LISBON, Portugal – June 2017: Implications of international cannabis policy developments on Europe, cocaine availability, the growing health threat of highly potent synthetic opioids and the changing nature of the New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) market, are among the issues addressed in the “European Drug Report 2017: Trends and Developments”, launched by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

By the end of 2016, the EMCDDA monitored more than 620 NPS on the European drug market. Moreover, in 2015, almost 80,000 seizure cases of NPS were reported through the EU Early Warning System. Synthetic cathinones and synthetic cannabinoids together accounted for more than 60 per cent of all NPS seizure cases in 2015. Although fentanyl and its analogues are playing a relatively small role in the European drug market, these substances are reported to pose a serious threat to individual and public health in the region.

For more information, please see:

EMCDDA report on “European Drug Report 2017: Trends and Developments”
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/4541/TDAT17001ENN.pdf

EMCDDA Country Drug Reports presenting summaries of national drug phenomena
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/edr2017