Brussels  - Drug dealers are targeting Europe with innovative new products - some of them still legal - and increasingly sophisticated marketing strategies, a new report out Thursday warns.

"Suppliers are now 'highly innovative' in their production processes, product ranges and marketing and are demonstrating their ability to adapt quickly to controls," said the
2009 report of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

The report also expresses concern at "the 'growing sophistication' in marketing legal alternatives to illicit drugs (so-called 'legal highs')."

It cites the example of "spice." Easily available on the internet, this plant-based product is sometimes advertised as incense, but produces effects similar to cannabis when smoked.

"While at least two of the ingredients - Pedicularis densiflora and Leonotis leonurus - may have some psychoactive effect, little is known about the pharmacology and toxicology of the plant materials purportedly contained in 'spice' products, European drug experts warn.

In 2008, spice products could be legally purchased in online shops or in high street "head" shops in at least nine European Union countries, including Germany, Britain, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Experts in Brussels say the product's popularity is linked to its resemblance to cannabis - Europe's most widely-consumed illegal drug - as well as attractive packaging and its fancy name.

"Drug dealers are looking at (the marketing strategies of) Coca Cola and McDonalds and are doing the same with their illegal drugs," EMCDDA director Wolfgang Goetz told the German Press Agency dpa.

The report confirms that cannabis and cocaine remain the most popular drugs, with at least 74 million and 13 million Europeans, respectively, having tried those two drugs at least once.

Heroin, meanwhile, remains under control, with "no evidence of a return to the epidemic spread of heroin use seen in the past," the report says.(dpa)