29 million Europeans use drugs every year and the market is worth an estimated €31 billion. The European Council has published a new framework to completely change the way the EU tackles this major problem, from law enforcement to public health.

The plan, adopted unanimously, aims to systematically dismantle organised drug-related crime. To do this, it calls on the EU's main ports to form alliances and coordinate more closely in the fight against organised crime. It also targets the financing of trafficking and will introduce general bans on certain chemicals used to produce synthetic drugs.

At the health level, he proposes city-level monitoring, take-home overdose reversal medications, and increased funding for treatment services targeting marginalized groups most at risk of drug-related harm.

This is a response to a growing crisis in the EU. A recent report by the European Union Agency for Drugs and Drug Abuse (EUDA) found that drug use in Europe has reached unprecedented levels, with more than 83 million adults having used illicit substances. The situation is volatile, characterised by the high availability of potent, diverse and often counterfeit substances. The agency recorded more than 7,600 overdose deaths each year.

The drug crisis in Europe is no longer defined solely by consumption, but by a fast-moving market in which the strongest substances and flexible trafficking networks test law enforcement and public health systems.
According to EUDA data, cannabis remains the most commonly used illicit drug, with an estimated 15.4 million young people aged 15 to 34 reporting use last year.

Cocaine is the second most commonly used drug, with an estimated 2.5 million young adults. However, the market is becoming increasingly complex and harmful: availability remains high, cocaine waste is increasing in 57 percent of European cities monitored, and synthetic substances are becoming more widespread.
Drug use in the EU over the last decade

Trafficking is becoming increasingly sophisticated
Over the past five years, at least 1,826 tonnes of illicit drugs were seized in connection with EU seaports. Criminal networks continue to rely on commercial container transport through major ports such as Antwerp and Rotterdam, but are shifting their activity to smaller ports to avoid detection.

Annual cocaine seizures reached 330 tons, while the number of individual seizures increased to 97,000. Criminal groups are increasingly dividing shipments into smaller consignments, reducing the risk of large losses when individual shipments are seized.

Europe is becoming an important production hub as well as a destination market. In a single year, authorities dismantled 42 cocaine extraction sites, 110 amphetamine laboratories and around 4,000 illegal cannabis cultivation sites. Combined with the 1.6 million drug law offences recorded each year across the EU, EUDA’s findings reveal a market that is increasingly resilient, adaptable and difficult to disrupt.
At least 7,600 drug-related deaths were recorded across the EU in a single year, most of which involved multiple substances.

Emergency departments and harm reduction programs continue to face increasing pressure from trends such as the rise in hard cocaine use and the spread of new synthetic opioids.

Wastewater monitoring also shows increased cocaine consumption in many European cities.