Drug smuggling

Purity of cocaine in Europe at highest level in decade, report finds

Cocaine is the most commonly used illicit stimulant in Europe. The report estimated that 17 million European adults (aged 15–64), or 5.1% of this age group, had tried cocaine during their lives. About 2.3 million young adults, aged 15 to 34, (1.9 % of the age group), said they had used the drug in the last year.

The highest rates of cocaine use were in the UK, with 4% of people between the ages of 15 and 34 saying they had used it in the past year. The Netherlands had the second highest rate, with 3.7%, Spain, the third highest (3%) and Ireland, the fourth (2.9%).

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The report pointed to a recent study of drug residues found in municipal wastewater, which revealed that there was an increase in cocaine traces found between 2015 and 2017 in 26 out of the 31 cities examined over that period.

Tests of the water in Bristol in 2017 found 755mg of cocaine residue per 1000 residents per day, the sixth highest amount of the 59 European cities tested that year. Barcelona in Spain had the highest level, with 965mg, and Turku in Finland, the lowest, with 4.7mg.

Alexis Goosdeel, the director of the EMCDDA, said the report’s findings indicated that Europe was experiencing the consequences of increased cocaine production in South America.