The Netherlands leads the drug production and trade in Europe
A report issued by the European Drug Agency (EUDA) for the year 2023 shows that the Netherlands is one of the leading drug-producing countries in Europe and occupies a central position in the trade of these substances within the European Union.
According to the report, 36 MDMA production labs were dismantled in Europe during the year, 32 of which were in the Netherlands alone, while the other four were discovered in Belgium. The Netherlands also led in the production of other drugs, with 38 out of 93 amphetamine production labs, as well as 10 out of 14 sites for cutting and packaging heroin.
The agency confirmed that Europe remains a major area for the production of illegal drugs, posing serious risks to public health, including explosions inside laboratories in residential areas, fires, and direct exposure to chemicals.
The sites for disposing of waste generated by these operations are also considered a significant danger to the environment and health. 191 such sites have been found in the Netherlands, out of a total of 236 sites in the entire European Union. The agency expressed its increasing concern about the spread of what is known as "designer drugs" such as 4-MMC and 3-CMC, as the quantities seized rose from 4.5 tons to 37 tons in just two years, with a large part of it being traded through the Netherlands.
In 2023, the Dutch police dismantled eight laboratories for the production of these types of drugs. Poland, which topped this list, saw the dismantling of 40 laboratories. The agency also warned of the danger of powerful painkillers of the "nitazenes" type, which have caused fatalities in Estonia and Lithuania, although no overdose cases due to them were recorded in the Netherlands during 2023.