Overview
- The federal Drogenbericht presented Tuesday reported 2,150 drug-related deaths in 2025, including 528 people under 30 and 106 under 20.
- Polydrug use was involved in roughly 81.5 percent of deaths, with opiates/opioids the largest group of substances implicated.
- Synthetic opioids are increasingly present on the market, with 118 deaths involving fentanyl and government warnings about counterfeit tablets laced with highly potent substances such as nitazenes.
- Authorities and addiction experts say online sales, darknet markets and social-media influence are exposing younger, less experienced users to harder-to-assess products and riskier drug mixes.
- Health agencies and NGOs are demanding expanded prevention, drugchecking, early-warning systems, low-threshold youth outreach and more therapy and withdrawal places to relieve strained local services and try to prevent further deaths.