Study signals rise in older users

Malta is one of three European countries where 40 per cent of drug-related deaths occur among those under 25, compared to the EU average of 13 per cent, latest research shows.

This may indicate a younger population of heroin users or injectors in Malta, Austria and Romania, according to the annual report on the state of the drug problem in Europe, released in Lisbon yesterday.

The island’s figures are comparatively low with an estimated 10 drug-related deaths a year and while the young remain largely the victims the indication is Malta could be following Europe’s trend of older drug users.

Just below 15 per cent of drug-induced deaths in Malta were among those aged 40 or older, while seven per cent of those seeking treatment for their addiction were aged between 40 and 59 years.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) issued a separate report on this worrying trend of people who never grew out of drug use, which is testing countries’ health services.

Drug problems have no age limits and a greying generation of drug users are likely to suffer from unemployment, lower education and face consequences such as social exclusion and isolation from their families.

Just last week, Magistrate Miriam Hayman jailed Anthony Abela, a 52-year-old drug addict, who wasted his life in prison. The man failed to grasp numerous opportunities he was given to change his ways.

Many of the older drug addicts, like Mr Abela, are unemployed and either homeless or live in unstable accommodation that worsens their situation.

EMCDDA director Wolfgang Götz said older drug users faced psychological and physical problems and usually required the care and treatment of much older people. By the age of 40, a dependent user may need a level of care more typically associated with a person 20 years their senior.

Mr Götz told a press conference those with a career in drug addiction were at risk of an overdose, apart from the health consequences non-fatal overdoses brought with it.

In Malta, it is estimated two non-fatal overdose cases are admitted to Mater Dei Hospital every week and these can go on to face heart problems and reduced mobility in the future.

“It is commonly assumed that people in their mid-30s grow out of drug use but data from drug treatment centres in Europe show this is not always the case,” Mr Götz said.

Increasingly, he said, services were being called on to meet the needs of ageing clients who bore the health effects of long-term drug use combined with those of getting older.

“So far, we have been slow to grasp the implications of this change but it clearly presents a growing issue for both specialised drug treatment services and mainstream health and social care providers alike,” he added.

Another worrying trend that emerged during the press conference was the record number of new unregulated drugs challenging Europe’s policies, coupled with traffickers’ increasingly elaborate ways of beating the system.

Last year, 24 new unregulated drugs, known as “legal highs”, were reported to the European early-warning system administered by the EMCDDA and Europol. However, this record has already been surpassed and, this year, an additional 33 new such drugs have been reported for the first time.

The online marketing of such psychoactive substances has made it harder for the authorities to monitor and control. Mr Götz said the EMCDDA had so far identified 170 online shops selling legal highs and hallucinogenic mushrooms to European citizens. There could be many more, he noted, because it was impossible to monitor all the languages selling the substances online.

Malta was one of the first EU member states to ban the legal high mephedrone – a party drug known as Meow Meow that was being sold as plant food over the internet – and its derivates last September. This means mephedrone now features right after MDMA (the chemical which refers to ecstasy) in Maltese law, which does not make a distinction between hard and soft drugs.

Mephedrone, whose effects have been compared to those of ecstasy and cocaine, gained popularity primarily because it was legal and, therefore, comparatively very cheap.

A Europe-wide ban of Meow Meow was being discussed, Mr Götz said.

“A key question for European drug policy is how to control these new substances quickly and effectively. No perfect solution exists but some legislative approaches are more successful than others. Here, we should learn from one another and develop a collective European-level approach,” he urged.