EU Citizens Spend Over $27 Billion a Year on Drugs: Report

By Drug Discovery Trends Editor | April 5, 2016

Europol Director Rob Wainwright addresses the media on the EU Drug Markets Report at EU Commission headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday, April 5, 2016. The European Union's illicit drugs market is changing, and the rate of change is being accelerated by globalization and technology, according to the 2016 EU Drug Markets Report, suggesting the market is also increasingly connected with organized crime groups and terrorism. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

A European Union report says the bloc’s citizens spend over $27 billion on drugs and 1 percent of adults use cannabis on an almost daily basis.

Tuesday’s report said that 38 percent of the retail market for drugs was cannabis, accounting for some $10.6 billion in annual trade. Behind cannabis, heroin came in second with a value of $7.7 billion a year.

The report also said that the drug trade could be seen as a “gateway for radicalization,” with drug offenders pushed toward radical views in jail. EU officials hinted at some links between the trade and recent extremist attacks but Europol chief Rob Wainwright said there was no evidence yet of any direct link between the two.

Source: Associated Press