Nikos Thomaidis, a professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Athens, said in a recent interview that cannabis use in the Attica region ranks among the highest in Europe, especially in Athens, where cannabis use even ranks fifth or sixth.
In an interview with ERT TV, Tomaydis said that since 2011, Greece has been providing urban sewage analysis data to the European Drug Monitoring Center to better grasp the health of residents.
According to the latest data obtained by the researchers, 1 in 10 people in Athens uses marijuana. He noted that, like other cities in Europe, cannabis use in the Athens region declined between March 2020 and September 2020, a result that was led by the government's implementation of lockdown measures to control the outbreak during this period, which led to a reduction in cannabis trafficking.
"Cannabis use in Athens increased between October 2020 and March 2021 and peaked in March 2021, when the region's population used cannabis at 10 percent of the total population," he said. "The data also shows that cannabis use increases in the winter and decreases in the summer.
In addition to the use of cannabis, recent sewage testing also showed a sharp 60% increase in antidepressant and antipsychotic use. In addition, the use of cocaine in the Athens region has remained at its highest level in a decade since the summer of 2020. (Cai Ling)