Alert in Europe over cocaine use, implicated in one in four overdose deaths

BarcelonaCoca-Cola, snow, powder, white lady, parakeet, merchandise... These are all different names for the same drug: cocaine. It is the second most widely used narcotic in Europe after marijuana, and an estimated 2.7 million young people—twice the population of Barcelona—used it last year. In its latest report, the European Drug Agency (EUDA) warns that there is increasingly more cocaine available on the continent and that this has led to a "significant" increase in the "health and social costs" associated with this drug.

Cocaine is now the most common drug in emergency hospital overdose care. And it is on the rise: in 2022, cocaine-related emergencies in France increased by almost 20%, and in Spain, this substance was implicated in 60% of drug-related deaths. Across Europe, this figure fell to 26% in 2023, accounting for a quarter of all deaths.

Furthermore, more and more people are starting cocaine addiction treatment. Across Europe, it is estimated that there were 35,000 people starting cocaine addiction treatment in 2023, the majority of them men. Since 2018, these treatment starts have increased by 31%, and many of the users are vulnerable people with financial difficulties. The EUDA also warns that the use of crack, a smokeable crystal that can be made from crack cocaine, is on the rise; a drug that is even more closely linked to marginalization.

Health risks

However, the EUDA believes that the harms of cocaine are being underestimated, particularly in terms of cardiovascular problems. "Use is associated with various adverse health consequences, which may include agitation, psychosis, tachycardia, hypertension, arrhythmia, chest pain, and stroke," the report states. And all of this has become more pronounced in recent years, as, as explained by ARA in a dossier on Sunday And the EUDA also points out in its report that the cocaine arriving in Europe is increasingly pure.

What's the reason? There are more and more fields for producing it in South America, and the price is falling. The police are also increasingly seizing more kilograms of cocaine, which enter in maritime containers at strategic ports, such as those in the Netherlands and Spain, with Valencia and Barcelona being particularly prominent.

The EUDA also warns of the danger of mixing substances, a trend throughout Europe. For example, as this newspaper pointed out, hashish is being mixed with medications, and karkubi has been born. Drugs that are increasingly being purchased online and remotely, a change in trend that the report also points out.

Synthetics

The European agency is also concerned about the rise of synthetic drugs and the fact that they are increasingly being produced in European laboratories. In 2023, up to 93 amphetamine laboratories, 250 methamphetamine production sites, and 53 synthetic cathinones, which are promoted as synthetic cathinones, were dismantled across Europe. affordable substitutes for other stimulants, such as amphetamines and cocaine.

Another element of the alert is the situation in Afghanistan: The Taliban's ban on poppy and opium cultivation could create a vacuum in the heroin market (which produces 80%) and lead to the rise of substitutes such as synthetic pills or even fentanyl.

One of these new elements is synthetic opioids known as nitazens, which were originally developed in the 1950s as painkillers but have never been legally marketed for medical use. They are "highly potent and can cause fatal overdoses," states the EUDA. In fact, they are considered more potent than morphine and fentanyl. In 2024, seven new synthetic opioids were reported to the EU Early Warning System, all of them nitazens, which have been implicated in numerous overdose deaths in the Baltic countries, according to EUDA data.

New forms of marijuana

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in Europe: 24 million European adults have used it in the last year. As the ARA also warned this Sunday, two factors are of particular concern. First, the increasing availability of more potent and genetically modified marijuana. In 2023, the average potency of seized resin was 23% THC, more than double that of seized weed, which was 11%.

This is worrying because resin is used to make candy and vape pens, which are changing consumption—the second factor of concern for the EUDA. An estimated 8.4% of European adults have used cannabis in the last year, and this percentage rises to 15% among young people. Furthermore, marijuana is responsible for more than a third of all drug treatment admissions in Europe. The EUDA focuses on Spain as one of the main cannabis producers and warns: "It is necessary to assess the impact of the policy changes introduced," the European agency concludes.