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Drug law offences

'Reports' of offences against national drug legislation (use, possession, trafficking, etc.) reflect differences in law but also the different ways in which the law is enforced and applied, and the priorities and resources allocated to specific problems by criminal justice agencies.

Overview | Methods and definitions | Tables | Figures | All statistics

Overview of the data

Drug law offences

The index below lists the tables in the bulletin, the supplementary downloadable tables and the associated graphics in the section dealing with drug law offences, along with a brief overview. See the main overall index for all other sections.

The tables in this section monitor over time the numbers of ‘reports’ of drug law offences for each country that provided data. Tables include data from the EU Member States, Croatia, Turkey and Norway.

Summary points

Overall, the number of reported drug law offences in EU Member States increased by an average of 36% between 2001 and 2006 (see Figure DLO-3). The data reveal increasing trends in all reporting countries except Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia and Slovenia, which reported an overall decline over the five-year period. See Figure DLO-1 (Part (i) for the EU-15 and Norway and Part (ii) for the new EU Member States, Croatia and Turkey). See also Table DLO-1 which gives, by country, a historical perspective of the development of the number of ‘reports’ for drug law offences in the medium term (1995–2006) and Table DLO-109 over a longer period (1985–2006).

In most European countries, the majority of reported drug law offencesare related to drug use or possession for use. See Table DLO-2, which gives for 2006 by country the percentage of offence type categorised by use, supply, or both use and supply.

The number of drug law offences related to use increased by an average of 51% between 2001 and 2006 in the EU(see Figure DLO-2), with two thirds of the reporting countries showing an upward trend, and only Slovenia and Norway showing a downward trend over the five-year period. See Table DLO-4, which gives, by country, the medium-term historical changes in the number of drug law offences that are related to use or possession for use and their proportion among all drug law offences.

Offences related to the supply of drugs have also increased during the period 2001–06, but at a much lower pace (average increase of 12% in the European Union, see Figure DLO-2. Over this period, the number of supply-related offences increased in more than half of the reporting countries, and only decreased in four countries. See Table DLO-5 which gives, by country, the medium-term historical changes in the number of drug law offences that are related to supply and their proportion among all drug law offences.

In most countries, cannabis is the illicit drug most often involvedin reported drug law offences. See Table DLO-3 for a breakdown by substance of all reports for drug law offences, by country, in 2006.

In the five-year period 2001–06, the number of drug law offences involving cannabis increased or remained stable in most reporting countries, resulting in an overall average increase of 34% at EU level (see Figure DLO-3). Downward trends were, however, reported by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic (2002–06), Italy and Slovenia (see Figure DLO-5 -Part (i) and Part (ii)). See Table DLO-6 which gives, by country, the medium-term historical changes in the number of drug law offences that are related to cannabis and their proportion among all drug law offences.

Cocaine-related offences increased over the period 2001–06 in all European countries except Bulgaria, Germany and Slovakia (see Figure DLO-6 - Part (i) and Part (ii)). See Table DLO-8 which gives, by country, the medium-term historical changes in the number of drug law offences that are related to cocaine and their proportion among all drug law offences. The EU average increased by 61% over the same period (see Figure DLO-3).

Drug law offences related to heroin between 2001 and 2006 show a different picture, dropping by an average of 14% in the European Union, mainly between 2001 and 2003 (see Figure DLO-3). However, national trends in heroin offences have been diverging over the period, with a third of the countries reporting upward trends (see Figure DLO-7- Part (i) and Part (ii)). See Table DLO-7 which gives, by country, the medium-term historical changes in the number of drug law offences that are related to heroin and their proportion among all drug law offences.

The EU average trends in offences for both amphetamine and ecstasy peaked in 2004. While the trend for amphetamine-related offences remained upward (average increase of 41 % over 2001–06), the EU average for offences related to ecstasy fluctuated over the period with no overall change between 2001 and 2006 (see Figure DLO-3).

The EU average trends in use-related offences by drug type show that highest increases were reported between 2001-2006 for cocaine (see Figure DLO-4).