DRUGS CRISIS: Rising drug potency poses greater danger

The purity and potency of all the main illegal drugs is increasing in Europe, posing heightened dangers to users, drug experts have warned.

The EU drugs agency is also concerned at the “potential for future heroin epidemics” as a result of record crops of opium in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, so-called new psychoactive drugs continue to be manufactured at a dizzying rate of around two per week, with 101 new substances in 2013 and 41 so far this year.

Figures released by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Emcdda) show:

• Ireland had the third largest quantity of ecstasy seized in the EU in 2013, with 480,839 tablets;
• Ireland is one of the top three countries in the EU for the highest number of addicts reporting benzodiazepines (legal tranquillisers) as their main problem drug;
• Ireland has the fourth highest rate of drug-induced deaths in Europe, more than three times the EU average

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Source: Cormac O'Keeffe, Irish Examiner, 05/06/15