COCAINE USE TRIPLES AS ECSTASY LOSES ITS APPEAL

More than 750,000 people take cocaine at least once a year as its
price falls and ecstasy loses its popularity among clubbers,
according to a wide-ranging study of drug abuse in Britain.

Official attempts to stem the use of illegal substances have failed,
with cocaine soaring in popularity and addiction to heroin remaining
stubbornly high.

The report delivers the bleak warning that Britain has the worst
levels of drug abuse in Europe and the second highest rate of
drug-related deaths.

Cocaine use among young people has tripled since the late 1990s to
more than 750,000 in 2005-06, the study for the new UK Drug Policy
Commission says. Nearly 5 per cent of people entering drug
rehabilitation programmes say their main problem is with cocaine, the
average street price of which has dropped from UKP69 to UKP49 per
gram during the past six years.

"From being an exclusive drug, used only by the wealthy and some
dependent drug users, it has now become part of the menu of
psychoactive substances that young people use to enhance their leisure time.

"It may have come into fashion among these people as ecstasy reduced
in perceived quality," the report adds.

It says a quarter of people aged 26 to 30 have tried a class-A drug,
such as heroin, cocaine or ecstasy, at least once in their lives.

The number of heroin users has risen from just 5,000 in 1975 to an
estimated 281,000 in England and 50,000 in Scotland. It has now
stabilised at "levels that are very high by international standards".

With about one-fifth of people arrested dependent on heroin, the cost
of drug-related crime in England and Wales is estimated at more than UKP13bn.

Drug use is now a common experience for people born since 1970,
although most only try cannabis only a few times with a small
minority going on to be problematic users of harder drugs. Nearly
half of young people have experimented with cannabis, with levels of
use apparently unaffected by its reclassification from a class-B to a
class-C substance.

The estimated 0.85 per cent of the population with a drug problem is
twice or more than that in comparable countries such as France (0.4
per cent) or Germany and the Netherlands (both 0.3 per cent).

The report, written by Professor Peter Reuter, of Maryland University
in the United States, and Alex Stevens, of the University of Kent,
says years of government anti-drugs campaigns have only had a minimal
effect on levels of use.

It finds little evidence that longer jail sentences, more arrests,
education and treatment have cut the number of addicts or the
availability of drugs. The number of people jailed for drug-related
offences rose by 111 per cent between 1994 and 2005 and the average
length of sentences increased by 29 per cent. Taken together, the
courts handed out nearly three times as much prison time in 2004 as in 1994.

The Commission is beginning a three-year investigation into drug policy.

In the Commons yesterday, Tony Blair said drug misuse was down 16 per
cent since 1998 and down 21 per cent among young adults, while
class-A drug use remained "relatively stable". He added: "We have
doubled the amount of money for the treatment of people on drugs. I
appreciate we've still got a very great deal more to do but it simply
is not the case that we are not making either the investment or the
changes that are necessary."

The Rising Tide Of Drugs

* One-quarter of those aged 26 to 30 have used a class-A drug at
least once. The percentage of young people who have used cannabis is
decreasing, but is as high as 45 per cent. Their use of cocaine has
tripled since the late 1990s.

* There are an estimated 193,000 recent users of crack, with a large
overlap with heroin use. There are 281,000 dependent heroin users in
England and 50,000 in Scotland. Use of LSD, amphetamines and Ecstasy
is falling.

* There were 1,644 drug-related deaths in the UK in 2005 - the second
highest in Europe.

* 1.6 per cent of injecting drug users are HIV positive; 42 per cent
in England and 64 per cent in Scotland are infected with hepatitis C.

* The size of the UK drug market is estimated at more than UKP5bn.
The cost of drug-related crime is thought to be UKP13bn.

* The number of drug-users jailed rose by 111 per cent between 1994
and 2005. The average length of sentences increased by 29 per cent -
it is now 37 months for dealing.

* The price of a gram of heroin dropped from UKP70 in 2000 to UKP54
in 2005. Some drug dealers report an average weekly profit of up to UKP7,500.