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Irish adults among Europe's biggest users of cocaine and MDMA as experts warn of 'Uberisation' of drugs trade

The findings were outlined in the EU’s drugs agency’s annual report today.

IRISH ADULTS ARE among the biggest users of cocaine in Europe as orders for drugs are increasingly being made via smartphones and on darknet markets, experts have said.

The findings are contained with the EU’s drugs agency’s annual report, published today, which also noted that European authorities are seizing record quantities of increasingly pure cocaine.

The rise in trafficking on social media, darknet markets and cocaine “call centres”, where dealers deliver quickly to users who order online, are creating a “potential ‘Uberisation’” of the drugs trade, it said.

“There is a steady increase in the size of the market and sale over the internet and darknet,” Alexis Goosdeel, head of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), said in Brussels today.

The report found that Irish adults were the third-biggest users of cocaine in the last 12 months, behind the United Kingdom and Spain.

Ireland was also among six countries which noted an increase in the number of crack cocaine users who have presented for treatment since 2014.

Meanwhile, only the United Kingdom had a higher number of problem opioid users – a group including heroin users – while Irish adults were also among the biggest users of MDMA and amphetamines.

Record cocaine seizures

Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, told reporters in Brussels that the “report presents a worrying picture” with the record seizures of illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin.

He also said the EU and its partners had “no time to spare” in tackling “the role of digitalisation in the drug market”.

EU member states seized 140 tonnes of cocaine in 2017, the highest level ever recorded, with an average street price of €55 to €82 per gram in the EU.

Belgium accounted for the highest proportion of cocaine seizures with 45 tonnes, followed by Spain with 41 tonnes.

An increase in trafficking via shipping containers is a “major challenge”, the report said.

It also found that the purity of cocaine at street level reached its highest level in a decade in 2017, while its retail price has remained stable.

The MDMA content of the party drug ecstasy also reached a ten-year high the same year.

Although an international crackdown on chemicals used to produce that synthetic drug disrupted the market in the late 2000s, producers have increasingly been using non-controlled chemicals to manufacture it.

Most seized drug

Meanwhile, cannabis accounted for nearly three-quarters of illicit drugs seizures in the EU in 2017.

Herbal cannabis consumed in Europe is mainly cultivated in Europe, but cannabis resin or hashish tends to be imported from Morocco, and increasingly from Libya.

Almost three-quarters of the cannabis resin seized in the EU in 2017 was in Spain, whose proximity to north Africa makes it a hub for sending drugs to Europe.

Turkey is also noted as a significant transit country for drugs trafficking between Europe and the Middle East, despite its strict drugs laws.

It seized more MDMA tablets (8.6 million) and more amphetamine (6.6 tonnes) than all the EU member states combined in 2017.

There were also more heroin seizures (129,000) in Turkey than all EU countries combined.

Since 2014, Turkey has participated in the EMCDDA’s work and is a full member of the management board though without the right to vote.

Synthetic drugs – which mimic the effects of other drugs such as heroin – have become more common, the report said.

Eleven new synthetic opioids were detected in Europe in 2018, usually in the form of powders, tablets and liquids.

With only very small volumes needed to produce many thousands of street doses, these substances are easy to conceal and transport, representing a challenge for law enforcement and customs.

With additional reporting from - © AFP 2019

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    Mute Kevin Conway
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:19 PM

    No surprise there then. Party of sham

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    Mute Derek Doogan
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:27 PM

    @Kevin Conway: u think it only happens there

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:23 PM

    Can anyone think at this stage that ANY govt has its peoples wellfare at heart … a resounding NO. All rotten to the core.

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    Mute Paul Gorry
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:35 PM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: wow wow hold yer horses there lydia. Yep u right

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    Mute James Moran
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:44 PM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: critical thought would tell me that if the Democrats are the ones that brought the bill forward, well then they have the publics and interest at heart.

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    Mute Kevin Conway
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 11:03 PM

    @Lydia McLoughlin: at least Biden is making some sort of attempt to fix it.

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    Mute Lydia McLoughlin
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    Sep 24th 2022, 10:50 AM

    @Kevin Conway: I dunno. The pessimist in me always thinks it’s all a front. Promise this, promise that but its only half hearted or it turns out it can’t be done anyway .. our lot are masters at it! Only those consulted benefit by producing report after report to come back and report it can’t be done!

    Yes Minister springs to mind!

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    Mute Sean Casey
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:27 PM

    I just find it interesting this article did not say the reason the Republicans voted against it. Yes we heard why the Democrats think they voted against it but not their own response. Usually when Republicans vote against something that seems to make sense they have a reason that isnt as nonsensical as this article suggests. Im not saying I agree with them I’m just saying this is biased.

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    Mute Peter Peterski
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:48 PM

    @Sean Casey: Yes, it does make sense. They want the dark money since it benefits them more than the Democrats.

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    Mute Sean Casey
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 10:40 PM

    @Peter Peterski: Why wasnt Mitch McConnells reasoning covered in the article?

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    Mute Anthony Mcgee
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 12:48 AM

    @Peter Peterski: even though the article says the democrats benefited substantially more $1.5 million compared to $900k

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    Mute Coco Walsh
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 10:30 AM

    @Anthony Mcgee: 1.5 BILLION versus 900 million. Just a tiny bit more.

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:47 PM

    Unfortunately In the end you get “the best government money can buy”.

    Both sides are guilty but it would seem the Democrat party is at least willing to change the rules.

    The amount of money (that doesn’t have to be declared where it comes from) that’s spent by on political advertising is phenomenal.

    Less than 7 weeks to go until the midterms, in the US you can’t watch TV or watch anything online without being bombarded constantly by political attack ads.

    This election cycle I’ve noticed that “radical” seems to be the buzzword. The 2 candidates for senate and the 2 candidates for governor in my state are running ads where they both just accuse and call each other “too radical for Wisconsin”

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    Mute Brian Dennehy
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 10:50 PM

    Political donations are corruption, plain and simple

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    Mute james s
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:48 PM

    Breaking news! facts in an article completely contradict the headline…

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 10:23 PM

    The irony of the democratic party bemoaning nefarious uses of political funding in American elections, while they themselves are funding extreme far right candidates in the US primaries to both make the Republican party look as far right as possible by association and also because they believe they can motivate undecided voters to vote for the democratic party candidates if the perceived alternative candidate is a far right looney that they themselves promoted into the political spotlight..

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/12/democrats-interfere-republican-primaries/

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 10:25 PM

    Just to add, the amount of money spent by the Democratic party funding far right candidates in the current US primaries, is an eye watering $50 million to date.

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    Mute Diaspora'd
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 11:06 PM

    @David Van-Standen: they want the ‘radical’ Republican candidate to win the Republican primary because they reckon the mad radical Republican candidate will lose to the Democrat candidate in the actual election in November. They are funding the weakest Republican in the primary so they beat them in the election.

    It’s not for ideological reasons it’s so they can beat them in the actual election.

    The Republicans did the same, backing Bernie Sanders to win against Hillary in the Democratic primaries.

    It’s inherently risky, the mad radical they think will lose can end up winning sometimes.
    After all, Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016.

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 11:47 PM

    @Diaspora’d: thanks, that’s what i said.
    I never claimed it was ideologically motivated, just a nefarious use of funding, in an attempt to rig the ultimate outcome in favour of the democratic party, while also slinging muck at the Republican party.

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    Mute Caoimhghin Whyte
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 9:58 PM

    I just cannot figure how the Irish Government hrre have been able to afford Brexit, Covid, and, now the cost of living crisis it seems is going to bring a give away budget! Who is bank-rolling them? and Why?
    Remember they announced a surplus of €6.3bn recently!

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    Mute Fozz
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 8:13 AM

    @Caoimhghin Whyte: the EU massively supported the Covid measures.
    The benefits of being in the bloc are there to be seen.

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    Mute CarlitosWay
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    Sep 22nd 2022, 11:32 PM

    Republicans cannot stand against corruption and still support Trump. They don’t want to live in denial. Might as well defend corrupt money and don’t be called hypocrite later

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    Mute Mary Nugent
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 6:49 AM

    Just like ours.

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    Mute Jake Kelly
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 10:38 AM

    Biden could be on fire and the Republicans wouldn’t urinate on him to put it out. They wouldn’t do that for any democrat and that’s what’s wrong with politics in this day and age, the most basic concepts of civility is dead and gone

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    Mute Tom Mullally
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 12:16 PM

    Dark money is that given to the Democratic party by the likes of Planned parenthood (who make a profit and promote abortion).

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    Mute patrick malone
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    Sep 23rd 2022, 10:25 AM

    Should cap all donations to say around 50′id say

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