Europe is involved in a “growing complexity of the drug phenomenon”, with high availability of illegal drugs, multiple high-potency or high-purity substances, new substances which are still very little known, the use of mixtures of drugs and tablets, situations of polysubstance use. This is told by the European Drug Report 2026, which has been published today by EUDA, the European Union Drugs Agency. The scenario that unfolds in those 17 pages shows worrying numbers: it has been estimated that in 2024 at least 7,600 people died from overdose in the EU. In 2025, 24.9 million people aged 15 to 64 used cannabis (almost 90 million Europeans used it in their lifetime). 4.3 million people used cocaine in 2025 (but consumers are 18 million), 3.1 million used MDMA / Ecstasy, and 2 million used amphetamines. The picture is complicated by the market for illegal drugs overlapping with the market for new psychoactive substances, including diverted and fake drugs, or simply synthetic cannabinoids in e-liquids for vaping. In order to try out strategies to fight the phenomenon, changes in drug markets and consumer modes need to be quickly identified, with data taken from the web or wastewater analysis, hospital emergencies, syringe residue analysis, drug-checking services, and drug consumption rooms. A positive factor is the intensification of drug-fighting measures and customs operations in the main European ports and the creation of the European Ports Alliance: while this has allowed huge amounts to be seized, it has led the criminal networks to diversify their routes, methods and concealment techniques: the use of semisubmersibles but above all the use of drones makes such fight more challenging and costly