Cannabis most popular illegal drug in Hungary

Cannabis continues to be the drug of choice for drug users in Hungary, according to a fresh report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) released on Tuesday.

The 2017 report was based on national estimates and reported numbers through the EMCDDA indicators. The EMCDDA surveyed the 28 EU member states along with Norway and Turkey for its study.

According to the report, cannabis is mostly used by 18-34-year-olds in Hungary.

However, the report says the latest data indicate that that cannabis use is declining among young adults. At the same time, ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamine use has been on the rise since 2007.

The report found that demand for new psychoactive substances is also growing.

It also found that alcohol use is prevalent among Hungarian high school students and that heavy episodic drinking was higher here than the average for all the countries surveyed.

The report’s data on drug-related infectious diseases indicate that the number of newly-registered HIV cases has increased since 2011, but only some of these are related directly to injection drug use. At the same time, the number of acute hepatitis C infections nearly doubled between 2006 and 2013 but has since shown a downward trend.