EUROPE'S COKE HABIT

How can we urge Colombia and Peru to reduce supply when Europe's own
drug habit is driving cultivation?

European leaders need to get serious about Europe's cocaine problem.
The "white lady" is seducing a steadily growing number of Europeans,
and remaining in a state of denial will only worsen the
consequences.

Cocaine used to be America's problem, to the point that the United
States started a major campaign against sellers and consumers of crack
cocaine in the inner cities, drug traffickers, and suppliers in the
Andes. But now demand for cocaine in most of the world is stable or
dropping. Coca cultivation has been slashed by a quarter in the past
five years, and seizures of cocaine have almost doubled. An impressive
42% of all of the world's cocaine was seized in 2005.

Only Europe is bucking the trend. Cocaine use is on the rise,
especially in Spain, Britain, and Italy. There is plenty of anecdotal
evidence indicating traces of cocaine found on bank notes and in water
supplies.

Here are some harder facts. For the first time, the level of cocaine
use in Spain - 3% of the population aged 15 to 64 - now exceeds that
in the US. And the United Kingdom is not far behind. In 2005, 2.4% of
the UK population used cocaine at least once, up sharply from 0.6% a
decade earlier.

Consider another telling indicator. Ten years ago, 20% of all new
clients entering treatment for drug abuse in the Netherlands were
addicted to cocaine. Now it is 40%. In Spain, the proportion has
soared to 42% in 2002, from just 7% in 1995 - and it has no doubt
risen again since then.

Europe's growing cocaine problem is due to several factors. First,
drug users in Europe are switching to cocaine from heroin. Cocaine is
fashionable because it is attractive: white, not dark; sniffed, not
injected; consumed in a living room or a fashionable night-club, not
in a dark alley. It is seen as a drug for winners, not losers. To many
it is a symbol of success, until they end up in a hospital or
treatment centre. Cocaine use by high-profile entertainers,
executives, models, and socialites who flaunt their illicit drug habit
certainly does not help. Nor does uncritical reporting by the media.

It seems many Europeans need to be reminded that cocaine is highly
addictive and harmful. That is why it is a controlled substance. While
addicts may be in denial, thinking that they can control their
"recreational use", cocaine - to quote the famous song by JJ Cale -
"she don't lie."

Second, too many governments - particularly in rich countries - fail
to invest political capital in preventing and treating drug abuse.
They are ill equipped to deal with the problem, so their societies
have the drug problem they deserve.

This raises a basic credibility issue: how can Europe urge Colombia
and Peru to reduce supply when its own drug habit is driving
cultivation?

The solution is to attack the problem at its source by addressing both
supply and demand. Coca crops in Latin America need to be replaced
with agricultural crops, and cocaine use in affluent Europe must be
reduced. Solving the cocaine problem is a shared responsibility.

On the supply side, there must be more support for poor farmers in
drug-producing countries to give them viable alternatives to growing
coca. Most illicit coca growers are extremely poor. Crop eradication
will not work over the long term if there is no legal economy to
replace drugs. Drug control and development assistance must therefore
go hand in hand.

Environmental protection is also at issue. Coca farmers and producers
slash and burn forests, polluting streams with toxic chemicals and
damaging fragile ecosystems. The Andean region has less than 1% of the
world's land area, but more than 15% of its plant life. Vast areas of
vegetation are being destroyed for lines of white powder. At a time of
growing concern about climate change, Europeans should be made aware
of the long-term destruction done to a precious and fragile habitat
for the sake of a short-term high.

But controlling supply is not enough. If all of Colombia's farmers
stopped growing coca tomorrow, unrestrained demand by the world's 13
million cocaine users would quickly generate as much cultivation
somewhere else.

Clearly, the ultimate challenge is to prevent drug abuse and to treat
and rehabilitate drug users successfully. Sweden is a good example of
how to do it right. Drug use there is a third of the European average
- the result of decades of consistent policies (irrespective of
changes in government) that combine tough punishment of dealers and
comprehensive treatment for users.

The more that can be done to prevent people from becoming cocaine
addicts, the less damage these people will do to themselves and their
families, the less money will get into the pockets of criminals,
insurgents, and terrorists, and the less damage will be done to the
environment.

But nothing will be done until Europe wakes up and faces its pandemic.