A total of 88 new synthetic opioids have appeared on the European drug market in the last 16 years, according to the latest European drug report from EUDA. ‘These are often highly potent, creating risks of poisoning and death,’ it states.
All of the new synthetic opioids formally notified to the EU’s early warning system last year were nitazenes, with more than 20 nitazenes now being monitored across Europe. A recent study by EUDA found that nitazenes accounted for a ‘significant share’ of overdose deaths in Estonia and Latvia, with the substances appearing to have ‘filled a vacuum following the decline of fentanyl and heroin, highlighting the adaptability of local drug markets’.
There has long been speculation that the Taliban’s 2022 opium ban could lead to gaps in the heroin market being filled with highly potent synthetic drugs. ‘Given the potential negative consequences of this, Europe needs to improve its preparedness for the harm reduction and other challenges that such a market shift could bring,’ the report states. Seizures of nitazenes in Europe have risen rapidly, with the quantity detected in powder form tripling to 10 kilograms in 2023.
Fake medicines containing nitazenes which ‘typically mimic’ legitimate prescription drugs like oxycodone and benzodiazepines are also an increasing problem, raising concerns about them being used by a ‘broader range of consumers, including young people’. Earlier this week The Loop warned about a batch of drugs resembling oxycodone pills that instead contained nitazenes, and were linked to two deaths in London.
Meanwhile the availability of cocaine in Europe ‘remains high’, with record amounts of the drug seized by EU member states for the seventh year in row. Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain accounted for nearly three quarters of the total quantity seized, with the latter recording its largest ever seizure in a single shipment last year – concealed in a shipment of bananas from Ecuador.
Cocaine was the most frequently reported substance by those presenting to European hospital emergency departments in 2023, and is now the second most common drug for those entering treatment services for the first time – with both cocaine injection and use of crack cocaine reported ‘in a growing number of countries’. Competition in the hugely lucrative cocaine market is also driving gang-related violence and homicides, the report states.
There have also been ‘unprecedented’ seizures of synthetic cathinones, with the market evolving ‘significantly since the 2014-15 “legal highs” phenomenon’ and the drugs becoming established ‘as replacements for stimulants such as amphetamine and cocaine in some parts of Europe’.
Rapid shifts in the drug market are ‘creating new health and security risks’ and challenging the region’s capacity to respond, the document states. The consistently evolving situation is seeing both suppliers and consumers adapting to ‘geopolitical instability, globalisation and technological advances’, it says, alongside risks to public health from ‘an increasingly diverse range of substances’ – often of high potency. Growing rates of polysubstance use also present a challenge, ‘complicating the delivery of effective prevention, treatment and harm reduction services’.
‘Amid global instability and fast-changing drug trends, Europe faces multiple challenges that put its citizens at risk,’ said EUDA’s executive director Alexis Goosdeel.
‘The rise of highly potent substances and more complex patterns of drug use is placing health and security systems under strain. We must design a comprehensive European and national preparedness framework to respond effectively, scaling up prevention, treatment and harm reduction services and adapting them to today’s realities.’
European drug report 2025: trends and developments available here