KILLER COKE IS THE NEW TEEN CHIC

With the highest number of young cocaine users in Europe, Ireland faces a
crisis, says Geraldine Niland

IRELAND is facing a cocaine crisis as the illicit drug market floods with
cut-price deals. In the past year, over pounds 60m worth of cocaine was
seized here and lower pricing continues to push up demand. Already this
country has the highest number of young drug users in the 15-16 year-old
age group in Europe with 40 per cent abusing cannabis, ecstasy and alcohol.

The numbers seeking treatment for drug abuse have trebled since 1993 and
most of those (70 per cent) are under 24 years of age. A worrying 32 per
cent are under 19. The total number of addicts in the country is now
estimated between 10,000 and 14,000.

It looks as if things will get worse. Health agencies are beginning to see
an increase in the number of cocaine users and they warn that the profile
of abuse is changing.

The high level of acceptability of cocaine and its false image of safety
give further cause for concern. ``Cocaine is a highly addictive drug,'' Dr
Maura Russell of the Rutland Centre says. ``The biggest danger is that it
is cut with other substances and the users are unable to come away from the
buzz. The `crash' poses serious health risks including insomnia, depression
and drug-induced psychosis.''

Dr Russell says teenagers are the most vulnerable to the shifting profile
of cocaine use. In their search for pleasure, young teenagers have become
an important consumer in the illicit drugs market. As supply continues to
fuel demand, cocaine has become the new wonder for a new generation in the
drug culture.

Ambiguity about the addictive nature of cocaine and the absence of a social
stigma attached to its use has given rise to a new international mass
market for the drug.

Cocaine is no longer the elitist fix as international traffickers rush to
supply the illicit market with cheaper, purer powder.

Up to now, the profile of cocaine use in Ireland has been stable with
purity levels ranging between 30 and 60 per cent. However, unpublished
figures by the Home Office in Britain suggest that the trend is changing
with recent seizures reflecting a purity level of up to 75 per cent. The
figures, to be published later this month by the British Crime Survey, also
show a dramatic increase in the number of arrests for cocaine possession
and a significant shift in reported cocaine use.

Lower prices tell part of the story. Up to recently, the international
traffickers tried to sustain the price of cocaine by storing large
quantities of the drug but the build-up has forced them to offload their
stock pile driving down the price.

A line of cocaine now costs pounds 20. This compares with branded ecstasy
tablets such as mitsubishi and millennium tablets at pounds 10. Most
ecstasy users purchase two tablets or else opt for the jumbo tablet priced
at pounds 20. So cocaine is within the range of the young user.

International drug traffickers are keenly aware of the value of branding
and discount pricing with its proven success in the market place.

Ecstasy tablets all carry branding, encouraging purchaser loyalty and
market share for dealers. Thus for example, the mitsubishi brand or
labelling is seen as a sign of quality by users. Discounting too has been
used by dealers. Party packs were available to young Irish users recently
which contained two ecstasy tablets and a fix of heroin for between pounds
25 and pounds 35.

The discount package enabled young users to experience the buzz of the `E'
and then use the heroin to come down as they planned to return to their
families with no visible effects of their drug-taking. However, this served
as a backdoor to boosting exposure to heroin use for this vulnerable
category of users.

This method of increasing market share has already been used by the
Columbian traffickers in the US when they began to gain their foothold in
the heroin market in the early Nineties.

Cocaine is sold on the streets as a fine white powder known as coke, C,
snow or blow. Dealers dilute it with similar looking substances such as
cornflower, talcum powder or with other stimulants such as amphetamines.
Cocaine is usually snorted into the nostrils but sometimes users inject it
to heighten its intensity. Cocaine can be altered to remove other
substances. This is known as freebasing with the pure form being smoked
rather than snorted.

It is a powerful stimulant which heightens alertness, inhibits appetite and
the need for sleep. It brings almost instant feelings of pleasure. All
these feelings are short-lived and are followed by what is known as the
`crash'.

SINCE the mid 19th century when pure cocaine was first extracted from the
leaf of the Erthroxylon coca bush, cocaine has always been subject to false
perceptions about its safety.

Sigmund Freud produced a series of papers praising its use as a cure for
depression, alcoholism and morphine addiction. But a growing litany of
documented reports about fatal cocaine poisoning, mental disturbances and
addiction has battled over the years to redress the safe image of the drug.

The short-term effects of cocaine last from a few minutes to a few hours
with the user feeling euphoric, energetic, talkative and mentally alert,
particularly to the sensations of sound and touch. The physical symptoms
include accelerated heartbeat and breathing, higher blood pressure and body
temperature. Large amounts bring with it an intense high but it may also
mean bizarre, erratic and violent behaviour. Death from a cocaine overdose
can occur from convulsions, heart or respiratory failure.

Consistent abuse of cocaine brings with it the long term effects where the
euphoria is replaced by restlessness, extreme excitability, insomnia and
paranoia leading to hallucinations and delusions. STUDIES indicate that
cocaine is the most powerful of all drugs in producing psychological
dependence. Because of the strong cravings, treatment of the dependent
cocaine user is difficult and the relapse rate is high.

The heart of the illicit worldwide cocaine trade is based in Columbia and
although there has been a shift in the power base with the dismantling of
the so-called Cali mafia since 1995, Columbian drug trafficking groups
still dominate the world.

Two Irish drug dealers control two-thirds of the cocaine trade in Britain
and Ireland with long established links to the Columbian cartels. They are
also the main traffickers in cannabis and ecstasy in this territory with an
estimated profit of pounds 2m per week.