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The Netherlands is the European leader in drug production
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The Netherlands is a hub in the MDMA trade within the European Union. This is evident from a report by the European Drugs Agency EUDA for the year 2023.

That year, 36 MDMA labs were dismantled in Europe, 32 of which were in the Netherlands. The remaining four were found in Belgium.

The Netherlands is also one of the leaders in Europe as a producer of many other drugs. For example, the Netherlands leads the list in the production of amphetamine (speed). Of the 93 speed labs that have been busted, 38 were in the Netherlands.

Meth and heroin
In addition, ten of the total of fourteen heroin production locations were dismantled in our country. In terms of the number of dismantled meth labs (methamphetamine), the Netherlands was in second place with 29 of the 242 locations.

The agency further reports that a number of large seizures of chemicals used in the production of speed, meth and MDMA have been made in the Netherlands and Hungary.

Dangers to public health
According to the EUDA, Europe remains a major production region for illicit drugs, which poses significant risks to public health and safety, not only for drug users but also for local communities near production sites, where there is a risk of explosions, fires and exposure to chemicals, for example.

Chemical dumping sites also pose a risk to public health. In 2023, 191 drug dumping sites were found in the Netherlands out of a total of 236 dumping sites reported within the European Union.

Designer drugs
The EUDA report also raises concerns about the increased use of designer drugs, such as 4-MMC and 3-CMC. The total seizure of these drugs increased from 4.5 tonnes to 37 tonnes in two years. A large part of this was traded via the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, eight laboratories were busted where these designer drugs were made, which put the Netherlands in second place behind Poland (with 40 busted labs). The EUDA does see fewer new designer drugs being added each year, but general use is increasing.

The drug agency also warns in the report about the increased use of the dangerous painkiller nitazene. In Estonia and Latvia, the use of nitazene led to a number of fatal overdoses in 2023. There are no specific figures for nitazene for the Netherlands for 2023.

There was recently a death in the Netherlands after swallowing fake oxycodone pills that were contaminated with nitazene. Also this year two people ended up in hospital because of nitazene.