Supply pushes cocaine price down, as heroin users grow older

Heroin users in Malta are getting older and are the major demographic of problem drug users seeking rehabilitation services, a national drug situation report released this week shows.

The highly addictive drug has one of the lowest usages among the adult population, but users of the drug are the majority of cases admitted for detox programmes. Of the 1,943 people who sought treatment for their addiction, 1,126 were heroin users.

The report also shows an ageing population in heroin users; however 41% entering rehab are younger than 35 in 2019, which is down from 45.5% in 2018.

The study estimates Malta has an average 1,049 daily opiate users, down from 1,161 in 2018 – again a sign of the downward trend in the drug’s usage.

The former coordinator of Caritas’s Drug Rehabilitation Programme, psychotherapist Mariella Dimech, says drugs’ popularity remain influenced by price and availability, a factor that informs the 2020 National Report on the Drug Situation’s findings on the increasing usage of cannabis and cocaine.

“Cocaine in the 1980s was a rich man’s drug,” she says of its high price and its short supply. “As the drug started making its way into Europe, its cheaper version – crack cocaine – was also created, and trends shifted with users making wider use of the drug.

“People tend to underestimate how availability and price can lead to addiction. But it’s not just the substance itself that influence addiction: personal trauma, psychological and mental issues, genetic predisposition and peer pressure all have a role to play in how users get hooked on illicit substances… we must analyse the conditions in which one finds themselves consuming drugs.”

Analysing the drug market, the report showed how cannabis is the most frequently seized drug by the police, with the substance being the only illicit drug known to be produced in the country. Resin is also imported from Morocco via Tunisia and Libya. It also the most frequently used drug among the adult population.

Apart from cannabis, the police also seized 747.3 kgs of cocaine in 2019.

Dimech points out that annual data in reports such as the 2020 National Report can only shine a light on problem users who have approached detox services. “What about those who didn’t come forward? What about those who are still consuming substances without seeking help?”

Dimech also said a lack of follow-up on users who made use of rehab services, hamper proper analysis. “We never had a programme that looks at what is happening 10, 20, 30 years after they leave the rehab programme. Why? Isn’t it in our interest to see what is happening to these people?”

Dimech’s own study of 80 addicts in their first phase of detox found many of them facing a prison sentence a year after their attempt to kick drugs. “Why is this happening? These organisations must and deserve to answer a question like this through science,” she said. “This is an opportunity to know what is happening to users, how effective our programmes are and how we can improve the treatment.”