Last year European police seized more illegal heroin than did American crime fighters. Known addicts in the countries of the European Common Market are now said to number 100,000, and 2,000 reportedly paid for their habit with their lives last year.

In Portugal, officials admit that drug abuse is reaching the ‘magnitude of a national calamity.’ That nation is said to have one of the highest per person narcotics consumption rates in Europe.

“We’re fighting a losing battle,” says a French drug clinic operator. “Whenever we gain an inch, something happens to throw us back a mile.”

Narcotics-related deaths reflect this sudden jump in European drug abuse. For example, such deaths in France rose from 13 in 1973 to 59 in 1976; in Germany, from 104 in 1973 to 156 during just the first half of 1976; and in Italy, from one death in 1973 to 30 in the first six months of 1976.

“You can find heroin in every high school, university and youth center,” worries a West German drug counselor. “The situation is catastrophic.