EU Drug Agency's 2026 Report Warns of Rising Risks and New Synthetic Opioids

The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) published its European Drug Report 2026 on 9 June 2026, presenting an analysis of drug use across Europe based mainly on 2024‑2025 data. The report notes that 24.9 million adults in the EU used cannabis in the past year, accounting for about one‑third of all treatment admissions, while 4.3 million adults used cocaine and demand for treatment continues to rise. At least 7 600 drug‑related deaths were recorded in 2024, most often involving mixed consumption with opioids.

In 2025, 50 new psychoactive substances (NPS) were identified for the first time, bringing the total number of monitored substances to over 1 000. The agency highlighted nitazenes—a group of highly potent synthetic opioids that increasingly appear as undisclosed additives in other drugs or counterfeit medicines—as a particular threat, warning of a potential scenario similar to North America’s fentanyl crisis.

The report calls for expanded harm‑reduction measures, including drug‑checking services, low‑threshold interventions such as naloxone distribution and supervised consumption rooms, digital street‑work targeting online recruitment by criminal networks, and better integration of addiction and mental‑health care. It also points to chronic under‑funding of these services as a major obstacle.