LISBON: The expansion of the European Union next year to include 10 new countries could "fan the flames of an already complex EU drugs problem", according to a report published in Lisbon yesterday.
But it could also offer an opportunity for closer co-operation in the fight against drugs.
The EU's drug monitoring agency said the accession next May of the 10 mainly east European and formerly communist countries raised the prospect of increased drug-trafficking and spread of infectious diseases.
Some eastern European countries "are threatened by the most rapidly developing HIV epidemic in the world", the agency said, with infection spreading recently and suddenly among injecting drug users in future EU members Estonia and Latvia.
"But enlargement also offers countries a unique opportunity to benefit from close collaboration," agency director Mr Georges Estievenart said.
In its latest annual report on the EU and Norway, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said most EU countries showed signs of increasing drug use, but there were "some grounds for cautious optimism" over increasing co-ordination to tackle the problem.
"Available data suggest a rise (in problem drug use) since the mid-1990s in at least half the 16 reporting countries."
Almost all countries surveyed by the Lisbon-based agency voiced new concerns about rising cocaine use, which was concentrated in big cities.
Surveys showed that between 1 per cent - in Sweden - and 9 per cent - in Britain - of 15- to 34-year-olds had used cocaine at least once in their lives.
The prevalence of crack cocaine was still low, and its use restricted to marginalised communities in some cities, "resulting in severe but very localised problems".
Agency chairman Mr Marcel Reimen said Europeans were now getting better at joining forces to combat problems over drug use.
"Overall, there is evidence of a better understanding of what works, and co-ordination of efforts within and between countries is now recognised as a vital component of effective drugs policy," he said.
The agency warned of a rise in "binge" drinking - five or more drinks in a row - and intensive drug use among a small but important number of vulnerable young people.
Surveys showed that between 36 per cent (Portugal) and 89 per cent (Denmark) of 15- and 16-year-olds had been drunk at least once in their lives, while more and more respondents said they had "binges" within the previous 30 days.
The agency also warned that solvent abuse among young people was often overlooked, although it probably accounted for more deaths than high-profile drugs such as ecstasy.