This report based on information from Cannareporter, published on 6 June 2025.

The 2025 European Drug Report (EUDA) says it is alarmed by the rapid increase of semi-synthetic cannabis products, their potency and how many of them are made from CBD.

The Report, released in Lisbon on 7 June 2025, says the production and consumption of synthetic drugs is on the increase in every category, and that many of new potentially dangerous drugs were coming onto the market, most of which were beyond the reach of regulators.

It said that among the challenges facing European regulators was the rise in the use of synthetic substances such as cathinones, nitazenes and semi-synthetic cannabinoids.

EUDA Executive Director Alexis Goosdeel (pictured left above) warned that given the increase in supply and demand for synthetic cannabinoids created from CBD,  regulators could conceivably consider CBD as a precursor in the future, and thus subject it to tighter controls and regulations.

The Report estimates that “24 million European adults (aged 15 to 64) have used cannabis in the last year”, and “the average THC content of cannabis resin has doubled over the last decade, to 23% in 2023, more than double that of herbal cannabis (stable at 11%).”  In the previous report, the percentage of European cannabis users was 22.8 million.

The EUDA says as a result of these factors, there has been a greater number of risky consumption and health problems associated with cannabis.

In relation to cannabis the main points of the report can be summarized:

• Around 1,5% of European adults (4.3 million people) use cannabis daily or almost daily;

• The potency of cannabis resin (hashish) remains very high: on average 23% THC, while in the flower the average potency is 11% THC;

• Hashish and flower continue to be the most consumed products;

• There has been an increase in the variety of cannabis-based products – including products with high THC potencies that have been linked to acute toxicity crises reported in hospital emergency departments;

• Many of these products are sold on the illicit market and may contain potent synthetic cannabinoids;

• HHC, a semi-synthetic cannabinoid recently added to Schedule 2 of the list of illicit substances, was on the market in several European countries;

• Increasing product diversity exposes consumers to greater risk.

It says the following three trends are clear in the European market are:

• the increase in potency in cannabis

• the supply/demand of synthetic and semi-synthetic cannabinoids;

• the existence on the market of natural cannabis sprayed with synthetic cannabinoid sprays;

It says these trends have already led to the creation of new regulatory measures related to some of these substances. The Report says  'polyconsumption' is now a practice “standard", presenting a major challenge in terms of prevention, treatment and harm reduction.

Goosdeel says there are also new substances, new risks and new harms.

“Last December,” he revealed, “we detected a total of 1,000 active substances through the European drug information system – 1,000 substances that had never been detected before.”

According to the data in the new report, all known chemical and synthetic drugs show the same trend: increased consumption, an increase in production laboratories in Europe, an increase in the availability of drugs on the market, an increase in trafficking, crime and violence – all of this also confirmed by the increase in seizures.

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