Stronger and more available drugs across the EU; Brunner: harm reduction and enforcement must go hand in hand

Brussels – Drugs are becoming more widely available, diverse, and potent, whilst organised crime groups are resorting to violence with increasing frequency. This is the picture that emerges from the European Drug Report 2026, presented today (9 June) by the Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, and the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA). Based on data from 29 countries (27 EU Member States, Norway, and Turkey), the report shows that drugs are having an increasingly negative impact on European health and security. 

The analysis highlights that opioids, usually in combination with other substances, remain the leading cause of overdose deaths in Europe. “The EUDA estimates that there were at least 7,600 overdose fatalities in the EU in 2024, mostly involving multiple substances,” Brunner explained. “We must pull out all the stops to prevent dangerous new products from flooding the market and use the full force of the law to strip illegal traffickers of their business model. With the EU Early Warning System, we are identifying new trends early,” he added. 

In particular, Italy was the country with the highest number of people who inject drugs, at 105,652. Following Italy were France (102,648) and Germany (84,606). Overall, the prevalence of this type of use in the European Union is estimated at 1.8 cases per 1,000 inhabitants aged 15 to 64, suggesting that in 2024 there were approximately 522,000 users in the EU (530,000 including Norway). The data also show a wide variation in use, ranging from 0.1 per thousand in the Netherlands to 10 per thousand in Estonia, with particularly high levels also reported in Finland (8.2 per thousand), Latvia (6.1 per thousand), the Czech Republic (6.1 per thousand), and Lithuania (4.6 per thousand).

Substances such as cocaine and synthetic drugs remain widely available, alongside new psychoactive substances. Cannabis products are on the rise, as is the variety of opioids and stimulants on the market. 

On synthetic opioids, Lorraine Nolan, Executive Director of the EUDA, issued a warning: “Some of these substances are so potent that just a few grams can amount to thousands of potentially lethal doses.” In 2024, “34 kilograms of high-potency synthetic opioids, including nitazine and fentanyl”, were seized in Europe, she explained. Furthermore, in 2025, the European early warning system identified 50 new psychoactive substances that had never been detected in Europe, bringing the total monitored by the EUDA to 1,050 substances.

On the subject of ketamine, the director highlighted the risk of normalisation, because “in some contexts, particularly recreational ones, it is no longer seen as a niche substance.” The data show that “requests for treatment (at drug and alcohol services) have quadrupled in recent years,” she continued, “while awareness of the risks among users remains low.” Nolan pointed out that currently over 60 per cent of the needs of the European population using opioids is met in terms of treatment, but some countries still do not meet the minimum international thresholds for opioid substitution therapy (OST) and sterile syringe distribution programmes. “The key message is that we must continue, strengthen and scale up interventions, adapting to new patterns of use,” she said. Brunner also reiterated the importance of harm reduction, to be combined with “criminal enforcement.” According to the Commissioner, in fact, “it is not a choice between two approaches; both are necessary. One is done without neglecting the other.”

The report also estimates that 2.5 million young adults have used cocaine in the past year. In 2024, the director concluded, “as many as 64 tonnes of chemical precursors were seized, including so-called designer precursors, substances created specifically to circumvent controls.” 

Organised crime networks are diversifying their trafficking routes and methods to evade detection. Following the intensification of police operations in major European ports, drug traffickers are exploiting smaller ports and developing increasingly sophisticated concealment methods. The report highlights that the volume of cocaine intercepted in Europe fell by over 20 per cent in 2024. However, the number of seizures rose to 97,000 (up from 95,000 in 2023), suggesting that traffickers are shifting towards smaller, more fragmented shipments. Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, pointed out that “these networks exploit digital platforms and global supply chains, putting our youth and communities in danger.” In this regard, the Commission has stepped up its support for Member States in tackling these challenges through a new EU Drugs Strategy and an Action Plan against drug trafficking. “The EU stepped up its support… with better intelligence-sharing, enforcement, and prevention to disrupt criminal operations and protect those most at risk,” Virkkunen noted. “The findings in this report give us the data we need to focus our efforts where they matter most.”