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The latest European report on drugs reveals a wide availability of all kinds of drugs in the old continent, but also changes in this clandestine market caused by the pandemic.
Impact that was felt, in particular, in consumption patterns with “signs of decreasing interest in substances normally used in social contexts (ecstasy and cocaine)”, in a context where parties and discos remain closed or very limited.
On the other hand, there is an apparent increase in the consumption of other substances such as cannabis and the new benzodiazepines (psychotropic drugs).
João Matias, a researcher at the European Observatory on Drugs and Drug Addiction, refers to the TSF that everything indicates that the increase in cannabis use was felt in those who had already used this type of drug more, in a European pattern that also showed they have occurred in Portugal.
The reasons for this increase in cannabis use will be related to the “nervousness or anxiety” linked to the confinement, but also to the fact that they were people who already knew the ‘networks’ to buy the product.
The now published report also shows how organized crime groups have quickly adapted to the pandemic, increasing the use of digital technologies in the buying and selling of drugs.
The document, which was supposed to refer only to 2019 but ends up taking stock of the situation in the drug markets during Covid-19, highlights that the last year has been marked by a “great availability of all types of drugs, by production “. drug use in Europe and high potency substances “.
The European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction points to “a growing availability of all types of illicit drugs that aggravate health risks” and “a record of cocaine seizures in Europe in 2019”, reaching a total of 181 tons, 5.5 of which were seized in Portugal.
In 2019, Portugal was the sixth European country with the highest volume of cocaine seized by the police, surpassed only by Belgium (53 tons), Spain (48), the Netherlands (40), France (16) and Germany (8).
READ HERE ABOUT THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
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