Synthetic drugs under scrutiny

Date: 13/02/1997

JUSTICE Commissioner Anita Gradin is to demand tougher EU action to combat new synthetic drugs in the coming weeks.

As part of an effort to stem the rapid proliferation of amphetamine-type drugs, she will call for a rapid information system to alert authorities to new concoctions which escape national laws.

Gradin argues that the wide range of chemical ingredients which form the basis of these drugs, and the equally wide range of finished products, makes them extremely difficult to control

“To put it bluntly, you hardly have time to legislate against one chemical drug before a new version with a slightly changed content appears on the market,” she warns.

According to the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs in Lisbon, up to 10&percent; of 18- to 20-year-olds in some EU countries have tried amphetamines, ecstasy or LSD-type drugs, with vast numbers of youths taking them for the occasional 'big night out'.

These drugs tend to be associated with high-energy middle-class lifestyles, attracting a different kind of clientele to the traditional heroin user, and Gradin feels they are particularly dangerous. “They are clean, look nice and have pretty designs,” she says.

The ecstasy-linked deaths of teenagers such as Leah Betts in the UK have highlighted public sensitivities to the potential dangers of chemical drugs.

But the resultant moral backlash - often confused - as yet appears to have had little effect on users, according to drugs experts.

As well as the rapid information system, Gradin will recommend the creation of an EU-level committee “capable of evaluating the alarm reports and quickly sending the result on to the Council [of Ministers]”.

She hopes that this might lead to “generic definitions of various families of drugs” within member states, so that any slight change in chemical content would not allow manufacturers to escape the law.

The Commissioner says there should also be greater cooperation between police and the pharmaceutical industry, and closer east-west ties.

Chemical drug manufacture is fast becoming a boom industry in central and eastern Europe, providing work for highly skilled and otherwise unemployed engineers. Polish police are closing down two factories a month, according to Gradin, and similar problems are found in the Baltic states.

But despite their commitment to fighting these drugs, national governments may well view the Commission's proposals with suspicion. Under the Maastricht Treaty, the latter has no right of initiative in police or judicial cooperation and some believe that Gradin's proposals may fall into that category.

On the other hand, growing acceptance among members states of the need for international cooperation - demonstrated at the informal meeting of justice and home affairs ministers in Noordwijk earlier this month - might soften their stance.

“We will have to wait and see what form her demands take,” said one diplomat.