Ireland has the fourth highest rate of cannabis-related arrests in the EU, according to the latest report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
In eight of the 15 member-states cannabis was the main drug involved in drug arrests last year. Sixty-three per cent of drug-related arrests in Ireland related to cannabis in 1996, the report said. Three-quarters of those cannabis arrests were made for use, rather than trafficking. This compared to 79 per cent of cannabis-related arrests in France, 65 per cent in Belgium and 77 per cent in Britain.
Britain had the highest rate of arresting cannabis users, with 88 per cent of arrests relating to possession for use. Heroin and other opiates were the main drug of arrest in Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal.
At the publication of the European centre's third annual report in Vienna yesterday the director, Mr Georges Estievenart, said there were an estimated million heroin users in Europe, accounting for between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent of the EU's population.
He said police had become more involved in drug prevention policies across Europe, and heroin-replacement therapy was becoming more prevalent. In 1993 60,000 people in Europe were on a heroin substitute, now that figure is 270,000. Mr Estievenart said those on drugs were using more than one drug and mixing them. Amphetamines were becoming more common throughout Europe and appeared likely to overtake ecstasy, he said.
The increase in Hepatitis C among intravenous drug users was "an alarming trend", he said, with an estimated 500,000 injecting drug users with the virus across Europe. The transmission of AIDS was declining or stabilising in most countries but new users were still at risk, he said.
The report showed that the "drug budget", including policing and prevention costs of the member-states last year, was more than 53 million ECU. Britain, France and the Netherlands spent between 70 and 80 per cent of their drug budgets on law enforcement, with the remainder spent on prevention.
