POLICE WARN OF GROWING EPIDEMIC OF COCAINE USE IN SCOTLAND

COCAINE is more readily available than ever in Scotland, despite
record seizures of the drug.

While Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, hailed soaring seizures
of hard drugs as a sign that tough law enforcement was "paying off",
police revealed that the street price of cocaine had fallen to the
lowest level to date.

More than 74kg of the drug was seized by Scotland's police in 2005-6,
compared with only 1.5kg in 1995-6, according to Scottish Executive
figures released yesterday.

In the past two years seizures have shot up 42 per cent from 870 to 1,233.

The number of seizures of crack cocaine also more than doubled while
heroin seizures also increased.

Overall seizures of all drugs over the past two years had also risen,
by 14 per cent between 2003-4 and 2004-5, from 21,768 to 24,897.

There was a slight increase last year, with 24,941 seizures made by
Scotland's police.

Ms Jamieson said the figures showed Scotland's police forces were
"continuing to play a vital and uncompromising role in combating this
evil trade".

But despite the increased enforcement, Detective Sergeant Kenny
Simpson, from Strathclyde Police drugs squad, last night told a
conference in Glasgow, entitled Cocaine: The Next Big Thing Or Is It
Here Already?, the drug was now cheaper than ever.

He said: "A gramme costs AUKP40, and can be as low as AUKP35. Five or
six years ago, it was AUKP80 to AUKP100 a gramme.

John Arthur, of drugs agency Crew 2000, said: "We are seeing very
high-profile seizures but they seem to be having very little impact
on availability, price and numbers of people using them."