COCAINE USE IN ENGLAND AND WALES RISES AS CANNABIS USE FALLS

The number of people using cocaine in England and Wales rose last
year, although fewer people used cannabis, the latest figures show.

The data from the NHS Information Centre, published this week, are
set against an overall decline in drug misuse over recent years.

The figures show that in 2006-7 2.6% of adults reported taking
cocaine, an estimated 835 000 people. This is an increase of 0.2%
from the previous year and a 2% rise since 1996.

However, the use of cannabis continues to fall. It reached a peak in
2002, when 10.9% of adults reported taking it. Last year 8.2% of the
population, an estimated 2.6 million people, reported taking
cannabis, down from 8.7% the previous year.

"Falling cannabis use is positive news and would appear to indicate
that the classification to class C did not have the type of adverse
effects that had been discussed," said Michael Farrell, consultant
psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.

"This is consistent with the finding in western Australia a number of
years ago where rates of self reported cannabis fell after softening
legislation."

Harry Shapiro, director of communications at the drug awareness group
DrugScope, thinks that the fall in cannabis use could partly be
attributed to its increasing strength.

"It's a bit like going into a pub and asking for a pint and being
offered a pint of tequila," he said. "It is too strong for many
people's taste."

The figures show that England and Wales had 1573 deaths related to
drug misuse in 2006, 79% of them among men. This number falls short
of the Department of Health's 2004 target to reduce the number of
drug related deaths by 20% from the 1999 figure, when 1628 people died.

However, the government has exceeded its target to increase the
number of people in drug treatment programmes by 100% from 1999. In
2006-7 195,464 people were in such programmes, up from 85,000 in 1998-9.

Dr Farrell said, "You might have expected a fall in death rates,
given the increase in the numbers in treatment."

He said that death is most often associated with injecting drugs, a
behaviour more common in men.

One positive outcome of the report is that children find the idea of
drug use increasingly unacceptable. Nevertheless, 10% of children
thought it was "OK" to try cannabis and 3% to try cocaine. Altogether
17% of school pupils reported taking drugs in 2006-7, with more using
cocaine and fewer using less cannabis, in line with adults' behaviour.