The free movement of goods is the first of the four fundamental freedoms of EU internal market. The EC Treaty prohibits quantitative restrictions on imports, exports or goods in transit between Member States.
What happens to illegal goods, like drugs? Which drug policies does the European Union have? Is Europe "liberal" on drugs policies?
The European Union comes face-to-face with drug control issues in the context of its regulation of licit economic activites. The EU has developed an “European approach on drugs” that focus on drug demand reduction and drug supply reduction. Drug policies in the EU Member States are increasingly converging, while still respecting the principle of “Unity in diversity”, considering the differences in cultural traditions.
Actors and datasets
DRUGS OVERVIEW
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is the hub of information concerning drugs in Europe. Its mission is to provide the EU and its Member States with ‘factual, objective, reliable and comparable information’ on drugs, drug addiction and their consequences.
National data from the EMCDDA Statistical Bulletin 2016 provide an overview of the prevalence of recreational drug use: drug use in Europe now encompasses a wider range of substances than in the past, but we’ll consider only the most commonly used drugs.
The visualization presents the prevalence of drug use from statistical data related to 2014. One in four Europeans from 15 to 64 years old are estimated to have tried illicit drugs at some point in their lives. The most commonly used drug is
cannabis (83.2 million), with much lower estimates reported for the lifetime use of
cocaine (17.1 million),
ecstasy (13 million), amphetamines (12 million) and LSD (2.6 million).
While the use of heroin and other opioids (1.3 million) remains relatively rare, these continue to be the drugs most commonly associated with the more harmful forms of use including injecting drug use.
About half of the EU countries do not establish simple drug use or consumption as illegal. On the other hand all countries define possession of drugs for personal use as an offence although it may be regarded in different ways. In both cases each and every country has its own laws. The amount of drug considered as for personal possession differs enormously within Europe and it can be either an administrative or a penal offence.
This visualization aims to summarise the information and simplify comparison between quantity limits established for personal possession offences. It refers to the three most common drugs: cannabis, cocaine and heroin. In some countries, quantities are mentioned in the law as small or large, but no quantitative limits have been set out in legislation or police prosecutor guidelines.
Data on drug seizures relate to all seizures made in each country during the year by all law enforcement agencies (police, customs, National Guard). The visualization shows that quantities seized may fluctuate from one year to another, due to a small number of large seizures. Seized quantities are provided in kilograms and the numbers in the lists refer to the highest one.
Data about drug trafficking are surrounded by many uncertainties. The main indicators about the nature and the extent of this commerce are drug seizures.
Cannabis in Europe is available in the forms of hash and marijuana. A substantial part of hash on the European market originates from Morocco. Spain and the Netherlands are Europe’s main countries of entry for cannabis. The majority of heroin and morphine is produced from Afghan opium and the main heroin trafficking corridors are the balkan and northern routes. Cocaine is trafficked to Europe mostly by sea. Colombia remains the main source of the cocaine found in Europe, followed by Peru and Bolivia.
We saw a very complex situations concerning drugs within the European Union. Every country has its own degree of tolerance and face different issues.
It would be interesting to further explore which are the real consequences of drug trafficking and which are the controversies related to it. Which are the impacts of drug policies in each country? Is the global situation similar to Europe or do they have a different approach? How do they move illegal goods? What happened after the e-commerce spread?
