92002E3253

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3253/02

by Konstantinos Hatzidakis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(19 November 2002)

Subject: Rising number of drug-related deaths in Greece

In 2001, 321 young people died in Greece as a result of using narcotic substances. Does the Commission have comparative data showing the situation in the other Member States and the development of the problem?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(5 December 2002)

In all 7 000 to 8 000 acute drug-related deaths are reported each year in the Union, and the real number of cases is probably higher. Opiates are present in most overdose deaths, although presence of additional substances is frequent. There is a relatively stable trend at Union level, although with divergent national trends. However, it is worrying that some Member States report recent new increases after a period of stabilisation or decrease. Mortality of opiate users, in particular injectors, is up to 20 times higher than the general population of the same age, due to overdoses, infectious diseases, accidents, suicides, etc. A copy of the last table presenting statistics, country per country, on drug related deaths in Member States is sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat. This table from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) shows data until 2000 only since there is a big delay between the collection of national data and their analysis. These data from different countries cannot be directly comparable (cfr. see the notes under the table). Drug related deaths are one of the five key indicators of the EMCDDA and a lot of effort has been put to make the figures comparable but work still needs to be done on this both by the EMCDDA and by the Member States.