Another sector which is “catching-up”

The article looks at the state of drug consumption and trade in the Central and Eastern European countries.

Within the space of one month, two reports on the drug issue have been published. Today the overall situation in the CEEC appears close to that of the EU. This is however a recent phenomenon: the existence of drug taking was officially denied before 1990, but at that time the quantity of drugs available was limited. As these countries have opened up, transit activity has developed.

• In terms of consumption, the latest figures available, collected via an investigation limited to school pupils between 15 and 16 years of age, indicate a strong growth in the CEEC between 1995 and 1999.
• All drugs included, the percentage of these people having taken drugs at least once in their lives has doubled in 5 years, now almost reaching the EU average (19% vs 21%). The consumption of cannabis has increased on both sides of the former Iron Curtain, but remains lower in the CEEC than in the Union, whereas the consumption of “other drugs” is reported to be higher in the applicant countries and in strong growth, in contrast to the EU this time. Both synthetic drugs and heroin are reported to be making a significant breakthrough.
• Prices (and economic catching-up) also play an important role. According to the United Nations report, both the retail and wholesale prices of synthetic drugs seem lower in the CEEC. However, differences can persist from one candidate country to another, even when it is a neighbouring country. For cannabis for example, prices in Hungary are reported to be the highest in the region and the Czech Republic the least expensive country. The report also observes a certain price stability on the whole, except in Hungary.
• The CEEC are indeed an important transit area, with two traditional routes: the “Balkan route”, which shifted a little more towards the north via Romania and Hungary in the Nineties because of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia; and the “silk route” which passes through Central Asia, Russia, the Ukraine and Poland. Although the seizure figures must be used cautiously owing to their volatility, the trend has undoubtedly been moving upwards for 3 years, sometimes in an impressive manner. Drugs intended for the local markets are not distinguished from those in transit. In Bulgaria for example, customs estimate that 97% of the drugs seized (more than 1,800 tons of heroin in 2000, almost as much as in Italy, which holds the Western European record with 2,000 tons seized in 2001) were intended for the EU. According to the United Nations, a quarter of the heroin produced in Afghanistan comes via Central Asia. In addition, authorities observe a growing traffic in cocaine: drug traffickers are indeed seeking to multiply their entry points into Europe, the borders of these countries being reputed to be more permeable.
• According to these organisations, these trends produce several types of consequences:
  • in terms of public health, the increase in drug consumption via injection is accompanied by a rise in the number of HIV contaminated individuals or hepatitis carriers.
  • the increase in the number of offences, primarily possession, consumption and dealing in narcotics, cause an upsurge in cases brought before the courts, unwelcome within a straitened budgetary context.
  • the appearance of production laboratories, especially for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, and this for at least three reasons: control mechanisms are at the moment weaker than in the Union, production facilities are easy to move and their inputs “universal” and finally, a rapidly expanding local demand. Poland is reported to have been the first country in the CEEC to produce amphetamines, followed today by Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the Baltic States. But alcohol remains the “most widely used and most problematic” psychoactive substance, the European report recalls.

For more analyses of the EU’s enlargement process, see the

enlargement website of DREE.