Four-year plan to tackle drug abuse

By Martin Banks

Date: 20/01/05

The European Commission is to launch a four-year action plan aimed at tackling drug abuse in the EU.

One central element of the 2005-08 plan will be an attempt to reduce the number of drug overdoses in the EU.

A report published last week by the Lisbon-based EU drugs agency, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), estimates that there were almost 100,000 reported deaths from drugs overdoses in the 'old' 15 member states in 1992-2002 - about two-thirds of them in the 20-40 age group.

That works out at 8,000 to 9,000 "avoidable" deaths every year - an "unacceptable" high death toll, says the report's co-author Julien Vincenti.

"It is tragic," he said. "A generation of mostly young people being lost to us every year for no good reason."

To address the problem, the Commission will shortly launch a separate study aimed at establishing what each of the 25 member states is doing to reduce the number of drug-related deaths among their populations.

The exercise will last 19 months and cost €300,000. The Commission's strategy will emphasise action aimed at:

• Preventing people from starting to use drugs;
• preventing experimental use becoming regular use;
• early intervention for risky consumption patterns, and;
• providing treatment programmes.

The Commission says the aim should not simply be a call to "just say no" but to persuade those people who are already taking drugs to find safer ways of doing so. Overdose is the biggest cause of death among injectors and injecting is about 14 times more lethal than smoking. The Commission's plan will say that the harmful risks of drug-taking can be reduced, for example, by not mixing substances like heroin and alcohol.

Some member states, such as the UK, already have harm-reduction measures in place, including needle-exchange schemes which are designed to deter addicts from sharing dirty needles.

In the Netherlands, users are given heroin substitutes to make it less likely that they buy drugs from street dealers. But the agency's report says that there is an obvious need for further action in this field.

Vincenti points out that the "huge" toll from drug-related deaths had passed "relatively unnoticed" and "does not appear to have been recognised as an important problem".

He wants to see member states set specific targets for reducing drug-related deaths.

The agency was set up almost ten years ago to produce data and information to help member states develop their drug policies.

Vincenti notes that since 2002, many EU nations have seen a drop in the number of drug-related deaths.

But he warns there is "no room for complacency" because the figures are still "historically high", particularly when compared with the early 1990s.

Former addicts such as 24-year-old Olivier, from Belgium, are among the estimated 400,000 people in Europe currently undergoing substitute drug treatment.

Two years ago, following the break-up of a relationship, Olivier, once a university student, took a massive heroin overdose.

He was found by a flatmate unconscious in his bedroom and survived. He is now receiving outpatient treatment and hopes to start a new job in information technology.

He said: "I nearly died and I think the sheer shock of that made me look at what I was doing to myself and talk about it with professional health workers.

"Although I am not completely weaned off drugs, I am not mixing them as I used to."

Member states remain in the frontline in the war on drugs but the Commission hopes its latest initiative - to be unveiled in the coming weeks - will help people like Olivier.

Markos Kyprianou, commissioner for health and consumer protection, said: "Reducing drug-related deaths is a priority for Europe. This means looking for ways to prevent deaths among hard core drugs-users, as well as, of course, stopping people from taking drugs in the first place. The EU can help pool Europe's expertise so as to tackle this problem more effectively."

A Commission official said that the core of the European approach to the drugs problem was based on an effort "to reduce both supply and demand".

But the Commission could not impose health policy on member states, it could only add value to national strategies, he said.

Anticipation of the European Commission's four-year action plan aimed at tackling drug abuse in the EU. One central element of the 2005-08 plan was to be an attempt to reduce the number of drug overdoses in the EU. A report published by the Lisbon-based EU drugs agency, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), estimated that there were almost 100,000 reported deaths from drugs overdoses in the 'old' 15 member states in 1992-2002 - about two-thirds of them in the 20-40 age group.