While the police are mainly concerned with cocaine, it pays to make ecstasy again under the radar

Nitrous oxide is out, mushroom drops are in. The new, popular drug 3mmc is often not pure 3mmc, but a mixture of designer drugs. And the powder version of the classic party drug – ecstasy – is becoming increasingly popular.

These are some striking findings from the annual Antenna Amsterdam from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and the Jellinek Clinic. Drug use among young people in Amsterdam appears to be a good predictor of use in the rest of the Netherlands.

The latest trends often see the light of day during ADE: the Amsterdam Dance Event, a multi-day electronic music festival that starts on Wednesday, October 22. In the past, the festival was also jokingly called the ‘Amsterdam Drugs Event’.

Party culture has become more diverse, as have drug-laced moments

That characterization was put into perspective in answers to: drug use at ADE is not that different from other parties. It can be said that this confirms another trend: a wide arsenal of drugs is sold and used at all festivals and during regular nights out.

According to the researchers, it illustrates Antenna Amsterdam that the threshold for buying and using drugs has been lowered. That has to do with social media. The drug dealer of the past has been replaced by delivery services that distribute their menu via Snapchat or WhatsApp.

“Party culture has become more diverse, as have drug-laced moments,” the researchers said. “Many illegal substances are no longer only used at festivals. Going out with a group of friends is already a party, whether you are on a boat or in a forest, in a club or café, at a post-party or a cool home party with DJs. The setting of use has become more varied across the board.”

Cocaine or ecstasy

In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to cocaine use among outgoing young adults aged 15 to 34. For example, an information campaign has been running in the municipality of Rotterdam since 2024 with, among other things, the slogan: “Your line, its liquidation.”

but the attention for cocaine does not come completely out of the blue, given the growing number of users. In 2016 33 percent of the group of outgoing young people reported that they had used cocaine in the past year (2015). In the latest figures 2023 that incidental use has risen to 43.6 percent.

Those figures from the National Drug Monitor of the Trimbos Institute partly reflect the growing availability of cocaine. Thanks to smuggling through the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam, the Netherlands has become the hub for the cocaine trade in Western Europe. It is no coincidence that Amsterdam and Rotterdam score very high in European terms in sewage water measurements of cocaine use.

Despite all the attention for cocaine, one classic is still the most popular among the young audience: ecstasy

Due to the underworld violence associated with this trade, the judiciary and police pay a lot of attention to this problem. This has led, for example, to the Tackling Criminal Power Structures project, aimed at networks around major players such as Ridouan Taghi, Piet Costa and Jos Leijdekkers. In this way, the government wants to show that no one is untouchable, regardless of how lucrative cocaine smuggling is.

Despite all the attention for cocaine, an old classic is still the most popular among the young audience: ecstasy. Ecstasy is the most commonly used drug after cannabis among the entire Dutch population. Of all adults over the age of eighteen, almost a quarter have used cannabis at least once. For ecstasy this is 11 percent and for cocaine it is 6.5 percent.

But among young people who go out, ecstasy is now more popular than cannabis, partly as a result of the smoking ban in the catering industry. In 2023, almost 54 percent of this group used ecstasy, 47 percent cannabis. Add to this that the designer drug 3mmc – which can be seen as a derivative of ecstasy – is also very popular among this group. In 2023, more than 40 percent of outgoing young people used that drug or something very similar.

‘Pill pushers’

Zoom in

Developments on the drug market play into the hands of local producers, mainly of synthetic drugs. Due to all the attention paid by the investigative authorities to cocaine smuggling, ‘pill pushers’ can go about their business in relative silence.

The Netherlands is still the most important ecstasy producer in Europe. In 2023, according to 32 of the 36 dismantled European ecstasy labs, there would be in the Netherlands. The other four were just across the border in Belgium. Ecstasy is also produced in other countries, for example in Poland and Spain, albeit on a smaller scale.

And after a decline in ecstasy production during the first years of the corona pandemic, it is increasing again, according to Europol. Sources in the criminal environment confirm this. During corona, the wholesale price for MDMA – the active substance in ecstasy – fell to less than 600 euros per kilo. That price has now risen to 1,200 euros.

An investment of 1,200 euros in MDMA generates approximately 24,000 euros on the consumer market

In combination with the increased demand for pills, the production of ecstasy is also financially very attractive for criminal networks. Based on an average price per ecstasy pill, an investment of 1,200 euros in MDMA generates approximately 24,000 euros on the consumer market.

After a strong start to this year, the wholesale price of a kilo of cocaine in the Netherlands is now 16,000. After cutting, it yields approximately 66,000 euros on the consumer market. A euro invested in MDMA yields 20 euros and 1 euro invested in cocaine yields just over 4 euros.

And this makes ‘M’, as MDMA is called in the criminal environment, more interesting for criminal investors than cocaine. A source from Brabant’s criminal environment states: “Punching pills is still very profitable. Let ADE begin, they say in the south.”

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