Cannabis remains the most-consumed illegal drug in Belgium. This emerges from the annual report in Belgium in the sphere, by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (known in Belgium as the “OEDT”) published yesterday (Tuesday).
It is more popular with young adults (aged 15 to 34), among whom there is a 10.1% prevalence.
According the OEDT, the most recent available data indicates that around one pupil aged 15 to 16 in five has already smoked cannabis in the French-speaking community, compared to one in six in the Flemish community. A stable finding was made for young French-speakers and a slightly lower trend for their Flemish counterparts.
Marijuana is also the most popular narcotic amongst the nocturnal world, as much in the north as the south of the country. Moreover the report observes the increase in strength of MDMA (the active ingredient of ecstasy) in this context.
Per the data of the Institute of Public Health extracted in the report, some 900 individuals were admitted to crisis intervention centres following non-lethal doses of drug consumption. The report stipulates “Drugs which are more regularly involved in such hospital admissions are opiates, followed by cocaine, other stimulants and indeed cannabis.” Overall the trend is for the decrease in opiates, but an increase for other narcotics.
The death rate from drugs generally was 9.2 per million inhabitants in Belgium, according to 2013 data.
The Brussels Times
