DANCE DRUG ECSTASY FALLS OUT OF FAVOUR AS YOUNG CLUBBERS FIND NEW HIGHS

The popularity of ecstasy appears to have peaked and it may now be regarded
as "yesterday's dance drug" by Britain's teenagers, according to new
official figures. Home Office ministers claimed yesterday that ecstasy use
has fallen for the first time and that wider class A drug abuse among young
people, including cocaine use, has stabilised after rising in the late
1990s.

Illegal drug use in England and Wales remains among the highest in Europe
with around 4 million people - 12% of the population aged between 16 and 59
- - having used some kind of illicit substance in the last year. About 1
million people are believed to regularly use a class A drug.

The 21% fall in ecstasy use in the last year among young people has also
been accompanied by a steady decline in the use of amphetamines. The drugs
charity Drugscope said that during the 1990s amphetamine or speed was the
most popular drug among young people attending all-night parties and dance
events and was probably the next most commonly used illegal drug after
cannabis.

But the new figures from the British Crime Survey, published yesterday, show
that the continuing fall in amphetamine use has meant, for first time, that
the legal prescription drug amyl nitrate or poppers is now more widely used
by 16 to 24- year-olds.

The annual official survey of illicit drug use in England and Wales also
shows that the government's announcement that it intends to relax the laws
on cannabis has not led, as some predicted, to an increase in its use.

Cannabis remains the most frequently used illegal drug with around 3 million
people smoking a joint in the last year.

The survey also appears to show that the highest levels of drug abuse are no
longer found among teenagers in the 16- 19 age group.

Instead, it is highest among their brothers and sisters aged 20 to 24, who
often use drugs as part of their weekend lifestyle while starting their
working lives.

It also explodes the Trainspotting myth that drug abuse is worst in run-down
inner city council estates. It shows that drug abuse is highest in affluent
urban areas with one in five households, or 22%, said to contain somebody
using drugs. This compares with 14% of households on council estates and
other low income housing, 12% among new home owners, 10% in the affluent
suburbs and rural areas and 9% in affluent family areas.

Caroline Flint, the Home Office drugs minister, said the 21% fall in ecstasy
use from 7% to 5.4% among young people together with the overall
stabilisation in class A drug abuse were signs that the government's drug
strategy was working.

"Young people are getting the message that drugs are harmful and some drugs
can, and do, kill. It's encouraging to see signs that our work is having an
effect." she said: "After increases in the late 1990s in drug use, the trend
overall is now steady and drug use has remained stable since 2001/02."

She said that more than a third of the annual drugs budget - ?503m - was
being spent on treatment in an effort to target those class A drugs,
including cocaine, crack, LSD, ecstasy, heroin and magic mushrooms, that
caused society the most harm.

The survey shows that class A regular drug abuse by those aged 16 to 24 has
remained fairly consistent, with 8% of the age group having used such drugs
at least once in the last year.

The figures confirm a drop in the last seven years in the use of
amphetamines and LSD. This was accompanied by a rise in cocaine use between
1996 and 2000 because it was cheaper on the streets. But that seems to have
stabilised in the last two years.

These changing patterns of drug abuse mean that after cannabis, amphetamines
are no longer the third most popular illicit drug after ecstasy and cocaine.
Amphetamine use has fallen from 12% of all 16 to 24-year-olds in 1996 to
3.7% now. A larger proportion of this young age group - 4.3% - now use the
legal amyl nitrate, a synthetic hallucinogen which is used to treat angina.

A Home Office spokesman said the fall in the use of ecstasy was significant
because it was the first time that it had gone down since becoming a
mainstream dance drug 10 years ago.

The Liberal Democrats and Drugscope expressed scepticism about the
significance of the figures. Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs
spokesman, said it was hardly positive news that there were 312,000 young
people who used ecstasy in the last year.

A Drugscope spokeswoman was also cautious about reading too much into one
year's BCS figures and said it wanted to wait and see if it became a
long-term trend or its use was merely "plateauing".