EU agency report says market is growing rapidly, with two new substances a week being identified, and is increasingly hard to control

The booming trade in legal highs will go underground in the face of blanket bans, such as that now being debated in Britain, European drug experts have warned.



They say online “grey marketplaces” selling new psychoactive substances (NPS) and greater use of social media are emerging as alternatives to the high street “head shops” and public websites likely to be shut down by laws enforcing a blanket ban on the trade.



The experts say the market in legal highs is not only growing rapidly, with two new substances being identified every week, but is becoming increasingly difficult to control, with different parts of the trade based in different countries beyond the reach of any one state.



The annual report of the European Union’s drug agency, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), published on Thursday, also highlights a marked rise in the potency and purity of most commonly used illicit drugs, including cannabis, fuelling concerns for the health of those using stronger products. The drug experts say the trend is being driven by technical innovation and competition from legal highs.

The report says it has been recognised for some time that the “surface”, ie, publicly searchable, web is an important marketplace for sellers of legal highs, with more than 651 websites identified 18 months ago as selling the new drugs to Europeans. But the trade is now moving into “grey marketplaces” operating on both the surface and deep, or hidden, web.



The Lisbon-based drug experts say 101 new legal highs were detected in 2014, continuing the rapid annual rise over the last five years since 24 NPS were first identified in 2009.



The EU agency has identified a further 41 so far this year and is monitoring nearly 500 different new synthetic chemical drugs, which often mimic the effects of “traditional” drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy, that have been sold in Europe.



Britain, Ireland, Romania and Denmark are introducing, or have introduced, blanket bans on the sale of legal highs with the aim of closing down high street shops and online websites offering them openly for sale. The countries have opted out of negotiations being undertaken by the rest of the EU over a common system of controlling the new drugs.



The home secretary, Theresa May, has said the blanket ban is necessary to “get ahead” of the rapid growth in legal highs, which she regards as a “game changer” after decades of stable or even declining illegal drug use in Britain.



The latest Eurobarometer figures for use of legal highs by young people show the highest levels of use in the last 12 months were in Ireland (9%), where a blanket ban has been in force since 2010, followed by France (8%), Spain (8%), Slovenia (7%) and the UK (6%).



But the EMCDDA says the illicit market is adapting rapidly to government measures, including making greater use of social media, such as apps, to supply and share the drugs and users’ experiences.



They also say the fact that manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, websites and payment services may be all based in different countries is making the markets particularly difficult to control.

Evidence that a blanket ban may drive the trade underground is also contained in a recent Home Office report from an expert panel on the 2010 Irish blanket ban, which says it has led to trade through head shops and Irish-based websites “virtually disappearing”. But the report adds that there is evidence of movement from legal highs to heroin and prescription drugs, and the development of an illegal street market.



Paul Griffiths, the EU drug agency’s scientific director, told the Guardian that the evidence from Ireland and Poland where blanket bans were introduced was that there was an immediate impact on availability, as head shops closed down, but that in the medium to long term the trade moved online or into illegal street markets.



His agency particularly identifies the development of the sale of illicit drugs in “cryptomarkets” or “deep web” online marketplaces which are only accessible via encryption software as a further major challenge.



“These allow goods and services to be exchanged between parties anonymously. Evidence is now emerging of so-called grey marketplaces – online sites selling new psychoactive substances which operate on both the surface and the deep web,” says its annual report.

“The deep web is part of the internet that is not accessible using standard search engines. There, drug sales can take place within marketplaces, within decentralised networks and between individuals.”



The agency says some attention has been paid to drug cryptomarkets such as Silk Road and Evolution, which are now defunct, and Agora, but online marketplaces such as eBay can also provide the infrastructure to conduct transactions and even offer services such as buyer ratings and discussion forums.



Stealth packaging is then used to facilitate the movement of small quantities of drugs through established commercial channels. Recent examples of stealth packaging has been known to include drugs hidden in free sample shampoo bottles attached to the front pages of magazines which are then bundled and packaged for delivery.

‘Together the growth of online and virtual drug markets pose major challenges to law enforcement and drug control policies,” says the report.



The EU home affairs commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said united, swift action was needed to confront the rapidly changing, globalised drug market. “I am looking forward to the forthcoming EU legislation in this area,” he said, “which is currently under negotiation. This will further strengthen our responses and equip us with better instruments to deal with these substances more rapidly and more effectively.”



The EMCDDA annual report confirms that cannabis remains the most widely consumed illegal drug in Europe, with an estimated 19.3 million adults reporting to have used it in the last year. Cannabis use continues to decline or remain stable in Britain, Germany and Spain.



But the EU experts raise the alarm about the increasing number of people being treated in hospital emergency departments who have wittingly or unwittingly consumed stronger products due to much higher rates of potency. The experts report a marked rise in the potency and purity of all of Europe’s most commonly used illicit drugs – driven by innovation and competition from legal highs – which they say is fuelling health concerns.



The agency reports that more than half of Europe’s 1.3 million problem heroin addicts are now in substitution treatment and the average age of the majority of those in treatment will soon be over 40. They also note that heroin processing laboratories have been detected in Europe for the first time since the 1970s. Two labs, converting morphine into heroin, were discovered in Spain in 2013 and 2014.