Germany’s drug problem reached unprecedented levels in 2015, which law enforcement officials blame on the refugee crisis draining their resources.
Germany saw an 18.8 percent increase in drug-related deaths, a four percent increase in first-time users and a sharp decline in drugs seized.
In Germany’s three poorest states, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saarland, deaths more than doubled. The trend has been ongoing over the past three years, but never before have numbers surged by more than 10 percent.
Police blame the unflattering results on “reduced control capacity, probably due to increased use of police forces to deal with the refugee issue.”
Frank Tempe, drug policy spokesperson for The Left Party, said the police’s claims are “nonsense,” and that law enforcement has little effect on overall consumption.
“Repression is not an effective means of fighting drug consumption,” he told The Local. “If you arrest one dealer, a new one will almost immediately take his place. The amount of money to be made makes the risk worth it.”
Newspaper Bild recently reported some refugees have been used as cheap drug traffickers by criminal gangs.
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