COCAINE DEATHS REACH 'STAGGERING' LEVELS

The 'Recreational' Drug Is Killing More People Each Year - And It
Destroyed One Of Gordon Ramsay's Star Chefs

Deaths from cocaine-related overdoses have reached record levels, with
an increase of nearly 50 per cent in the numbers of people dying from
abuse of the class A drug.

New figures released by the Government reveal that deaths rose from 96
in 2001 to 139 in 2002, the biggest year-on-year rise for five years.
Since 1998, when there were only 66 recorded fatalities, deaths from
cocaine poisoning have more than doubled.

The findings, based on research from the Office of National Statistics
(ONS), may be a fraction of the actual number of deaths caused by
cocaine. Many deaths go unreported because doctors in accident and
emergency departments do not carry out routine tests for the drug when
patients are admitted with chest pains. Figures are not yet available
for 2003 but experts predict the rise in deaths will be even higher.

The increase in cocaine abuse contrasts starkly with the fall in
deaths among heroin users and a levelling off in the numbers of people
dying from ecstasy pills.

Experts say the ONS figures for cocaine deaths are an underestimate of
the drug's role in causing strokes and heart attacks. Some studies
have suggested that cocaine can be a factor in suicides because it
causes depression by depleting the brain's serotonin levels.

The ONS figures include users of crack cocaine - sold as rocks - as
well as those who snort the drug as a powder. There are currently an
estimated 475,000 powder cocaine addicts in Britain, and a further
200,000 who take crack cocaine.

Cocaine has been seen as the drug of choice for well-paid advertising
executives, footballers and people in the media. A string of
celebrities have admitted to using the drug, including Danniella
Westbrook, the former EastEnders actress, and Tara
Palmer-Tomkinson.

Despite its image as a "clean" drug, cocaine has been blamed for a
rise in crime and anti-social behaviour. Crack cocaine is the more
addictivebut the powder form has been linked to hepatitis C.

This is because cocaine addicts get nosebleeds from blowing their
noses violently to increase the impact of the drug. Traces of
contaminated blood are then passed to others on the straws shared to
snort cocaine.

There is also medical evidence that cocaine causes the heart to age
prematurely and leads to the rupture of blood vessels. Another concern
is the lethal cocktail of cocaine and ecstasy followed by Viagra,
which makes the heart race dangerously.

Police and drug action teams say that cocaine is used across a wider
range of social classes than any other drug. This is backed up by Home
Office research, which shows that one person in 20 aged 16 to 24 has
used cocaine or crack. There is anecdotal evidence that some dealers
are agreeing to provide drugs such as heroin only if clients also buy
crack.

John Henry, professor of medicine at Imperial College London and
former director of the National Poisons Unit, has carried out research
showing that around one in three men admitted to A&E departments with
chest pains has tested positive for cocaine. This finding is based on
tests carried out on urine samples taken from 450 men admitted to one
London hospital. Professor Henry, one of Britain's leading cocaine
experts, describes the ONS figures as a "massive underestimate".

"If you don't suspect drugs then you don't test," said Professor
Henry. "Yet there has been a staggering leap in cocaine use. There
needs to be a proper awareness campaign."

Aidan Gray, the national co-ordinator of Coca, an organisation that
supports counsellors working with crack users, said the public needed
to be made more aware of the dangers of the drug.

"The whole issue of crack-and cocaine-related deaths needs to be taken
much more seriously," Mr Gray said. "It's wrongly portrayed as a
young, sexy drug. The reality is that the purer it gets, the worse it
becomes."

Case study: David Dempsey

By Annabel Fallon

David Dempsey was one of the rising stars of the British restaurant
scene. At 31, the father of two was head chef at Gordon Ramsay's
Claridge's restaurant, and highly rated throughout the industry. But
his glittering career came to a terrible end when he became a casualty
of cocaine abuse.

Last May, Mr Dempsey fell 50 feet to his death from the roof of a
Chelsea flat. The coroner's verdict was death caused by a reaction to
cocaine.

Mr Dempsey, who reportedly told colleagues he had done "a bit of
charlie earlier", had been seen smashing windows and jumping between
roofs around 11pm, shortly before the accident.

Speaking to The Independent on Sunday yesterday, Mr Ramsay said he had
been in no doubt his former employee had died as a direct result of
cocaine use.

"I have no reason to doubt an independent inquiry into his death," Mr
Ramsay said. "I understand it was a bitter experience for his family,
but from the report, I think it is pretty obvious he had taken cocaine."

Abuse of the drug is rife in the restaurant business, Mr Ramsay said.
"Unfortunately, it's part of the image that people have of chefs
today; the whole rock'n'roll persona, which is ridiculous," he said.
"It's lazy to think that cocaine should be part of our job. At the end
of the day, we cook for a living - we are not stars."

While the investigation into Mr Dempsey's death found him to be in a
state of "excited delirium" brought on by cocaine, his mother still
denies that her son ever used the drug.

Eileen Dempsey told the IoS: "David was not a drug user and never had
been. None of his friends think he was using drugs, and neither do I.
If David had done cocaine earlier, why did it take until 11 at night
for it to take effect?"