Netherlands National Drug Monitor - Research and Documentation ...

• Between 2007 and 2008, there was little change in the number of clinical admissions
to general hospitals on account of cocaine misuse and dependency. However, a longer
term view shows a rise (§ 3.6).
• The number of registered acute deaths from cocaine use is low, and remained stable
between 2004 and 2008 (§ 3.7).
• In recent years, powder cocaine used by consumers has been relatively often found
to be mixed with medicines. There has been a marked rise in the use of levamisol as
a mixing agent (§ 3.8).
3.2 Usage: general population
• Between 2001 and 2005 there was an increase in the number of people in the Netherlands
aged between 15 and 64 who had experience with cocaine (table 3.1). The
difference between 1997 and 2001 was not significant (Rodenburg et al., 2007).
• The percentage of recent and current users remained at the same level in all three
surveys. The percentage of current users was the same in the 1997 and 2005 surveys.
The decline recorded in 2001 was not significant.
• In absolute figures, there were an estimated 32 thousand current users of cocaine in
the Netherlands in 2005. These figures are virtually certain to be an underestimation,
because problem users of hard drugs are under-represented in population surveys,
such as the NPO.
• The annual increase in first-time users of cocaine dropped from 0.4% in 2001 to 0.1%
in 2005. These figures could be indicative of a decline in the new use of cocaine.
Table 3.1 Cocaine use in the Netherlands in the population aged 15 to 64. Survey years 1997, 2001
and 2005
1997 2001 2005
Ever use 2.6% 2.1% 3.4%
Recent use I 0.7% 0.7% 0.6%
Current use II 0.3% 0.1% 0.3%
Used for the first time in the past year 0.3% 0.4% 0.1%
Average age of the recent users I 27.7 26.7 31.9
Number of respondents: 17 590 (1997), 2 312 (2001), 4 516 (2005). I. In the past year. II. In the past
month. Source: NPO, IVO.
60 Netherlands National Drug Monitor - NDM Annual Report 2009