cocaine among
young adults (15–34 years) in the United Kingdom (E&W) (Figure GPS-23, i)
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Trends in last-year prevalence of amphetamines, ecstasy and cocaine among
young adults (15–34 years) in Denmark (Figure GPS-23, ii)
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Cocaine use continues to rise
• Around 3.5 million young Europeans (15–34
years) have used cocaine in the last year
• Around 1.5 million in the last month
• Seven countries report a rising trend in last-year
use in recent surveys (2005–07)
• In high-prevalence countries (Denmark, Spain,
Ireland, Italy, UK) last-year prevalence figures
(15–34 years) ranged from around 3 % to 5.5 %
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Trends in last-year prevalence of cocaine among young adults (15–34 years)
measured by population surveys (Figure GPS-14, i)
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Cocaine treatment and deaths
• Upward trend in treatment demand for cocaine
problems continues
• 2002–06: number of new clients in Europe
demanding such treatment rose from around
13 000 to almost 30 000
• Some 500 deaths associated with cocaine use
were registered in 2006
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Europe’s divided stimulant market
• Cocaine dominates the illicit stimulant market in the west and
south of Europe, but elsewhere use and availability are low
• In most northern, central and eastern Member States,
amphetamines are the prevailing stimulant
• Use of methamphetamine still limited in the EU to the Czech
Republic and Slovakia
• Cocaine and amphetamines: ‘competing products’ on the
European illicit drug market?
• A holistic approach to stimulants is needed (rather than
focusing on individual substances)
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Chapter 4: The European stimulant market
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Part III. Cannabis
• Around 71 million Europeans (15–64 years) have
tried cannabis in their lifetime and around 7 %
(23 million) in the last year
• Around 17.5 million young Europeans (15–34 years)
are estimated to have used cannabis in the last year,
on average 13 % of young adults
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Stronger signals of declining popularity
• ‘Stronger signals’ that popularity may be waning,
reinforcing analysis in last year’s report
• Latest national survey data on last-year cannabis use
among young adults reveal a stabilisation or decline
• Lifetime and heavy cannabis use among 15-year-old
school students in most EU countries also stable or
declining (HBSC surveys)
• Downward trend is visible in population surveys in
some high-prevalence countries
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Trends in last-year prevalence of cannabis use among young adults (15–34
years), measured by population surveys. (Figure GPS-4, i)
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Changes between 2001/02 and 2005/06 in prevalence of ever-in-lifetime
cannabis use among school students 15–16 years (HBSC) (Figure EYE-5)
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Changes between 2001/02 and 2005/06 in prevalence of heavy cannabis use
among school students 15–16 years (HBSC) (Figure EYE-4)
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Regular and intensive cannabis use
• Trends in this type of use may move independently
of prevalence among the general population
• Some 4 million European adults (15–64 years) use
cannabis on a daily or almost daily basis
• Among the estimated 160 000 new demands for
treatment for drug problems reported in 2006,
cannabis clients formed 2nd largest group (28 %)
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Proportion of new clients entering treatment by primary drug in
2006 in 24 EU Member States (Figure TDI-2, i)
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Part IV. Dynamic markets: cocaine trafficking
• Drug supply into and inside Europe is evolving
• West Africa, a major hub: almost a quarter of the cocaine
entering Europe in 2007 came via this route (UNODC estimate)
• This route is thought to have contributed to bolstering the role
of the Iberian peninsula as key entry point into the EU
• Of the 121 tonnes of cocaine seized in Europe in 2006,
41 % was intercepted in Spain, 28 % in Portugal
• Recent reports of cocaine importation via east European
countries could herald development of new trafficking routes
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Dynamic markets: domestic cannabis production
• Domestic production: ‘May no longer be considered as
marginal’ in some countries
• Cannabis resin, mostly from Morocco, historically the
dominant product in the EU
• In some countries, a switch from resin to locally-grown herbal
cannabis is now reported
• Some 2.3 million cannabis plants seized in Europe (2006)
• Local production, raises new challenges for law-enforcement
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Dynamic markets: online shops
• Over 200 psychoactive substances are advertised by
online shops, often as ‘legal highs’ (e.g. salvia divinorum)
• But in some countries contents are covered by the same
laws as controlled drugs, and may incur penalties
• Most of the shops identified were in the UK and the
Netherlands (+ to a lesser extent, Germany and Austria)
• The number of these online retailers appears to be
growing and they adapt quickly to new controls
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Part V: Drugs and vulnerable groups of young people
• EU countries increasingly prioritise 'vulnerable groups' in their drug
and social policies to reduce risks of drug use problems where they
are most likely to occur
• Knowing the profiles of these groups and where they are found can
be a key entry-point for drug prevention strategies and interventions
• Examples: young people in government care, in disadvantaged
families or neighbourhoods, early school leavers
• A visible gap between political will and practical implementation
• Preference for office-based ('come') services over outreach work
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Providing an evidence base
• Europe now stands out as one of the parts of the world
where drug monitoring capacities are most developed
• Evidence-based information on today’s drug situation is
essential for an informed, productive and reasoned
debate on this complex issue
• It ensures that opinions are enlightened by facts, and
that policy-makers have a clear understanding of the
options available
• This is rationale behind the work of the EMCDDA and its
Annual report
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