The European Medicines Agency warns of worrying patterns in drug use across the bloc, with growing consequences for public health.
The situation of the drugs in europe best described by the words “everywhere, everything, everyone,” a drug control agency in a report that points out the growing availability of narcotics and the marketing guidelines increasingly complex.
The impact of consumption of drugs illegal acts is now perceived in almost the entire society, and “we have never had so many drugs available or produced on the territory of the EU,” said Alexis Goosdeel, director of the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), when presenting the report.
The report indicated that 22 million people consumed cannabis, 4 million cocaine and almost 3 million MDMA in the last year in the EU. He 2024 report showed that 85.4 million people declared having consumed cannabis at some point in their lives, while in the 2022 report that figure was 78.6 million. He number of consumers of cocaine at least once it went from 14.4 million in 2022 to 15.4 million, and the number of MDMA -typically called ecstasy- jumped from 10.6 million to 12.3 million.
Lack of knowledge of consumers
The drug enforcement agency noted that almost all foods with psychoactive properties have the potential to be used and marketed as drugs, often mislabeled or in the form of compounds. This leads to a general lack of knowledge among consumers about the nature of the drugs consumedwhich greatly increases health risks.
The director of the EMCDDA warned that there are many new substances that “no one would imagine that humans could use”, such as veterinary medicine products.
The agency found that the market medicines of the EU is now characterized by a wider range of substanceswhich are often available in high potency or purity or in new forms, mixtures or combinations. This can have serious consequences for the public healthas both consumer and scientific knowledge remains limited.
At the end of 2023, the EMCDDA controlled more than 950 new psychotropic substances, 26 of which were reported for the first time in Europe that year. The wide availability of different substances, which are often mixed, leads to “polyconsumption”, the use of two or more substancespsychoactive substances simultaneously or sequentially.
Although polydrug use is a common practice among drug users, consciously or unconsciously, combination of substances increases the risk of health problems and complicates medical remedies.
Additional injection risks
The agency warns that people who inject drugs often run greater risks, such as contracting transmitted infections for blood or die for overdosethan those who consume them in other ways.
Injecting drugs can also aggravate existing health problems or cause abscesses, septicemia and nerve damage. Although this type of consumption is declining in Europe, it still represents a disproportionate share of acute and chronic damage for health resulting from drug consumption.
People who inject drugs are at risk of get infections such as viral hepatitis B and C and HIV by sharing consumer materials.
The agency recommended increasing the supply of sterile injection materials and ensuring a effective response and global for drug users parenterally throughout the EU.
“The emphasis here is on working without prejudice with people who use drugs,” he said. The anti-drug agency highlighted that the public health burden associated with drug use can be due to many factors, such as the properties of the substance itself, but also to collateral factors such as individual vulnerability and the social context of consumption. According to EU data, 87 million adults have consumed illicit drugs at least once in your life.
Additional sources • Enrique Barrueco. Voice-over(
