European drugs trade goes digital in response to pandemic impact - report

The annual report is compiled by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and charts developments in the EU 27 countries and in Turkey and Norway. File Picture: PA

The European drugs trade has gone digital to adjust to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, by moving away from human couriers and increasing the use of encrypted messaging and mail and home delivery services, according to a major new report.

The authors of the European Drug Report 2021 also raise serious concerns over the emergence of 'designer benzodiazepines' across the continent, amid fears that their use, along with other drugs such as opioids, could lead to major public health problems.

The annual report is compiled by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and charts developments in the EU 27 countries and in Turkey and Norway and outlines how the drug market has evolved around the pandemic. 

It warns of the risks to public health posed by the availability and use of a wider range of substances and also describes how organised crime groups have intensified illegal drug production inside Europe to evade anti-trafficking measures, creating environmental, health and security risks.

"At wholesale level, this [the pandemic effect] is reflected in some changes in trafficking routes and methods, with more reliance on smuggling via intermodal containers and commercial supply chains and less reliance on the use of human couriers," it said.

"Although street-based retail drug markets were disrupted during the early lockdowns, and some localised shortages reported, drug sellers and buyers adapted by increasing their use of encrypted messaging services, social media apps, online sources and mail and home delivery services. This draws attention to whether a long-term impact of the pandemic could be the further digitalisation of drug markets."

Recreational drug use fell during early lockdowns but analysis of wastewater samples for some European cities suggests that levels of use of most drugs returned to normal last summer.

"Among the worrying developments linked to the pandemic are signs of a possible increase in crack cocaine availability and use in some countries," it said.

The report also found that:

• Cannabis use remains stable but there is concern over higher THC content;
• There was record cocaine seizures in 2019 (last year for which data was collected), with higher purity levels also detected;
• Both large-scale and smaller production facilities for methamphetamine are being detected in Europe and large quantities of the drug are being transhipped through the EU to other markets;
• A total of 46 new psychoactive substances (NPS) were reported for the first time in Europe in 2020, bringing the total number monitored by EMCDDA to 830;
• A total of 370 illegal laboratories were dismantled in 2019;
• There was an increase in drug law offences, with cannabis possession and supply predominant and an estimated 1.5 million drug law offences were reported in the EU in 2019; 82% were related to use or possession for personal use.
• Large volumes of heroin are still being seized in the EU.
• A new threat is on the rise in the use of 'designer benzodiazepines', some of which began as so-called 'legal highs'.

A separate report, also published by the Lisbon-based EMCDDA, says some of these have already been linked to poisonings and deaths.

"Often marketed as ‘designer benzodiazepines’, these substances are sold as ‘legal’ replacements for controlled benzodiazepines and are becoming increasingly available in Europe," it said. "... increasingly, they are also used by criminal groups to manufacture fake versions of commonly prescribed benzodiazepine medicines (e.g. Valium®, Xanax®), which are then sold on the illicit market. 

"Users may be unaware of the substances or doses they are taking, increasing the risk of severe poisoning, particularly if consumed with alcohol or other sedatives."

Alexis Goosdeel, EMCDDA Director, said: "Despite interdiction efforts, all our routine indicators suggest that at the beginning of 2020 the European drug market was characterised by the widespread availability of a diverse range of drugs of increasingly high purity or potency.

"Drug production and trafficking appears to have adapted rapidly to pandemic-related restrictions, and we have seen little evidence of any major disruptions in supply. 

"Social distancing measures may have affected retail drug dealing, but this appears to have led to a greater adoption of new technologies to facilitate drug distribution, possibly accelerating the trend we have seen in recent years, where the market is becoming increasingly digitally enabled."