A new report from the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) has revealed that cocaine presence in Barcelona’s wastewater nearly tripled last year. This alarming finding reverses a multi-year downward trend and raises fresh concerns for public health officials.
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The agency’s latest wastewater analysis shows markers for the substance surged by 185% in the Catalan capital, compared to 2024 data. This dramatic spike returns consumption levels to 2017 figures, abruptly ending a period of steady decline. It also raises urgent questions about the city’s drug use patterns.
The SCORE scientific research network meticulously compiled these findings as part of a major European study on illicit drug use. The project employs wastewater-based epidemiology, analysing daily samples from treatment plants in 115 cities across 25 countries between March and May 2025. This creates a real-time snapshot of a population’s drug consumption habits.
The Picture Across Catalonia
While Barcelona’s sharp increase is a headline figure, the report paints a complex, contrasting picture across Catalonia.
The analysis shows Lleida now surpasses Barcelona in the absolute concentration of cocaine found in its wastewater.
Significantly, Tarragona has stopped participating in the European monitoring project. Its absence is notable because the port city previously topped Spanish rankings and held the second-highest position in Europe, behind only Antwerp, Belgium.
The report’s data reflects growing concerns about public drug use, such as recent resident complaints in nearby Gavà. This occurs despite consistent police efforts to clamp down on distribution. Recent operations include dismantling a Camorra-linked drug ring and multiple raids targeting international trafficking networks operating from the Barcelona metropolitan area.
Divergent European Trends
On a continental scale, drug consumption patterns show clearly diverging trends. While cocaine use is rising, with a nearly 22% increase across European cities between 2024 and 2025, other substances show different trends.
Ketamine use has also seen a worrying almost 41% increase across Europe in the last year. In contrast, traces of the synthetic drug MDMA have plummeted by 16% continent-wide. This drop is even more pronounced than the one recorded during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. Despite this historic decline, Spain remains among the nations with Europe’s highest concentrations of MDMA, the report notes.
Lorraine Nolan, EUDA director, emphasised the immense value of this epidemiological method for governance. She stressed that continuous wastewater analysis provides an unfiltered view of drug consumption as a “widespread, diverse, and constantly changing” phenomenon.
The analysis provides authorities with a vital, real-time tool to adapt and focus their health and prevention policies.
These latest figures will likely pressure both the Ajuntament de Barcelona and the regional Generalitat de Catalunya to re-evaluate their public health strategies. As the unfiltered data from the city’s sewers shows, the challenge of illicit drug use, particularly cocaine, is not only persistent but is once again growing at an alarming rate.
