National drug strategy by year's end - report

Malta will have a national drugs strategy by the end of the year, according to a European report on drugs launched yesterday.

The 2004 report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) sheds new light on the drug situation in the EU.

However, Malta is only sparsely mentioned in the report and many tables do not provide information about the country. This is because most of the information is taken from data compiled in 2003 when such figures were not available in Malta.

An EMCDDA official told The Times that next year's report will have more information on the island as data was being compiled this year.

Launching the report at the European Parliament building in Brussels yesterday, EMCDDA director Georges Estievenart said it was positive that the rate of heroin consumption among the 15 "old" member states had stabilised and the consumption of ecstasy - the second most common drug of choice following cannabis - was not rising at a rapid rate.

However, he said it was worrying that multiple addictions were on the increase, creating problems to find the proper treatment.

Also worrying, he added, was the more common and accepted use of cannabis, with about 20 per cent of EU citizens having used it at some time.

Mr Estievenart said there are about two million problem drug users in the EU, with half of them taking drugs intravenously. Every year there are between 8,000 and 9,000 recorded fatal overdoses but the report says this is "almost certainly" an underestimate.

Malta and Slovenia are the only countries among the new EU member states to offer substitution treatment for drug users.

But Malta is one of the four countries which does not yet have a national drugs strategy. However, according to Malta's profile on the EMCDDA report online - a hard copy of which is also available in Maltese - this is to be prepared by the end of the year with the assistance of a twinning project with The Netherlands. It is envisaged that it will be in line with the EU drug strategy 2005-2012.

According to the report, the adoption of a national drugs strategy is a trend for member states and also a cornerstone of the union's drugs policy.

The report delves in detail into the cannabis problem and says that specialised drug treatment centres in many EU countries report increasing contact with users of this drug. However, its use may now be starting to plateau after it increased substantially in the 1990s in many European countries.

Recent population surveys indicate that a "significant proportion" of the European adult population - between 15 and 64 years old - have tried cannabis at least once, with use concentrated in the 15-34 age group.

A report published by the National Commission for the Abuse of Drugs, Alcohol and Other Dependencies in 2001 showed that only 3.5 per cent of the Maltese population report using cannabis at least once in their lifetime.

Amphetamines follow cannabis in popularity in Europe, but their prevalence is lower and varies from 0.5 per cent to six per cent in the EU member states, except in the UK where it is as high as 12 per cent. Amphetamines use among the Maltese population is 0.4 per cent, according to the national commission's report.

"Recent use of amphetamines or ecstasy among adults is generally less than one per cent," the EU report says, adding that the use of the two drugs is "principally a phenomenon of young people".

The report says recent surveys suggest that between 0.5 per cent and six per cent of adults have used cocaine at some point in their lives, with this increasing to between one per cent and 10 per cent for young adults between 15 and 34. Use of cocaine in Malta stood at 0.4 per cent in 2001.

The EMCDDA report says cocaine use is generally discontinued after a period of experimentation or becomes occasional.

According to the national commission's report, 0.2 per cent of the Maltese population have used heroin at some point in their lives. The EMCDDA report says estimates of the prevalence of problem drug use - including heroin and injecting drug use - range between two and 10 out of every 1,000.

There are two million problem drug users in the EU, half of them taking drugs intravenously.