More than 280 legal highs now on European drug experts' radar

EU drug agency report says falling use of cannabis and cocaine in Europe is being offset by relentless supply of new substances

More than 280 potentially harmful legal highs and other new psychoactive synthetic drugs are now being monitored by European experts, representing what they describe as a fundamental shift in the market in illicit drugs.

The EU's drug agency, in a joint report with Europol on new drugs entering the market, says 73 became available in Britain and across Europe last year, and adds that there is now a firmly established, thriving legal highs business with low risks and high profits operating through more than 690 online sites and specialised bricks-and-mortar head shops.

The report, by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in Lisbon, says that the internet has created new routes for supply and use, and the market is now less "structured around plant-based substances shipped over long distances to consumer markets in Europe".

Published alongside the centre's 2013 drug trends survey, it says there have been more positive developments in the use of more established drugs, with fewer new users of heroin, less injecting of drugs, and declining use of cannabis and cocaine across Europe. But the agencies add that any optimism must be tempered by concerns that youth unemployment and cuts in drug treatment services could lead to a re-emergence of old problems.

Drug experts say Britain still has the greatest levels of cocaine consumption in Europe, and the largest number of heroin users in substitution treatment - 177,093 at the last count.

The EU report says that while 31% of adults in Britain say they have tried cannabis at some point, only 10.5% have smoked any in the past 12 months. Cannabis use among 15- and 16-year-olds in Britain has declined in recent years to about 21% of the age group and is ranked 10th out of 30 European countries. The drug experts say that despite the rise of new legal highs, a large and relatively robust market remains for cannabis, albeit in a larger number of forms including more potent strains of herbal cannabis.

Cocaine consumption in Britain has also declined, with 4.2% of adults saying they had used it in the previous 12 months.

http://www.guardian.co.uk 28/05/2013