Tuesday 11 June 2024 10.00 am:  The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) today publishes the European drug report 2024: trends and developments.  The purpose of this report is to provide an overview and summary of the European drug situation up to the end of 2023.

The Health Research Board (HRB) provides the Irish data and research for the EMCDDA report. This media brief provides an overview of the drug situation in Europe and a comparison with the Irish drug situation* where possible.

The European drug report highlights

• Drug availability remains high in Europe, with a wider range of psychoactive substances, often of high potency or purity, or in new forms, mixtures and combinations, and many products mis-sold and so presenting serious health risks.
• Adulteration of cannabis with synthetic cannabinoids and MDMA with cathinones and synthetic opioids is becoming more common, as well as synthetic stimulant mixtures such as ‘pink cocaine’
• The use of two or more psychoactive substances at the same time or close together is increasing. Polydrug use carries its own health risk and makes effective responses more problematic.
• Heroin remains the most commonly used illicit opioid in Europe but use of internationally controlled synthetic opioids (e.g. fentanyl) and new (uncontrolled) synthetic opioids (e.g. fentanyl derivatives) is increasing.

EMCDDA Director Alexis Goosdeel says:  'In this year's European Drug Report, we highlight the growing challenges posed by a highly complex and rapidly evolving drug market, where established illicit drugs are polysubstance use is driving a range of health risks, especially when drug mixtures are unknowingly consumed. We also reflect today on potential future problems in the drugs field and the need to be better prepared to face them. I am pleased to announce, therefore, that, as the new European Union Drugs Agency, we will have a stronger mandate to anticipate future emerging threats and trends, alert in real time on new risks for health and security, help the EU and Member States to respond, and learn from experience to adapt and improve our drug strategies and interventions'.

Latest data

• Around 83.4 million or 29 % of adults (aged 15-64) in the European Union are estimated to have used illegal drugs at least once in their lifetime.
• Cannabis remains by far the most commonly consumed illicit drug in Europe. National surveys of cannabis use would suggest that overall, around 8 % of European adults are estimated to have used cannabis in the last year.
• Cannabis remains the most widely consumed substance, with over 22 million European adults reporting its use in the last year. Last year drug use is largely concentrated among young adults and is estimated at 15.5% among EU inhabitants aged 15–34 years.
• It is estimated that in the last year 3.5 million adults consumed cocaine, 2.6 million MDMA and 2 million amphetamines. Surveys indicate that nearly 2.2million 15–34-year-olds (2.2% of this age group) used cocaine in the last year.
• Around one million Europeans used heroin or another illicit opioid in 2020.
• Opioids, often in combination with other substances, were found in around three quarters of fatal overdoses reported in the European Union for 2020.

[Full media brief in Word document]