Drug samples collected in 2023 revealed more concentrated, less altered products, with supply and demand for cocaine still increasing, according to a study by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Trends (OFDT) published Tuesday.
The National Identification System for Toxic Substances (SINTES), a system for observing the composition of illicit psychoactive products coordinated by the OFDT, serves as the basis for this study, which is based on more than 731 samples of products collected in 2023, an increase of 18% compared to the previous year.
Cocaine remains the most frequently collected product by the system, which attests to a significant demand and consumption of the product last year, with an upward trend in the content, with few cutting products.
Of the 101 samples dosed with cocaine, 57% of them presented a purity rate of at least 80%, with a median of 85.5%.
"Users are exposed to greater risks, particularly in the context of experimentation (first-time use, editor's note), where they are not accustomed to such strong products," Sabrina Cherki, toxicologist and national SINTES coordinator at the OFDT, told AFP.
The range of cannabis products has further diversified in 2023, sometimes highly concentrated or in edible form, which can lead to acute poisoning.
This is the case of a cannabis oil, a "super resin," which was collected in 2023, dosed at 78% of delta-9-THC (a cannabis component with a psychotropic effect). Cannabis resin has contents around 30% and 16% for grass.
– A series of overdoses –
The ban on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer, since April 2022 risks reducing the availability of heroin on the market in the near future, and even leading to shortages.
"In 2023, there will be no change in brown heroin (in base form, editor's note). We can expect a change with a decrease in the content or consumption of synthetic opioids," observes Ms. Cherki.
"In the Ile-de-France region, we are seeing a market for highly processed and highly concentrated white heroin, sometimes with levels higher than 50%. We are also seeing the circulation of synthetic opioids sold as heroin," she continues.
This was the case in the spring of 2023: a series of overdoses, including one fatal one, were reported around Montpellier, associated with a product that was sold as heroin when it was actually isotonitazene, a powerful synthetic opioid.
3-CMC is the synthetic cathinone (synthetic derivative of khat) most identified in 2023 within the framework of the OFDT system.
"3-MMC has been replaced by 3-CMC, with a similar molecule. When they buy it, users don't necessarily know it's 3-CMC," explains Sabrina Cherki.
Like 3-MMC before it, the consumption, production and resale of 3-CMC have become illegal in the Netherlands, where many new synthetic product (NPS) resale sites are hosted.
Finally, MDMA analyses confirm high levels in crystal form, known as "out of the oven" and consumed in "parachute" form, and significant variability in its compressed form (ecstasy).
In 19 samples containing crystalline MDMA, the levels range from 9.31 TP3T to 1001 TP3T, with a median of 91.51 TP3T. In tablet form, the levels are also variable, as elsewhere in Europe and as in previous years.
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