The Illicit Drug Market in the EU and Responses to it

In a follow-up to an EC-supported report on the global illicit drug markets, RAND once again teamed up with Trimbos Institute, as well as the Institute for Criminal Policy Research, to provide "further analysis on the EU illicit drugs market and responses to it". The study investigated a number of pressing issues on the size and operations of illicit drug markets in the EU, including:
- Organisational structure of illicit drug suppliers into the EU
- Flexibility of suppliers to enter and exit other illicit markets, such as human trafficking
- Assessing the costs of producing and trafficking cannabis in the EU
- Improve understanding of retail markets via surveys of recreational and heavy drug users in seven Member States
- Impacts of substitution treatments (e.g., methadone for heroin) on the market
- Stakeholder perceptions about overall trends in drug use and problems
By applying a number of scientific methods to qualitative and quantitative data, RAND and its partners provided a better understanding of the illicit drugs markets in the EU.
The RAND research team contributed to several sections of the overall document, including the report chapters linked below.
Published Findings
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Estimating the Size of the EU Cannabis Market 1 January 2013
Research Team
Beau Kilmer
Jennifer Rubin
Peter Reuter
Jonathan Caulkins
Andres Villaveces
Mafalda Pardal
Jirka Taylor
Priscillia Hunt
Deirdre Culley
Peter McGee
Jim Burgdorf
Original Report
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Assessing Changes in Global Drug Problems, 1998-2007: Main Report 20 April 2009
This report provides key findings of the RAND Europe study which assesses how the global market for illicit drugs has developed from 1998 to 2007 and describes worldwide drug policies implemented during that period to address the problem.