The report on drugs in Europe, released by the EU Agency based in Lisbon (European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Emcdda), focuses on analyzing – in around a hundred pages – the production, marketing, consumption and impact on public health of cocaine, cannabis, ecstasy, amphetamines, opiates in EU countries plus Turkey and Norway.

Sir reports this (www.agensir.it) according to which a worrying picture emerges regarding which Alexis Goosdeel, director of the agency, states: “The challenges we face in the drug sector are becoming increasingly demanding. Not only are there signs of greater availability of plant-based drugs such as cocaine, but we are also seeing the evolution of a market in which synthetic drugs and drug production in Europe are gaining increasing importance.” This situation “is highlighted by the problems associated with the consumption of very potent synthetic opioids, by new techniques used for the production of ecstasy and amphetamines and by recent developments in the transformation of morphine into heroin within European borders”