www.eurosurveillance.org 1 News EMCDDA A NNUAL REPORT 2009: COCAINE AND HEROIN MAINTAIN FIRM HOLD ON E UROPE ’ S DRUG SCENE L Wiessing (lucas.wiessing@emcdda.europa.eu) 1 , D Olszewski 1 , D Klempová 1 , J Vicente 1 , P Griffiths 1 1. For the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Lisbon, Portugal This article was published on 19 November 2009. Citation style for this article: Wiessing L, Olszewski D, Klempová D, Vicente J, Griffiths P. EMCDDA Annual report 2009: cocaine and heroin maintain firm hold on Europe’s drug scene. Euro Surveill. 2009;14(46):pii=19410. Available online: http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19410 Cocaine and heroin remain the drugs most strongly associated with drug problems, such as infectious diseases and drug-related death, and the available data do not suggest a decline in the prevalence of their use in Europe. The use of multiple drugs simultaneously or consecutively - polydrug use - is also of concern as it increases risks and complicates drug treatments. These results are presented in the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCCDA) Annual report 2009 [1]. The report notes that the use of cocaine is steadily increasing with recent data from general population surveys in different countries pointing to either a stable or rising trend in use in the 15-34 age group. The countries with the highest prevalence of cocaine use (any use in the past year) in this group are Denmark, Spain, Ireland, Italy and the UK. Indirect indicators also point to heroin use no longer declining or being on the increase. In the period 1990 - 2006 between 6,400 and 8,500 deaths caused by drugs were reported every year, most of which were related to the injection of opioids, and after declining for many years they showed an increase more recently [1,2]. Between 2006 and 2007, eight countries reported that heroin users entering treatment increased both in number and as a percentage of all treated drug users. The incidence of reported newly diagnosed HIV infection among injecting drug users has remained low across the European Union, and compares relatively positive in a global context [3], especially if compared to the situation in Eastern Europe [4]. This may, at least partly, follow from the increased availability of prevention, treatment and harm reduction measures, including substitution treatment and needle and syringe programmes. Other factors, such as the decline in injecting drug use that has been reported in some countries [5], may also have played an important role. Around 22.5 million Europeans (6.8 % of those aged 15-64) used cannabis in the past year. This makes cannabis the most commonly consumed illicit drug in Europe. But after having increased at a steady pace during the 1990s and early 2000s, general population and school surveys conirm that the popularity of the drug is declining, particularly among young people. Despite the different trends reported by substance, polydrug use patterns are widespread, and the combined use of different substances is responsible for, or complicates, most of the problems related to drug use. For example, among young adults aged 15-34 in nine countries, those who use alcohol heavily or frequently were between two and six times more likely to have used cannabis during the past year and between two and nine times more likely to have used cocaine, compared to the general population. References 1. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug addiction (EMCDDA). Annual Report 2009: the state of the drugs problem in Europe. Lisbon: EMCDDA; 2009. Available from: http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/annual-report/2009 2. Vicente J, Giraudon I, Matias J, Hedrich D, Wiessing L. Rebound of overdose mortality in the European Union 2003-2005: findings from the 2008 EMCDDA Annual Report . Euro Surveill. 2009;14(2):pii=19088. Available from: http:// www.eurosurveillance.org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19088 3. Wiessing L, Likatavičius G, Klempová D, Hedrich D, Nardone A, Griffiths P. Associations Between Availability and Coverage of HIV-Prevention Measures and Subsequent Incidence of Diagnosed HIV Infection Among Injection Drug Users. Am J Public Health 2009;99(6):1049-52. 4. Wiessing L, van de Laar MJ, Donoghoe MC, Guarita B, Klempová D, Griffiths P. HIV among injecting drug users in Europe: increasing trends in the East. Euro Surveill. 2008;13(50):pii=19067. Available from: http://www.eurosurveillance. org/ViewArticle.aspx?ArticleId=19067 5. De la Fuente L, Saavedra P, Barrio G, Royuela L, Vicente J, Spanish Group for the Study of The Purity of Seized Drugs. Temporal and geographic variations in the characteristics of heroin seized in Spain and their relation with the route of administration. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 1996;40: 185-194.