Pubdate: Fri, 04 Oct 2002
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author:  Stephen Castle, in Brussels

COCAINE USE RISING FAST AMONG YOUNG BRITONS

Cocaine use among young adults is almost twice as high in Britain as in 
most other European countries and is rising fast, a drug survey revealed 
yesterday.

The annual report on the use of drugs in the European Union and Norway 
paints an alarming picture of consumption in the UK, which is fuelled by 
the lowest prices for the hard drug in Europe.

The document shows that 5 per cent of Britons aged between 16 and 29 used 
cocaine in 2000. Of 10 other nations where similar data was available, the 
next highest was Spain, where 2.7 per cent of people aged 15 to 34 used the 
drug in 1999.

Meanwhile, a comparison with four nations shows that the rate of cocaine 
use in England and Wales has been the fastest rising since 1996. "Increase 
of recent cocaine use seems consistent among young people in the UK, and 
possibly to a lesser extent in Denmark, Germany and Greece," says the 
report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in 
Lisbon.

The centre added that the cost of cocaine varied from UKP45 (UKP28) to 
UKP170 a gram in 2000 with the lowest prices being found in the UK and 
Spain, and the highest in Finland. But Britain's worrying drugs record is 
not limited to the high use of cocaine. In 2000, one third of the nine 
tonnes of heroin intercepted in the EU was seized in the UK.

And the report also shows that more than one in 10 of the population of the 
UK has tried amphetamines or "speed" - almost twice the rate for any other 
EU member state.

Overall, Britain is listed with Italy, Luxembourg and Portugal as having 
the highest estimated level of "problem drug use" - defined as the 
injection of drugs or the long-term or regular use of opiates, cocaine and 
amphetamines. These countries have between six and eight cases per 1,000 
people, by comparison to Austria, Germany and the Netherlands - which have 
more liberal drugs laws - where the rate is three per 1,000.

The EU's centre for drugs monitoring confirmed that cannabis remains the 
most commonly used illegal drug in Europe - with those having taken it 
ranging from about 10 per cent of adults in Finland to up to 30 per cent in 
Denmark and the UK.

In most other member states, the rate is about 20 per cent of the adult 
population, with cannabis use levelling off or even falling in Ireland, the 
Netherlands and in Finland.

The report highlights the consumption of synthetic drugs including ecstasy, 
particularly among the young in "nightlife and dance settings", even though 
at present this drug affects less than 3 per cent of the population. 
Another growing phenomenon is the use of two illegal drugs at one time time 
or consuming one with alcohol or tobacco.

There is some good news. The UK has the lowest rate for the spread of HIV 
among injecting drug users - just 1 per cent - compared with Spain, where 
more than one third of injecting drug users are infected with the Aids virus.

Drug use in prison was also reported to be growing - drug users represented 
a higher proportion of the prison population than in the outside world.

The report said that the presence of drugs had "fundamentally changed 
prison reality", with the level of use of some form of illicit narcotics 
put as high as 86 per cent, and routinely at more than 50 per cent among 
inmates. But it also pointed out that most drug users in prison tended to 
stop or cut down when they were released. The reason given was that they no 
longer had access to the drugs.
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