Youth in Latvia Increasingly Orders Sweets with Drugs

Among the youth in Latvia and other EU countries, there is an increasing trend to order teas and sweets, such as cookies and gummy candies, that are laced with drugs and psychoactive substances, said the head of the tax and customs police, Andrei Grishin, to journalists on Thursday.

Psychoactive substances have also been found in electronic cigarettes and other smoking devices that are delivered from other EU countries.

According to Grishin, the youngest known buyer is 13 years old. The typical profile of such young people includes school students and university students, often from stable families. In most cases, the buyers are young men aged 18 to 24. Only a few of the customers have previously come to the attention of law enforcement.

Underage drug consumers use the identities of relatives to place orders. According to law enforcement observations, most consumers are residents of the Riga region, but sweets with drugs are also ordered in other cities such as Liepaja, Ventspils, Valmiera, and Daugavpils.

Grishin noted that the underground drug industry is constantly working to outsmart the government in the fight against drugs. "In fact, new substances appear almost every day," he added.

He did not deny that law enforcement cannot shut down all drug distribution channels in one day. Moreover, when one channel is closed, another automatically appears. Although Latvia's legislative framework is quite dynamic, at the same time, substances banned in Latvia are not banned in other EU countries, and criminals take advantage of this situation, Grishin acknowledged.

Unlike a number of other EU countries, in Latvia, moving narcotic substances across the state border in any quantity is a serious crime, even if these substances or the products containing them were purchased in online stores or retail outlets in countries where this is allowed.

The maximum possible punishment for such crimes is imprisonment for up to five or even ten years if they are committed in large quantities or by a group of individuals.

Despite the fact that supplies of such "products" are often carried out through anonymous delivery channels such as mail and courier services, law enforcement officers in Latvia and other EU countries are aware of these methods, cooperate with each other and with delivery operators, and can identify criminals. Investigations in most cases end successfully, and criminals can be identified.

Since 2025, 599 suspicious batches of new psychoactive substances from online stores have been identified and seized. To date, 369 criminal cases have been initiated.

The tax and customs police actively cooperate with other law enforcement agencies in Latvia and the EU to limit the availability of such products on the internet and to shut down supply routes and channels to Latvia.