Effective monitoring and reliable data are essential for economic and health planning and for supporting an informed and politically active citizenry. The constant updates on the impact of the Covid pandemic help us to keep informed, but they can also be wearying, and their contribution to our knowledge depends on our capacity to absorb difficult information. 

Our understanding of the drug situation faces a different problem. The data systems that we depend on to provide detailed analysis of the nature of drug use and its consequences are, by necessity, slow to provide the information we need to observe trends, plan responses, and develop policy. In recent years, early warning systems, innovations such as wastewater analysis and open source media monitoring, and research developments like trendspotting have helped to make information more rapidly available. 

The methodological advances complement rather than replace the information from prevalence studies and established treatment and harm-reduction information systems. In September 2020, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) published its annual European drug report, largely based on analysis of aggregated data from 29 countries in the European Union’s Reitox drug-monitoring network.1 It also includes more recent information on the disruption caused by Covid-19 among support services to people who use drugs. There are discernible changes in patterns describing synthetic drug production and in the distribution routes used for the bulk supply of cocaine, heroin, and cannabis. 

We have seen that Ireland and other countries responded quickly and were able to lessen the impact of Covid-19 on the most vulnerable populations. Important harm reductions lessons were learned. Security services also have faced new problems as restrictions forced those involved in drug distribution to develop new approaches to supply and create new markets as demand fell sharply, particularly in the night-time economy. The report identifies other important supply-related changes that predate the pandemic but may have accelerated over the last several months. It is clear from seizure figures that large quantities of cocaine are coming into Europe to meet an increasing demand. Also, analysis of drugs seized show that the purity of cocaine is rising, posing greater danger to public health. Cannabis too is increasing in potency and typically the levels of THC, the psychoactive part of cannabis, are double what they were 10 years ago. 

The EMCDDA’s first report on aggregated estimates was the Annual report on the state of the drugs problem in the European Union 1995. So, this year marks 25 years of European-wide reporting on the drugs problem. As the agency’s scientific director explains, the evolution of the drugs problem during that time was accompanied by a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of the information on this topic.2 The European drug report presents an opportunity to compare the situation in Ireland with the rest of Europe.3 It also enables us to observe trends and patterns based on systematically collected and expertly analysed data. While each country has its idiosyncrasies, the cultural and demographic features determining drug-using behaviour are broadly similar. It is important that we keep this greater picture in mind when anticipating developments in our own context and planning responses to it. 

1  European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2020) European drug report 2020: trends and developments. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/33049/

2 Griffiths P (2020) Looking back on 25 years of annual reporting on the drugs problem in Europe. Lisbon: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/attachments/13265/Feature_article_EDR_25years_Final_web.pdf  

3 Health Research Board (HRB) (2020) Health Research Board compares the Irish drug situation with the rest of Europe. Dublin: HRB.
https://www.hrb.ie/news/press-releases/