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The recurring question: crack down or loosen up?
Last week, the European Union Drugs Agency released its 2025 report on drugs in the EU. It makes for uncomfortable reading.
The report, published on 5 June, states that “everyone is in some way likely to be affected by illicit drug use, the operation of the drug market and the problems associated with it”. But the question is: crack down or loosen up?
Cannabis is commonplace
The EUDA report confirms that cannabis remains the most popular drug in Europe, with 24 million users in 2024. It is surprising, therefore, that the legal framework relating to it remains fragmented and inconsistent across the bloc.
One stark example of this is that while Austria authorises the growing of cannabis for medicinal purposes, Slovenia, just on the other side of the River Mura, has stricter regulations.
The difference between the two countries’ treatment of the cannabis plant allows Slovenian entrepreneur Saša Serban, CEO of Erbetix, to operate a perfectly legal and legitimate business on the north bank of the Mura, while risking prosecution just across this narrow stretch of water.
Perhaps predictably, he is calling for relaxation and uniformity in this field. Our Austrian member station Agora shares his comments.
Saša Serban, CEO of Erbetix (in Slovenian):
“A more aggressive policy in this area is not the solution. The solution is, say, the pilot project Portugal launched a while back. And now Germany has entered a new sphere. Of course, things have not developed there as much as they said they would, but there has certainly been progress. It is strange that this has not been resolved in a more uniform manner, though. For example, in the case of cannabis, everyone was waiting for Germany. Now, because Germany has taken a step forward, things are starting to happen. For example, Malta, Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Switzerland have moved forward with these policies. They are less restrictive now. This gives the state more control. Because they are essentially controlling something that was previously controlled by the black market. Greater restrictions simply mean more room for the black market.”
Countries with more liberal cannabis policies certainly often defend their approach by arguing that regulation and legalisation limit illicit trade, increase consumer safety through quality control and enable more efficient healthcare.
Cocaine Code Red
The EUDA report shows that cocaine remains the most commonly used illicit stimulant in Europe, with around 4.5 million Europeans aged 15 to 64 having used it in the last year alone.
According to the report, cocaine consumption was linked to two-thirds of overdose deaths in Portugal in the previous year, 2023 – which is more than double the proportion recorded in Germany.
In an interview with Renascença, João Goulão, chair of Portugal’s Institute for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies, warns in particular of the risks of crack cocaine, which is cheaper and more easily produced and can therefore lead to problematic use among those in situations of social exclusion.
João Goulão, Chair of the Institute for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (in Portuguese):
"Even though we have a relatively average prevalence when it comes to the total use of illicit substances, we have a very significant percentage of people with problematic use of these substances. Compared, perhaps, to other [countries], a higher percentage of problematic use. Problematic use is characterised by injecting, dependence, and compulsive – sometimes even high-risk – use, in contrast to what may be happening in other European countries."
The report also highlights the increased availability of new synthetic drugs in the EU, derived from cannabis, opioids and cathinones, which are stimulants. And there have recently been unprecedented levels of imports and seizures of synthetic cathinones – indeed, in 2023, 53 production sites were even dismantled in the EU, up from 29 the year before. Around four in five of these were located in Poland.
Goulão notes that the ever-increasing diversity of the drug market is leading some people to take a veritable cocktail of substances, with unpredictable results.
João Goulão, Chair of the Institute for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (in Portuguese):
“There is a huge diversity of substances out there. There have never been so many substances in circulation and being consumed, sometimes in a context of poly-consumption, in completely unexpected and nonsensical mixtures, with unpredictable effects, with increased risks, and substances with ever-greater purity.”
Roberto Fernández, Addiction Expert (in Spanish):
“It starts with one thing. Then you get more and more people who gamble who eventually see that what they are doing is not right, so they give up that addiction and develop another one, either drugs or alcohol. And, in some cases, once they've moved on to alcohol or drugs, they go back to gambling. They move around in a circle and it's impossible to get out.”
Drugs cannot, therefore, be looked at in isolation.
Illegal use of legal drugs
Not only that, but we need to broaden our minds when it comes to discussing drug problems. Sometimes it’s not the drug that’s the problem per se, but instead how it is being used. Here is a good example of this from Lithuania.
According to statistics from the Lithuanian Department of Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control, drug use in Lithuania is only half the European average, with ‘just’ 14 per cent of Lithuanians aged 15 to 64 admitting to having used a narcotic substance at least once in their lives.
Yet Žinių Radijas has spoken to Brigita Rašimaitė from the monitoring and analysis division of the department. She cautions that, although illicit drug use – including among children – is lower in Lithuania than in other EU countries, there is a ‘but’.
Brigita Rašimaitė, Department of Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control (in Lithuanian):
"Lithuania differs from other countries in that children aged 15 and 16 take a lot of medicines without a doctor's prescription. We are talking about sedatives, sleeping pills or painkillers – sometimes with the aim of getting high."
The EUDA report also highlights the growing availability in Europe of fake medicines containing synthetic nitazene opioids, which imitate legitimate prescription drugs. This raises concerns about the potential for these dangerous products to be used by a broader range of consumers.
Yes, says Rašimaitė, the nature of drug taking is changing… and not all consumers are making informed choices.
Brigita Rašimaitė, Department of Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control (in Lithuanian):
"There are a lot of new substances appearing on the market, and the fact is that these substances are sometimes mixed, and consumers sometimes don't know what they are buying. The form of the substances themselves is changing too – especially the forms that are often mentioned, which can be attractive to a particularly vulnerable group of people, namely children and young people. For example, gummies, various edible products and liquids for vaping."
Meanwhile, fellow Baltic state Estonia has the dubious honour of being at the top of the European table for drug-related deaths per capita, exceeding the EU average by six times.
While this may be, at least in part, due to the country’s advanced testing methods for new substances, Mart Kalvet, a member of the board of the Estonian Association of Psychotropic Substance Addicts (LUNEST) is alarmed. He tells Kuku Raadio that we are in dire need of a new approach – an approach that must involve changing society’s deeply held, but erroneous, stereotypes about drug addiction.
Mart Kalvet, Member of the Board of LUNEST (in Estonian):
"It is clear that this flow of substances will never end. No matter how much we try to limit or stop them, something will still seep through. Public attitudes should be changed. Think of the videos and photos that accompany drug-related articles in the mainstream media, for example. Year after year, the same images are churned out of unconscious people being dragged into ambulances or attempts to resuscitate them in the street. Or of people jerking or dancing incessantly in some public space. Such images are scandalous and disgusting. They simply help to reinforce the attitude of the public that ‘this is not my problem’. The longer we try to pretend that this is an underground problem, the more painful an awakening we will have, right?"
https://kuku.pleier.ee/uudised/narkosurmade-arv-uletab-euroopa-keskmist-kuuekordselt
Heroes and heroin
The European opioid market is certainly diversifying, says the report, as new substances continue to emerge. A total of 88 new synthetic opioids have appeared on the European market since 2009, and are said to be particularly prevalent in the Baltic countries. Often very powerful, they present risks of intoxication and death. Nitazines, for example, present a risk of fatal poisoning.
Confronted with the new mixing of substances or even the presence of poison in the mixture, drug-checking centres are starting to pop up, where drug users can have their drugs tested before taking them. This said, only 12 EU countries appear to have set up such facilities to date.
There are also such things as drug consumption rooms, which attempt to ‘reduce the harm’ in drug taking. However, only nine member states, mainly in Western Europe, are currently offering these services.
The Europeans’ podcast team has interviewed two Dutch experts in harm reduction. Both emphasise that the only scientifically proven way to address today’s drug-related challenges is not by stubbornly continuing the war on drugs – a war we’ve been losing for the past 50 years – but by treating drug abuse as a health issue and using harm reduction to help those affected to build better lives.
Annika Apfel is site manager at the De Regenboog Groep’s AMOC mobile drop-in centre and drug consumption room in Amsterdam. She tells us what harm reduction is all about.
Annika Apfel, Site Manager at AMOC Drug Consumption Room (in English):
“Harm reduction is about lowering the risk of using drugs. Whether we like it or not, people are using drugs. So we are trying to promote a healthier lifestyle for those people, in the sense of offering clean material to decrease the risk of HIV and hepatitis C infections, offering a safe space for people to use inside, where they can rest, and a stress-free environment where they can also feel safe. Because, also, research has shown that when people have less stress, they will also use less drugs.”
Katrin Schiffer is an expert in drug policy, harm reduction, public health and social inclusion. She currently serves as the international programme director within the same group, as well as director of the Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network.
She believes there needs to be a radical shift in thinking.
Katrin Schiffer, Director of C-EHRN (in English):
“Currently I think drug use is seen under the aspect and perspective of law enforcement, crime prevention, so all the efforts at national level and also at EU level are going into security and crime prevention. […] There are millions of euros funnelled into this field. […] But harm reduction is evidence-based, it's effective, it's cost effective. It is saving lives every day, and still it is not seen as a health intervention. And I think this is mainly because this is an ideological problem and people, [including] some policy makers and politicians, still believe that prohibition is the only way, while we see that it has only contributed to more crime – people being killed.”
In fact, adds Apfel, harm reduction is actually shown to reduce crime. And she has the data to back this up.
Annika Apfel, Site Manager at AMOC Drug Consumption Room (in English):
“There was, last year, a new study released in Amsterdam about the impact of drug consumption rooms on neighbourhoods. And one of the results was that criminality in the neighbourhood decreases by more than 30 per cent, which is great – that we have proof for it now – and that drug use among those clients also decreases.”
So, while there is no clear solution yet on the horizon, Brussels needs to help member states to chart a consistent, collective course in what looks to be the right direction – avoiding the icebergs on the way. It’s no easy matter!