These are conclusions of the “European Drug Report 2024 – Trends and Developments”, released in Lisbon by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and which is based on information from the previous year provided by Member States (plus Turkey and Norway).
According to the data, cannabis was consumed by 22.8 million (8%) aged between 15 and 64, a number that increases to 85.4 million people (29.9%) throughout their lives.
Cocaine, the second most consumed illicit drug, was used in the last year by four million (1.4%) of the same age group, increasing to 15.4 million (5.4%) throughout their lives.
With regard to MDMA (ecstasy) tablets, the numbers point to 2.9 million (1%) aged between 15 and 65, rising to 12.3 million (4.3%) who responded about consumption throughout life.
Amphetamines were used in the last year by 2.3 million (0.8%) adults aged 15 to 64, rising to 10.3 million (3.6%) over their lifetime.
Heroin (the most commonly used illicit opioid in Europe) and other synthetic opioids were used by 860,000 high-risk users, of whom the report does not specify the age range.
In 2022, 513 thousand users were undergoing opioid substitution treatment, this being the drug that represents around 24% of treatment requests in the EU. The same drug is found in 74% of overdose deaths.