2019 EU Drug Market Report #EDMR19 by @Europol and @EMCDDA. Disappointing that other options than law enforcement solutions to tackle the supply side of drug markets, such as legal regulation, are not even mentioned. Come on people: it is 2019, not 1961. http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/2019/drug-markets

Through offering valuable insights and a wide range of useful data, the 2019 EU Drug Market Report shows that “overall drug availability within Europe, for both natural and synthetic drugs, remains very high.” In other word, supply-side interventions are failing … #EDMR19

“The European drug market is increasingly characterised by consumers having access to a wide variety of high-purity and high-potency products that, in real terms, are usually equivalent in price or cheaper than they have been over the past decade.” #EDMR19

Nevertheless, the report exclusively looks at interdiction and law enforcement action to tackle the drug markets in the EU. However, more of the same is not the answer. It has not worked in the past, and will not work in the future … #EDMR19

The legal regulation of the cannabis market in Canada, Uruguay and 11 states in the US might offer new insights for a different approach to tackle illicit drug markets, but that seems to have escaped the attention of @Europol and @EMCDDA. #EDMR19

Even more surprising since Luxembourg also announced to regulate their cannabis market http://www.druglawreform.info/en/tags/tag/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=tags&id=188&Itemid=57&lang=en-GB&more=28 and Malta contemplating it http://www.druglawreform.info/en/tags/tag/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=tags&id=206&Itemid=57&lang=en-GB&more=28 to tackle crime amongst other things.

Dozens of cities also advocate regulation of their local cannabis market to tackle related crime http://www.druglawreform.info/en/item/9243-cannabis-europe

Additionally, the negative consequences of a continuing illicit drugs economy in the EU are well documented in the report. For instance, it interacts with and fuels other crime, and … #EDMR19

#EDMR19 also “highlights the way in which many of the harms more traditionally associated with drug production and trafficking outside Europe are becoming a growing threat within the EU.”

All the more reason to think out of the box and start contemplating different approaches … Such as: taking away illicit markets from criminals and put them under government control. #EDMR19
https://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/reports/regulation-the-responsible-control-of-drugs

@Goosdeel