Health consequences of drug use

Characteristics of clients entering treatment, such as the proportion of injectors or opiate users, are potential indicators of wider trends in problem drug use. Biases may, however, arise, such as over-representation of 

The geographic spread of problem heroin use in Italy seems to have followed the main drug trafficking routes (for example, from the Balkans via Greece to Puglia), as well as moving out from large cities to smaller towns in rural areas. 

Source EMCDDA project CT.98.EP.04, coordinated by Keele University, UK. Map provided by the University of Rome, Tor Vergata. 

Despite differences in treatment policies and recording practices, both common and divergent features are observed across Europe which cannot be attributed to methodology. 

Cocaine is the main drug in under 10 % of treatment admissions, except in Spain (11 %) and the Netherlands (17 %). Cocaine is often a secondary drug of clients treated for heroin (1 5 to 60 % where data are available). 

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