“Powerful synthetic substances, new blends of drugs and changes in consumer models are a growing threat in Europe”. These are some of the issues found today by the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) after the publication of the “European Drug Report 2024: trends and developments”. “The availability of drugs is still high in Europe, where the market offers a diversified range of products. Drug consumers have now access to a wide variety of psychoactive substances, often very powerful or pure or in new forms, blends and combinations”. Then, it highlights: “As the consumers cannot know the exact composition of the substances they buy, they can take substances unknown to them and be exposed to greater health risks, including potentially lethal poisoning”.
The report raises concerns about powerful synthetic opioids, “the composition of which may be unknown to consumers or are sometimes mixed with prescription drugs and other drugs”. The EMCDDA monitors over 950 new psychoactive substances, 26 of which have been reported in Europe for the first time that year. A key message contained in this year’s report is that “polysubstance use”, namely “use of two or more psychoactive substances at the same time or in a sequence is common in Europe now”.