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MORE THAN 80 PER cent of drug seizures in Europe are for cannabis, a massive study on drug use in Europe has found.
The study published yesterday said around one million seizures of illicit drugs are reported annual in Europe. Most of these are small quantities of drugs confiscated from users, although this total also includes multi-kilogram consignments seized from traffickers and producers.
In 2012, two-thirds of all seizures in the European Union were reported by just two countries, Spain and the United Kingdom. Smaller, but non-trivial numbers of seizures were reported by Germany, Belgium, Italy and four Nordic countries.
The map above shows that Ireland, relative to other countries, has a small number of seizures – between one and ten thousand a year.
In the UK, the number of seizures is greater than 100,000. Most of the seizures are for herbal cannabis and cannabis resin.
The annual consumption of these products can be roughly estimated at around 2 000 tonnes. Over the past ten years, the number of herbal seizures has
overtaken that of resin, and now represents almost two-thirds of all cannabis seizures.
The report said this reflects the growing availability of domestically produced herbal cannabis in many countries.
The emergence of synthetic cannabinoids, chemicals that mimic the effects of cannabis, has added a new dimension to the cannabis market, according to the report.
Most synthetic cannabinoid powders appear to be manufactured in China, and are then shipped in bulk, using established legitimate transport and distribution networks. Once in the European Union, the chemicals are typically mixed with or sprayed onto herbs and packaged as ‘legal high’ products for sale either on the Internet or via other retailers.
In the first six months of 2013, eighteen countries reported more than 1 800 seizures of synthetic cannabinoids.
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There’s nothing wrong with an oul smoke now and again.
Remember. Those untaxed drugs are the ones that are bad for you
Meanwhile, in Colorado… besides the welcome tax intake,
Crime rates down 14.6%
http://truththeory.com/2014/04/23/colorado-crime-rates-down-14-6-since-legalizing-marijuana/
Between one and ten thousand a year. Wow…so specific!
Just legalise under medicinal use first, see how that goes before opening it up to wider society. It just makes no rational sense for it to be illegal. Head shops used to sell all sorts of crazy stuff that was much worse than weed and they were operating for years unregulated, legalising weed wouldn’t be as bad as people think.
This idea that if somebody is doing something you must leagalise it is bizarre.
Just because somebody is doing something does not make it right .
If somebody is soliciting prostitution , that does not make prostitution right
If somebody is having an abortion , that does not make abortion right
If somebody is smoking canabis , that does not make cannabis right
We need to get away from this idea that you must leagalise something just because people happen to be engaging in it
There should be no tolerance of any of these , There should be stiffer sentences for all of the above , no mercy on things that are wrong , by giving mercy and softening laws , you create a society in which crime flourishes , like the Society we have right now , and its getting worse every day because are prison sentences are laughable
If prostitution was legal I’m sure we’d see a fall in human trafficking numbers and create tax revenue, if abortion was legalised which it should be it could end up saving women’s lives and if weed was legalised it’d be taxed help people with ms and cancer treatment probably double our tourism trade yearly! There is no logic in keeping these 3 things illegal, with proper regulation they would only print money for the country and reduce crime at the same time.
Ah gees now Dave… Come back to the 21st century.
Guess why our jails are full Dave??? All those suggestions you espouse is simply because ALL our policies are in effect and they are not working.
This idea that if somebody is doing something that causes absolutely no harm to anyone else, you should then brand & punish as a criminal is bizarre.
And please explain to us what you feel is so wrong with the adult consumption of cannabis?
Stiffer sentences for prostitution! Fnarr Fnarr!
Ah i see what you did there
Surely quantity of drugs seized per population is a more meaningful stat that total number of seizures – UK population is more than 10 times Ireland therefor it makes sense they have more than 10 times the seizure rate.
I’ve lived in Denmark and travelled all over Europe-most countries except Ireland and Britain don’t bother going near cannabis users and don’t enforce the law against what they consider trivial amounts by users!
In Britain and Ireland they waste resources going after social smokers-I”ve seen cannabis being openly smoked in public in most EU Countries including France, Germany and Denmark! !
Legalise the bangers, anything that’s that much fun can’t be wrong. If you disagree you’ve never succumbed to the love buzz.. One of the safest drugs out there.
I generally say the whole war on drugs worldwide is a failure but we can now safely say at least 80% of the European one is.
What a great waste of limited resources. Thankfully there is a student-lead revolution in the making to help make change a reality. Get involved.
@SSDPIreland
Had the students better get on with it then. They seem to have been at it since at least the mid 50′s.
I am pro legalisation. I just had to have a dig at ‘the students leading the charge’.
Double edged sword really. Having toked in the past, I don’t think it should be legalized to the extent it is in Amsterdam as it instantly softens acceptance of more substantial drugs. Saying that, certain states in USA have been smart and its proving really effective. Control its use, people who really want it (socially or medically) have access if they need it, cuts out the dealer, and creates additional revenue for the state. Whatever peoples reasons for not wanting it legalized (which I partly agree with), imagine better control of it, and the resources available to police in Europe for focusing on bigger seizures/ harder drugs/ other crimes if cannabis was not factored into the stats above?
Amsterdam’s issue is that it’s linked to drug tourism and prostitution. If only Irish people were allowed to buy it, it would help prevent that, as well as not having the whole prostitution thing going on.
Non US residents can buy cannabis if authorized by a doctor in certain states so I don’t think an ‘Irish only’ policy would make a difference. Regardless, my point is more around the amount of police time being spent on something that could otherwise focus on things with a better result.
And by doing this Dutch only policy,which is actually illegal under the EU laws on discrimination.As well as getting rid of their red light zones,Amsterdam is killing their goose that lays golden eggs.
IF we had brains and cojones here we should be looking at getting Dublins old red light district “The Monto” back in busisnerss and legalise the herb as well and take over Amsterdams busisness.
I don’t think legalising cannabis would instantly soften our acceptance of more substantial drugs, as people generally decide to use or not use a drug by weighting up the risks & rewards that each individual substance has to offer; hence why cannabis is so popular, it’s one of the least harmful drugs available, it can be vaporized or eaten (so people can avoid any of the harms that are associated with combustion), it doesn’t cause hangovers and most importantly an overdose on cannabis will not kill you.
Also, the coffee shops in Holland were originally introduced in order to break the supply chain to harder drugs, believing that if they separated cannabis (soft drug) from the drug dealers menus, then less people would progress onto the harder drugs that the dealers have a financial incentive to sell and this policy has shown to be successful, with less people progressing onto harder drugs after they’ve used cannabis, compared to either here or the U.K. Unlike the situation here, when you buy cannabis from a coffee shop or dispensary, they offer you advice on a suitable strain & potency that will suit you and do not attempt to sell you any other kind of drugs, bar maybe a cup of coffee.
You would be waiting a while for a doctors appointment if cannabis is restricted to medicinal use. The queues would be out the door! Not to mention the doctors indulgence affecting their work rate!
Why would doctors indulge in cannabis during work? What makes cannabis so different to alcohol that they would feel the need to indulge in it, affecting their work?
You lose control of yourself and can’t think when drunk , while stoned you save the world 3 times over and forget about that marvellous idea that was going to make you and your buddies millionaires!
Not to mind just wanting to eat everything in sight.Thats all I get is a serious dose of the munchies when ever I sparked up.
Employers are legally entitled to test anyone they think is under the influence of any illegal drug or Alcohol…
Dont think i have ever heard of this being implemented….
I’m open to correction….
Where does it say that?
I suppose it would depend on the job, if it involved bus, truck driving or using plant or machinery that could put lives at risk I wouldn’t see a problem with it. When I was in Washington state any job that I applied for involved random pi**s tests for drugs. Thc can be in the system for several weeks.
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 provides a framework and a set of broad general duties and organisational arrangements necessary to ensure better health and safety in the workplace. Under the Act, an employee must not be under the influence of an intoxicant, to the extent that he or she is in such a state as to endanger his or her own safety, health and welfare at work or that of others.
A further significant duty introduced by the Act, is the requirement for employees to submit to testing for drugs and alcohol. However, despite the Act having been commenced on 1 September 2005, regulations required to give full effect to this provision have not been introduced and the Health and Safety Authority have commented in recent times that there will not be any regulations on the area. Regulations do however exist in relation to safety critical areas such as in the aviation, rail and construction sectors.
@Pierce The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 provides for a lot of things within the workplace that are routinely ignored. A friend of mine works for a large employer where most of the employees are female, you’d have to see the pictures of the male changing room to believe it. Over 100 men are crammed into an area the size of an average living room, with no toilets or hand washing facilities, about 200 men have to use one toilet and wash basin, which also doubles up as another changing room. This is a clear violation of The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and, despite their unions protesting, this employer couldn’t give a damn because they can easily get away with it.
Proves Europe is full of Dope heads ;)
Also check out the comments in the photo provided
Illegal drugs = Stupid users.
Suck a bag of dicks…
REALLY?! In other news, the sky is blue in the daytime.
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