A landmark report on European Drug Markets, released on Thursday by the European Commission, highlighted new challenges faced by EU member countries in the fight against drug trafficking.
The report suggested a fall in demand within the European Union for heroin. The reduced demand was attributed to strong policing along traditional trafficking routes and the availability of markets elsewhere with greater demand and lower risk for traffickers.
Just as demand for one drug fell, the diversification and decentralization of trafficking, and a “multi-commodity perspective” among traffickers presented new difficulties for European law enforcement. Traffickers previously linked to heroin were increasingly tied to the cocaine, cannabis, and methamphetamine trade, the report stated. The report cites evidence that organized crime groups are increasingly cooperating to produce, transit and sell drugs. To tackle the increasingly globalized drug trade, the report recommends a number of policy changes, including a greater level of intelligence sharing among EU members, an increase in multilateral operations among EU states, and a greater focus played on big players in the drug trade.
The report highlights a number of drugs and drug types as areas of interest for European law enforcement and policymakers. Among the narcotics discussed were cocaine, cannabis, synthetic drugs, and new psychoactive drugs; findings on the newer psychoactive drug trade was especially concerning. These drugs are not necessarily illegal under current law, and as drug laws shift to include them, producers change the product so that it once again falls into a grey area. The rapidly changing makeup of these narcotics means that consumers are often unaware of the exact potency and toxicity of the product they are ingesting.
EU member states continue to share information regarding drug routes and types and trends. Despite this cooperation, detecting new drugs that represent an immediate health risk is likely to be an uphill battle.
The EU Drug Markets report can be found in its entirety here.