2000 Annual report on the state of the drugs problem in the European Union EN Legal notice This publication is the property of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and is protected by copyright. The EMCDDA accepts no responsibility or liability for any consequences arising from the use of the data contained in this document. Unless indicated otherwise, this publication, including any recommendations or statements of opinion herein, does not represent the policy of the EMCDDA, its partners, any EU Member State or any agency or institution of the European Union or European Communities. A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server at http://europa.eu.int. This report is available in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. All translations were made by the Translation Centre for Bodies of the European Union. A statistical bulletin of epidemiological data will be available in English online at http://www.emcdda.org. Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2000 ISBN 92-9168-097-4 © European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2000 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium Rua da Cruz de Santa Apolónia, 23-25 P-1149-045 Lisboa Tel. (351) 21 811 30 00 Fax (351) 21 813 17 11 E-mail:
[email protected] Website: http://www.emcdda.org Contents Preface 5 Acknowledgements 6 CHAPTER 1 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 Overall trends Trends in drug use and its consequences Cannabis Amphetamines and ecstasy Cocaine Heroin Multiple drug use Problem drug use and demand for treatment Drug-related deaths Drug-related infectious diseases Other morbidity Trends in responses to drug use Policy and strategy developments Prevention Reducing the harmful consequences of drug use Treatment CHAPTER 2 9 9 9 10 10 Prevalence of drug use Drug use in the general population Drug use in the school population National estimates of problem drug use 11 11 11 11 13 14 Health consequences of drug use Demand for treatment Drug-related deaths Mortality among drug users Drug-related infectious diseases 15 15 17 19 19 Law-enforcement indicators ‘Arrests’ for drug offences Prison data 20 21 21 Drug-market indicators: seizures, price, purity Cannabis Heroin Cocaine Amphetamines, ecstasy and LSD 21 21 21 22 22 Prevalence and patterns of drug use CHAPTER 3 Policy and strategy developments National drug policies European Union Drugs Strategy (2000–04) Quality assurance 23 23 23 23 24 25 Demand-reduction responses Prevention Reducing the harmful consequences of drug use Treatment 25 25 26 27 Responses to drug use CHAPTER 4 Substitution treatment Substitution substances Introduction of substitution treatments in the EU Extent and settings of substitution services 29 29 29 29 30 30 Prosecution of drug-related offences Possession of heroin Property offences Selling drugs 31 31 32 32 Problems facing women drug users and their children Drug use among women Infectious diseases Pregnancy and women with children Drug treatment Women-specific drug prevention 33 33 33 34 34 35 Selected issues CHAPTER 5 Prevalence and patterns of drug use Cannabis Opiates Cocaine Synthetic drugs Other substances 37 37 37 37 38 39 39 40 Responses Institutional and legislative res