BRUSSELS

The production and use of synthetic drugs continue to grow in the EU, the bloc’s drugs agency warned on Tuesday.

“Drug availability and use remain at high levels across the European Union,” the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction stated in its 2022 report.

According to the EU drugs agency, over 83 million Europeans, or 29% of the adult population, are estimated to have used illicit drugs at some point in their lives.

While cannabis remains the most widely consumed substance with over 22 million users last year, synthetic drugs with new psychoactive substances are getting more popular.

“Almost anything that has psychoactive potential is now at risk of appearing on the market, often mislabeled,” Alexis Goosdeel, the institution’s director, wrote in his introduction, pointing out the risks of consumers taking substances with unknown components and effects.

He also said that reports about mixing cannabis with synthetic cannabinoids are particularly worrisome.

While drugs continue to be imported from South America, West Asia, and North Africa, the report also drew attention to the trends of “increasing production of synthetic drugs in Europe, with particular concerns over the scaling-up of methamphetamine production.”

More than 350 laboratories fabricating synthetic drugs were detected and dismantled in 2020, most of them in Belgium and the Netherlands.