Drug use increasing in candidate countries

Candidate countries have become a clear target for drug consumption, according to the EU drugs agency, the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. In most candidate countries, "recreational drug use and experimentation are increasingly becoming an integral part of youth culture", said the Agency last week. "There has been an increase in experimental drug use in the general population in all candidate countries of central and eastern Europe in the past 10 years", and the trend is particularly visible in schools, with a doubling between 1995 and 1999 in the number of pupils aged 15 to 16 who have tried any illicit drug at least. Whereas, in the EU, the population of problem drug users is largely stable and ageing, in the majority of candidate countries the phenomenon is newer and problem drug users are generally younger.

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The findings give rise to considerable concern about the potential for future problems, according to EMCDDA. The agency's chairman, Marcel Reimen, urges continuing support by the EU to enable candidate countries to "align their actions in the drugs field with those of the EU and its current member states".

It is essential for candidate countries to strengthen their drug co-ordination and information mechanisms, he says. "While most of the candidate countries now have a legal and institutional framework in place for national drug strategies, the limited funding available is often more oriented towards law enforcement", according to Georges Estievenart, EMCDDA executive director.

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Připravuje Markéta Frýbová