BRUSSELS: The market for cocaine and methamphetamine in Europe is growing, an EU report said on Friday, driven by record levels of smuggling and sparking violence and health issues.
According to the report, in 2020, the highest ever quantity of cocaine – 214.6 tonnes – was seized in the European Union, Norway and Turkey for the fourth year in a row. europol and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
The report said the EU “faces an increasing threat from a more diverse and dynamic pharmaceutical market, which depends on closer cooperation between European and international criminal organisations”.
The new nature of this market has resulted in “record levels of drug availability, increased violence and corruption, and worsening health problems,” the EMCDDA director said. alexis gusdeal in a statement.
The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not particularly stir the markets, and smuggling of cocaine by sea continued at pre-2019 levels.
The cocaine market – the EU’s second most consumed drug after cannabis – was worth at least 10.5 billion euros ($11 billion) in 2020.
An estimated 14 million adults in the European Union aged 15 to 65 have tried the drug, which is either snorted as a white powder or widely smoked as crack cocaine.
Police confiscated most of the cocaine BelgiumMost of the drug’s conversion will take place in 2020 after being produced in the Netherlands and Spain, the three countries where Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.
The world’s most widely used synthetic stimulant drug methamphetamine plays a “relatively minor role in the European drug market”, the report said, although the latest data suggests an “increasing threat”.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of methamphetamine seizures in the EU more than doubled, while the quantity increased by 477 percent to 2.2 tonnes in 2020.
Production in Europe has historically taken place in small “kitchen” laboratories in the Czech Republic and neighboring countries, but is now also taking place in industrial-scale laboratories in the Netherlands and Belgium.
crystal The report stated that methamphetamine is an “unwanted addition to the EU drug market”, and is of concern in terms of health consequences, including “acute poisoning, psychotic episodes, polydrug use and death”.
In Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain, “competition between drug suppliers has intensified, leading to an increase in violent confrontations”, killings and kidnappings.
Corruption is a major threat in the EU, the report said, noting that nearly 60 percent of criminal networks use it as a facilitator.
According to the report, in 2020, the highest ever quantity of cocaine – 214.6 tonnes – was seized in the European Union, Norway and Turkey for the fourth year in a row. europol and the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
The report said the EU “faces an increasing threat from a more diverse and dynamic pharmaceutical market, which depends on closer cooperation between European and international criminal organisations”.
The new nature of this market has resulted in “record levels of drug availability, increased violence and corruption, and worsening health problems,” the EMCDDA director said. alexis gusdeal in a statement.
The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not particularly stir the markets, and smuggling of cocaine by sea continued at pre-2019 levels.
The cocaine market – the EU’s second most consumed drug after cannabis – was worth at least 10.5 billion euros ($11 billion) in 2020.
An estimated 14 million adults in the European Union aged 15 to 65 have tried the drug, which is either snorted as a white powder or widely smoked as crack cocaine.
Police confiscated most of the cocaine BelgiumMost of the drug’s conversion will take place in 2020 after being produced in the Netherlands and Spain, the three countries where Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.
The world’s most widely used synthetic stimulant drug methamphetamine plays a “relatively minor role in the European drug market”, the report said, although the latest data suggests an “increasing threat”.
Between 2010 and 2020, the number of methamphetamine seizures in the EU more than doubled, while the quantity increased by 477 percent to 2.2 tonnes in 2020.
Production in Europe has historically taken place in small “kitchen” laboratories in the Czech Republic and neighboring countries, but is now also taking place in industrial-scale laboratories in the Netherlands and Belgium.
crystal The report stated that methamphetamine is an “unwanted addition to the EU drug market”, and is of concern in terms of health consequences, including “acute poisoning, psychotic episodes, polydrug use and death”.
In Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain, “competition between drug suppliers has intensified, leading to an increase in violent confrontations”, killings and kidnappings.
Corruption is a major threat in the EU, the report said, noting that nearly 60 percent of criminal networks use it as a facilitator.