Synthetic opioids add to Europe's drug dangers as market shifts, EU agency warns

Europe's illicit drug market is undergoing a significant transformation, with synthetic opioids posing an increasing threat even as the region continues to record far fewer fatal overdoses than North America, the European Union Drugs Agency warned in its annual report.

The Lisbon-based agency, drawing on data from all 27 EU member states as well as Norway and Turkey, said at least 50 new psychoactive substances were identified for the first time in Europe in 2025. It flagged rising risks from nitazenes, a class of synthetic opioids found in counterfeit benzodiazepines and street drugs including cocaine, heroin and ketamine.

Nitazenes were linked to 195 deaths in England and Wales in 2024, nearly four times the previous year's toll. In Bulgaria, fentanyl was associated with more than 100 deaths between 2024 and 2025, with fatalities spreading beyond the capital, Sofia, to other cities.

The agency also warned of a reshuffling in supply routes, with cocaine increasingly arriving through smaller, less-scrutinized ports. Cannabis is now flowing from Canada and the United States, a trend the report attributed to regulatory liberalization in North America and overproduction-driven price declines that are making transatlantic sourcing more attractive.

EU countries recorded around 1mn drug seizures in 2024, with cannabis accounting for 68% of the total. The agency valued Europe's illicit cannabis market at €12bn, even as experimental legislation in Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Czechia now permits limited legal purchasing or cultivation. Some 24.9mn adults aged 15 to 64 reported using cannabis in the past year, making it the continent's most widely consumed illicit substance. Cocaine ranked second, with 4.3mn adults reporting use in 2024.

The EU recorded an estimated 7,600 fatal overdoses in 2024, equivalent to a mortality rate of 25 deaths per million people aged 15 to 64 — a fraction of the toll seen across North America.