HALF OF ALL BRITONS HAVE TRIED DRUGS

MOST PEOPLE in England and Wales between 16 and 24 have taken illegal
drugs, a Home Office study has revealed.

There is also growing abuse among schoolchildren: half of all 14-year- olds
questioned in a separate Home Office study in Northumbria admitted they had
tried drugs. And cocaine use among young people is soaring, partly due to a
rise in alcohol consumption and the drug's popularity among the rich and
famous.

The 1998 British Crime Survey of England and Wales, published yesterday,
shows for the first time that most people between 16 and 24 - 52 per cent -
have taken drugs at least once. Cocaine consumption has shown the most
significant rise of any illegal substance. Among those aged 16 to 29, it
rose from 1 per cent to 3 per cent between 1996 and 1998: within the 20 to
24 age group, the proportion rose from 2 to 5 per cent over the same
period. The survey questioned 3,000 people in England and Wales aged 16 to 29.

Links with the rich and fam-ous are boosting cocaine's image, helping to
fuel its growing popularity, while the consumption of dance drugs such as
ecstasy have levelled off, according to Paul Wiles, the director of
research, development and statistics at the Home Office. He admitted that
high-profile stories linking the drug to celebrities, re-inforcing its
association with wealth and success, were "a cause for concern".

The string of famous people who have admitted using the drug includes the
former Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon, Tom Parker Bowles, Tara
Palmer-Tomkinson and Damon Albarn.

Falling prices and the ability to mix cocaine-taking with alcohol are also
believed to lie behind the rise. The average price in London is about
pounds 50 to pounds 60 a gram, which will provide an average user with
about two nights of "highs". The drug is available for as little as pounds 40.

London, the South of England and Merseyside were identified as the areas
where cocaine was most popular. The main users are the very rich, the very
poor, and people living in prosperous city areas that are undergoing a
boom. About 15 to 20 people in Britain die each year from cocaine
overdoses, but officials played down fears that the country was on the
verge of an American-style cocaine epidemic.

The survey results showed that overall levels of drug misuse had remained
broadly stable since 1994, and consumption of heroin and crack remained
"extremely rare". Only 1 per cent of those aged 16 to 29 admitted having
tried the substances.

However, these findings contrast with results from the three-year Home
Office project among schoolchildren in two areas of the North of England.
This showed that 2 per cent of children aged 13 and 14 in Northumbria and 3
per cent of those aged 15 and 16 in West Yorkshire had tried heroin. By the
age of 16, 14 per cent of youngsters had been in situations where heroin
was available or offered to them.

By the age of 13, 26 per cent of young people had tried at least one
illegal drug, the most common of which was cannabis. In Northumbria this
rose to 34 per cent, and 51 per cent by the age of 14. The 100th
drug-related death this year in the Strathclyde region of Scotland was
recorded yesterday, after the body of Catherine Devine, 23, of Arden
Terrace, Hamilton, was found in a house. Most of the Strathclyde deaths
have been among heroin users