“cocaine is now more easily available than ever, while the volume of cocaine seized in Europa has decreased by more than 20% in 2024″. This was said by the European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, in the press conference to present theEuropean drug report 2026. “The report also highlights a very interesting fact: the human cost of drug use. The latest data shows at least 7,600 overdose deaths in Europe,” he added.
Cocaine and the drug market are worrying
The drug market is worrying in various areas, “on European security as a whole, on organized crimebut also on health policies and social vulnerability”. A picture that Magnus Brunner defined as “alarming”. “The drug trafficking it is obviously a global business, so our response must also be global. Our approach must therefore cover several areas: prevention, treatment and, of course, safety,” he highlighted.
The EU anti-drug strategy
What are the solutions that the Old Continent is putting in place to tackle the fight against drugs? “There EU anti-drug strategy combines public health, prevention and social treatment measures, with a coherent security and crime-fighting policy, because we obviously have to reduce both supply and demand”, explained Brunner.
The action plan against trafficking
“As regards the fight against crime, at the end of last year we presented a European action plan against drug trafficking. The objective is to combat criminal networks along the entire supply chain, from production countries, through transit routes, up to European sales markets, with particular attention to the safety of ports. Much of the cocaine, of course, arrives in Europe via ports,” he concluded.