EMCDDA: Drug use, a growing challenge for EU road safety
Drug use, a growing challenge for EU road safety
As Europeans prepare for the festive season, the EMCDDA issued today its latest report on drugs and driving. While alcohol remains the number one substance endangering lives on European roads, more drivers are now found to be using illicit drugs and psychoactive medicines, presenting a number of challenges for policy-makers.
Estimates show that there are between 1.3 and 1.7 million problem opioid users in the EU and Norway, with heroin responsible for Europe’s largest drug-related health and social costs. New data published in the report call into question previous EMCDDA assessments of a slowly improving heroin situation and point to a 'stable, but no longer diminishing problem'. Record opium production in Afghanistan in 2007 has also heightened the agency’s worries over a potential knock-on effect on Europe’s heroin problem.At least 7 000 to 8 000 drug-induced deaths occur in Europe every year, with drug overdose one of the leading causes of death among young Europeans. Around 80 % of fatal overdoses are associated with opioid use, and the injection of these drugs is a major vector for spreading drug- related infectious diseases. It is estimated that some 3 000 new cases of drug-related HIV occur every year in Europe, and countries report that typically over 40 % of injectors are infected with HCV (hepatitis C virus). Substitution treatment for opioid use is now available in all EU Member States, Croatia and Norway, with around 600 000 opioid users receiving it annually.
Labels: EU, Illegal drugs
