Aim
A central
task for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)
is to produce an annual report of the latest data available on drug demand and
drug supply in Europe. This paper is intended to facilitate a better
understanding of, and easier access to, the main quantitative European level
data sets available in 2015.
Methods
The
European reporting system formally covers all 28 European Union (EU) Member
States, Norway and Turkey and incorporates multiple indicators alongside an
early warning system (EWS) on uncontrolled new psychoactive substances (NPS).
While epidemiological information is based largely on registries, surveys and
other routine data reported annually, the EWS collects case-based data on an
ongoing basis. The 2015 reporting exercise is centred primarily on a set of
standardized reporting tools.
Results
The most recent
data provided by European countries are presented, including data on drug use,
drug-related morbidity and mortality, treatment demand, drug markets and new
psychoactive substances, with data tables provided and methodological
information. A number of key results are highlighted for illustrative purposes.
Drug prevalence estimates from national surveys since 2012 (last year
prevalence of use among the 15–34 age band) range from 0.4% in Turkey to 22.1%
in France for cannabis, from 0.2% in Greece and Romania to 4.2% in the United
Kingdom for cocaine, from 0.1% in Italy and Turkey to 3% in the Czech Republic
and the United Kingdom for ecstasy, and from 0.1% or less in Romania, Italy and
Portugal to 2.5% in Estonia for amphetamine. Declining trends in new HIV
detections among people who inject drugs are illustrated, in addition to
presentation of a breakdown of NPS reported to the EU early warning system,
which have risen exponentially from fewer than 20 a year between 2005 and 2008,
to 101 reported in 2014.
Conclusions
Structured
information is now available on patterns and trends in drug consumption in
Europe, which permits triangulation of data from different sources and
consideration of methodological limitations. Opioid drugs continue to place a
burden on the drug treatment system, although both new heroin entrants and
injecting show declines. More than 450 new psychoactive substances are now
monitored by the European early warning system with 31 new synthetic cathinones
and 30 new synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists notified in 2014.
Below: Newly diagnosed HIV cases related to injecting drug use: trends in number of cases
Full article at: http://goo.gl/IPDeEc
By:
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, Portugal
*Correspondence to: Jane Mounteney, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: Jane.mounteney@emcdda.europa.eu
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