The terrible "magic mushrooms"” “

“Cocaine has become a significant element on the European drug scene” and “consumption is mainly concentrated among youth and young adults (aged 15-34), especially males, resident in urban areas”. The annual Report for 2005 on drug phenomenon trends in Europe, presented in the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday 24 November, analyses the situation on the use of drugs and the evolution of the phenomenon of drug addiction in the 25 member countries of the Union, plus the three candidate countries (Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey) and Norway. FINGER POINTED AT COCAINE. The experts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), active since 1995 and based in Lisbon, speak of a “growing alarm” especially in some Western countries, including Great Britain, Holland and Spain. “The indicators relating to the trafficking and consumption of cocaine – says the Report of the watchdog, directed by Wolfgang Götz – show a huge increase in the importation and consumption of this drug”. At the same time, “the health problems linked to cocaine” are being aggravated. The Report estimates that “some 9 million Europeans (3% of the whole adult population) have tried cocaine at least once. It is also calculated that between 3 and 3.5 million have made use of it over the last year”. Cocaine consumption now vies in scale with that of ecstasy and amphetamines, and is reaching levels “close to the figures registered in the USA”. IMPACT ON PUBLIC HEALTH. “The most recent data demonstrate that the quantities of cocaine impounded in the European Union almost doubled between 2002 and 2003, rising from 47 tons to over 90 tons”. The Report analyses a complex situation that differs from country to country, but that is in any case alarming. It states that “most cocaine enters the EU through the Iberian peninsula and the Netherlands, using African and Caribbean countries as the main transit routes”. It also draws attention to the “growing impact of cocaine on public health”; “in Europe the demand for treatment as a result of problems linked to cocaine addiction is growing” and “deaths attributable to cocaine are a serious problem, probably still underestimated. It is often the case that consumers of opiates also take cocaine, the presence of which is often registered in cases of overdose”. ecstasy AND AMPHETAMINES GROWING. Other drugs are regularly consumed by part of the European population: “the most recent data demonstrate a tendency to the increased consumption of ecstasy and amphetamines by youth and adults in the majority of EU countries”. “National surveys – reports the drug watchdog – indicate that a percentage comprised between 0.6% and 13.6% say they have tried ecstasy and a percentage between 0.4% and 6% made use of it over the last year. The highest percentages of ecstasy consumption are registered in Estonia, Spain, Czech Republic and the UK”. ROLE OF VIGILANCE AND PREVENTION. One relatively positive element in the 2005 Report on drug consumption in the EU emerges if we look at the data on metamphetamines. “In the European Union – explain the experts of the EMCDDA – a significant consumption of these dugs is confined to the Czech Republic and Slovakia”. Commenting on the situation, the President of the Monitoring Centre, Marcel Reimen, warns however: “Many European countries have strong links with areas of the world in which problems linked to metamphetamines exist. Since the European drug markets is expanding, we cannot ignore the possibility that the consumption of such drugs may spread. It is therefore a sector in which the role of vigilance and prevention remains of crucial importance”. As regards synthetic hallucinogens, such as LSD, “consumption remains low throughout Europe”. However “among highschool students, and in particular those aged 15-16, experimenting with natural hallucinogens such as ‘magic mushrooms’ is a relatively common phenomenon”. The watchdog estimates, in addition, that “over 62 million Europeans have tried cannabis at least once”. DANGERS ALSO POSED BY ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO. The bulky Report of the watchdog ends with an observation on poly-consumption: “At the present time the consumption of more than one drug is a fundamental characteristic of the drug phenomenon at the European level”. Commenting on this aspect, Wolfgang Götz explains that “today an analysis of the impact of drug consumption on public health must consider the complex picture of the combined consumption of more than one psychoactive substance, including alcohol and tobacco. Concentrating on the trends of a single substance, and ignoring the interaction between different types of substance, may be misleading”.