Albania: data sheet

Albania: about the data presented on this page

The national drug observatory (NDO) is based at the Ministry of Health and was established in July 2025. A head of the NDO was nominated, and two additional staff members were recruited.

The data presented here are reported to the EUDA by the national correspondent/National Drug Observatory on an annual basis and should conform to the respective EUDA guidelines and protocols. Details on methods and definitions can be found in the EUDA Statistical Bulletin.

Prevalence and patterns of drug use

Drug use in the adult population

The most recent general population survey in Albania was conducted in 2014 with the financial support of the IPA4 project. The situation in Albania may have changed since 2014, and the data should therefore be interpreted with caution. The complete report is available in our Document library.

Drug use in the school population

Information about drug use in the school population is available from the series of European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drug (ESPAD) among 15- to 16-year-old students. Albania did not participate in the 2024 edition of the ESPAD survey. The most recent survey in Albania was conducted in 2015.

European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD)

Albania participated in the 2021 and 2024 rounds of the European Web Survey on Drugs (EWSD). Although web surveys are not representative of the general population, when they are carefully conducted and combined with traditional data collection methods, they can help paint a more detailed, realistic and timely picture of patterns of drug use and drug markets in Europe and the European neighbourhood. As such, they are a key ingredient in the EUDA responsiveness to an ever-shifting drug problem.

Problem drug use

'Problem drug use' is defined by the EUDA as 'injecting drug use or long duration / regular use of opioids, cocaine and/or amphetamines'. Existing estimates of problem drug use are often limited to opioid and poly-drug use. The most recent study was conducted in 2019 using respondent-driven sampling, and estimates are available for Tirana and the whole country.

Drug-related harms

Infectious diseases

The monitoring of drug-related infectious diseases among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Albania relies on bio-behavioural surveys supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Data on incidence (new cases attributed to injecting drug use) are available from the National Reference Laboratory of HIV and Hepatitis, but only information on HIV is reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Hospital emergencies

Data on hospital emergency presentations can provide a unique insight into acute health harms related to drug use. Euro-DEN Plus uses a sentinel centre model to collect data on emergency department presentations with acute drug toxicity. While the data do not necessarily provide a nationally representative picture, as only selected sites are included from participating countries, using a number of sentinel sites in significant locations provides useful information on the types of drugs involved in presentations to emergency services, and the trends at these sites. The emergency department of Mother Theresa University Hospital in Tirana collected data in 2021 and 2022.

Drug-induced deaths

A drug‑induced death is a death resulting directly from the acute or chronic effects of drugs, including overdoses and poisonings, alone or in combination with other substances. Cases of drug-induced death are identified through the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes in general mortality registries (GMR) or specific inclusion/exclusion rules in special mortality registries (SMR), such as forensic or police data.
Because some countries cannot fully apply these standards (e.g., due to coding limitations), data may be submitted in three categories:

• GMR (standard definition): Based on general mortality data;
• SMR (standard definition): Based on specialised registries;
• Other: When standard criteria cannot be fully applied

The Institute of Legal Medicine in Tirana maintains the special mortality register (SMR) and reports data to the EUDA annually. The data are likely underestimated, as they include only post-mortem examination results and autopsy rates are generally low. Additionally, the capacity to detect new psychoactive substances remains limited.

Responses

Treatment provision

Albania does not have a national register for specialised drug treatment. Data are reported exclusively by the Mother Theresa University Hospital in Tirana, which functions as the country’s main public treatment centre. The implementation of the Treatment Demand Indicator (TDI) protocol is still pending, and data are currently collected annually using admission forms completed by medical staff. At present, only information on treatment entrants is available.

Opioid agonist treatment

In Albania, opioid agonist treatment (OAT) with methadone was provided by the NGO Aksion+ with Global Fund support until 2023. 

Harm reduction provision

Albania has one major provider of harm reduction that has centres in cities across the country. Sterile injection material may be also purchased in pharmacies. Data reported to the EUDA cover only the syringes distributed by low-threshold facilities free of charge. The coverage of needle and syringe programmes was estimated at 32.7 syringes distributed per person who injects drugs per calendar year, based on the most recent PWID estimate (2023).

Drug markets and crime

Drug law offences

This security indicator collects information on the number of offences or offenders/suspected offenders by type of offence and substance, and describes the characteristics and trends of drug law offences, criminal and non-criminal. The collection of data may be challenging since it can be collected at different stages in the criminal justice system from different sources (e.g. from initial reports submitted by the police, cases of criminal offences submitted to the prosecutor) and information systems on drug law offences and offenders vary considerably between countries, especially as regards recording procedures, definitions and statistical units.

Drug seizures

This security indicator describes the characteristics and trends of drug seizures in order to improve our understanding of drug markets and supply-reduction activities. Data on drug seizures relate to all seizures during the year by all law enforcement agencies, mainly police and customs. All trend data, though, are subject to extraneous influences, such as changes in legislation, changes in police practices. The Ministry of Interior is the only authority responsible for collecting and providing information on drug seizures, and there are no cases of double-counting between various agencies.

Purity/potency

This security indicator collects drug purity/potency data for some illicit substances including cannabis products, opioids and stimulants. The potency of cannabis products is defined as the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, where THC is the primary psychoactive constituent in cannabis. It is expressed in percent of THC. The laboratories and forensic science institutes undertaking quantitative drug determinations for law enforcement are the primary source of information. These facilities collect and register drug purity/potency data and related information.

Drug prices

This security indicator collects data on the prices of all types of drugs at retail, middle-market and wholesale levels. Street prices of cannabis, heroin, cocaine and amphetamine are provided in euro per gram, LSD in euro per unit/dose, and MDMA/ecstasy in euro per tablet. Data on prices come from a range of different sources, the comparability of which is not always known.

Links to other sources of information

Relevant EUDA publications

• EMCDDA trendspotter briefing – Illicit drug markets and supply in the Western Balkans: Impact of COVID-19
• EMCDDA trendspotter briefing: Impact of COVID-19 on drug use and drug services in Western Balkans
• Drug treatment systems in the Western Balkans: outcomes of a joint EMCDDA-UNODC survey of drug treatment facilities
• Drug use and its consequences in the Western Balkans 2006–14
• Drug-related health and security threats in the Western Balkans
• European Web Survey on Drugs 2024: top level findings in the Western Balkans

External data sources

• ECDC: HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe 2025 - 2024 data 
• UNODC Data Portal: UNODC data on several topics, including drugs trafficking and production and drug use and treatment
• UNODC Drugs Monitoring Platform: data on drug trafficking trends and on individual drugs seizures (IDS) dataset, which contains information on singular interception or apprehension

Source data

The data used to generate the infographics and charts on this page may be found below (CSV format). Additional information, metadata and methodological notes may be found in the IPA country data sheets background tables and source data entry in our Data catalogue.