La pandemia también ha provocado una escasez de opioides, lo que a su vez puede hacer que las personas busquen sustancias más fácilmente disponibles como el alcohol, los benzodiacepinas o la mezcla con drogas sintéticas. La Oficina alerta que en consecuencia pueden surgir patrones de uso más dañinos a medida que algunos usuarios pueden decidir comenzar a inyectarse, o inyectarse más seguido.

Because the pandemic has led to highly addictive opioid shortages, people may seek out more readily available substances, including alcohol, sedatives or by using more harmful delivery methods, such as intravenous injection.

Thirty million Americans filed for unemployment in the past six weeks. It took about a year to reach that number in the wake of the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy. Meanwhile, euro area GDP contracted by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020 (Eurostat 2020). Against this background, the relatively slow frequency of most official statistics and macroeconomic indicators represents a challenge for policymakers in their efforts to mitigate the economic impact of the crisis.

Measures implemented by governments to curb the COVID-19 pandemic have led to drug trafficking routes by air being disrupted, along with drastic reduction or increased interdiction in trafficking routes over land. Some drug supply chains have been interrupted and traffickers are looking for alternative routes, including maritime routes, depending on the types of drugs smuggled. These are some of the findings from a report on drug market trends during COVID-19, launched today by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The EU's collective action will focus on addressing the immediate health crisis and resulting humanitarian needs, strengthening partner countries' health, water and sanitation systems and their research and preparedness capacities to deal with the pandemic, as well as mitigating the socioeconomic impact. To underpin these actions, the EU will secure financial support to partner countries amounting to more than €15.6 billion from existing external action resources.

In order to decrease the overall impact of the coronavirus, Italy has been active domestically with significant mitigation measures, a robust medical response and important collaborative scientific research – as well as economic recovery initiatives. At the international level Italy has also undertaken important measures through its development agencies.