Last year, researchers found the largest concentration of the drug amphetamine in all of Europe in the Eindhoven sewer. The European drug agency has measured this active ingredient in speed and pep in 68 cities. There was by far the most in the Eindhoven sewer. According to the Trimbos Institute, this sudden peak is due to dumping.
In Eindhoven last year, 805 milligrams of amphetamine per 1,000 inhabitants flowed down the drain, almost three times more than a year earlier. This puts the city of Brabant far above the concentration of 503 milligrams measured in the Swedish city of Sandviken, which occupies second place in the ranking.
Laura Smit-Rigter of the Trimbos Institute has found out through the researchers involved that the increase is not due to an increase in use. It appears that criminals have dumped large amounts of this drug into the sewer. As a result, the measurement does not paint a reliable picture of amphetamine use in Eindhoven.
Cocaine
Cocaine also found its way to the sewer more often, but Eindhoven was not a frontrunner there, although the concentrations were much higher than the period before corona year 2020.
Figures from the Trimbos Institute for 2020 show that 4.5 percent of Dutch adults have used amphetamine at some point. A third of them have done so in the past year. Use is highest among people in their twenties. In corona year 2020, this drug was used much less when going out, since the latter was almost impossible due to lockdown measures.