“Over €24bn spent on illegal drugs in EU”

A European watchdog has revealed that the residents of the European Union (EU) member states spend more than €24 billion ($27.3 million) a year on illegal drugs, warning of connections between the trade and various other criminal activities, including human trafficking and terrorism.

“The impacts that drug markets have on society are correspondingly large and go beyond the harms caused by drug use. They include involvement in other types of criminal activities and in terrorism,” the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction together with the EU law enforcement agency, Europol, said in a report published on Tuesday.

The report, presented at the European Commission headquarters, further said that a great proportion of extremists involved in terrorist attacks “may have a history of low-level criminality, including drug use or involvement in the drug market, and exploit their criminal links to conduct their terrorist activities in a range of ways.”