Amphetamine and methamphetamine: domestic production

Amphetamine and methamphetamine are synthetic stimulant drugs, often grouped under the umbrella term ‘amphetamines’, and hence can be difficult to differentiate in some datasets. Over the last decade, seizures indicate that the availability of methamphetamine has increased, but it is still much lower than that of amphetamine.

Amphetamine

Methamphetamine

Both drugs are produced in Europe for the European market. There are indications that amphetamine production mainly takes place in Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic States, Germany and Hungary. There are also indications that the final stage of production, the conversion of amphetamine base oil to amphetamine sulphate, is carried out in Europe.

Some amphetamine is also manufactured for export, principally to the Middle East, the Far East and Oceania. Seizures of amphetamine tablets with a ‘Captagon’ logo have also increased recently, especially in Turkey where more than 15 million tablets were seized in 2015.

The Czech Republic, and more recently, the border areas of neighbouring countries, has long been the source of much of Europe’s methamphetamine. The drug is also produced in Bulgaria, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

In the Czech Republic, methamphetamine is produced mainly from the precursors ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which are extracted from medicinal products smuggled chiefly from Poland. The drug may also be produced using BMK. In 2015, of the 291 illegal methamphetamine laboratories reported in the European Union, 263 were located in the Czech Republic. Production in that country has shifted from small-scale operations, involving users making quantities for personal use or local supply, to a situation dominated by larger-scale production, by organised crime groups, producing the drug for both consumption in European countries and export.

Number of amphetamine seizures and quantity seized: trends and 2015 or most recent year

In 2015, 34 000 seizures of amphetamine were reported by EU Member States, amounting to 4.7 tonnes. Overall, the quantity of amphetamine seized in the European Union has increased, fluctuating between 4 and 6 tonnes over the period 2002 to 2015. Methamphetamine seizures are far lower, with 7 700 seizures reported in the European Union in 2015, amounting to 0.5 tonne, with the Czech Republic seizing the largest amount. In 2015, large quantities of amphetamines were also seized in Turkey (3.8 tonnes amphetamine and 0.3 tonne methamphetamine) and Norway (0.1 tonne methamphetamine). The number of seizures and quantity of methamphetamine seized show an upward trend since 2002.

Number of methamphetamine seizures and quantity seized: trends and 2015 or most recent year

Typically, the average reported purity is higher for methamphetamine than for amphetamine samples. Indexed trends suggest that amphetamine purity has increased in recent years.