Last year, an unprecedented high number of new synthetic drugs appeared on the European illegal drugs market. These new drugs are potentially much more dangerous than XTC, because the ingredients are for the most part unknown. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drugs Addiction (EMCDDA) together with Europol have raised the alarm.

In its annual report, the European drug agency in Lisbon warns that last year authorities all over Europe have discovered a record 41 new hallucinogenic ingredients. It’s not a new development, says Daan van der Gouwe of the Trimbos Institute, a Dutch organisation for research on mental health, mental resilience and addiction.

“For some time now, we have seen new substances hit the market, the effects of which we hardly know or don’t know at all,” says Van der Gouwe. “These substances are every similar to XTC, but the effects are slightly different as well as potentially more dangerous than XTC. We have much less knowledge about them, which means that the users have much less knowledge about them as well.”

The Netherlands, Belgium and China
According to Rob Wainwright, director of the European police organization Europol, these drugs form a big problem, because its ingredients are often unknown. Therefore they have not been listed on the index of illegal substances.

And even if they are forbidden by law - in the Netherlands, for example, every new drug with hallucinogenic effects is automatically an illegal substance – it remains difficult to curb the trade, because the drugs are being sold via the internet. China, for instance, is a big player on the web.

At the same time, the Netherlands retains its position in the market for traditional synthetic drugs like XTC and amphetamines. “But there are others as well,” says Van der Gouwe. “Belgium, for example, and especially China.”