Heroin is no longer the most problematic drug in Slovakia, having been replaced recently by methamphetamine, with the number of people treated for addiction to marijuana also on the rise, the latest annual report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) has revealed.
While 235 people were treated for addiction to methamphetamine in 2011, the number rose to 272 in 2012. One alarming fact is that apart from sniffing, which is the traditional form of taking the drug, new use trends have been reported recently - with people smoking crystal methamphetamine and even injecting the drug. Meanwhile, marijuana has retained its dominant position on the Slovak drug market, with high numbers of users especially among secondary-school students, however in the case of marijuana there have not been any cases documented of a fatal overdose, the Health Ministry's main expert for drug abuse Ľubomír Okruhlica said on Tuesday. For the first time ever, the number of people treated for addiction to marijuana in Slovakia (432) in 2012 was higher than for heroin abuse. Even though many people in Slovakia have reportedly tried cannabis, Slovakia remains far below the European average in terms of regular use of the drug. “The number of fatal cases involving drug overdoses per 1 million people is 17 in the EU on average, while in Slovakia it's only six cases”, said Alessandro Pirona from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
