MODEL'S DEATH REVEALS DEPTH OF IRELAND'S COCAINE ADDICTION

The death of Katy French, the model and socialite who had publicly
battled cocaine addiction, highlights the widespread consumption of
the drug in post-Celtic tiger Ireland, according to doctors and
police. It is popular not only with rich celebrities but also the
affluent middle class, they say, and it's never been cheaper.

A controversial new book on the subject, High Society, includes
interviews with a wide range of Irish professionals, including an
alleged interview with an Irish government minister, all of whom
confess to regular cocaine abuse.

One of Ireland's most prominent consultants, Dr Chris Luke, from Cork
University Hospital, this weekend described Ireland as a society
entering a 10-year cocaine epidemic. Dr Luke predicted there would be
'dozens and dozens' of further deaths such as Katy's over the next decade.

'There is a spiralling interest in drug-taking among children and
teenagers, which also perfectly fits the same curve of the
distribution of leaflets and drug talks. I do worry that all you are
doing is exposing them to a menu that they might dabble in,' he said.

Dr Luke's gloomy prognosis was shared this weekend by the mother of
Phil Lynott, who was the frontman of Seventies rock group Thin Lizzy.

Philomena Lynott, who will mark the 21st anniversary this January of
her son's death from a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, condemned the
widespread use of drugs such as cocaine in Ireland.

'Children are dying from drugs and dying because of them. Car
crashes, suicide, everything. When I go to concerts in memory of
Philip, I tell them, thank you for loving him and his music, but
don't love his lifestyle,' she said.

Stephen Rowen, clinical director of the Dublin-based Rutland Centre,
said: 'Cocaine is quite available, it's in most pubs and virtually
every city, town and village in Ireland. We have no way of knowing
before people use it how it will affect them - if they could have a
stroke, heart attack, some severe medical reaction, or get addicted,
which is a very expensive and horrific way to live.'

Katy, 24, died in hospital after collapsing and falling into a coma
at a friend's house in Ashbourne, Co Meath, last weekend. Preliminary
tests indicate she had cocaine in her bloodstream. The star of the
Celebrities Go Wild series had been drinking champagne at her
friend's home but, contrary to earlier reports, there was no party
taking place.

A gramme of cocaine in Dublin costs around a,-40 (AUKP29), making the
Republic one of the cheapest places to buy the drug in the industrial
world. Its widespread availability is due, in part, to geography: the
Irish coastline provides an ideal 'dumping point' for drug cartels
and gangsters smuggling cocaine by sea from South America via the
West African coast to Europe.

Most cocaine in the city is cut up with other substances, ranging
from washing powder to rat poison. A lot of dealers in the capital
are lacing their cocaine with crushed ecstasy to ensure consumers
still get some kind of 'high' for their a,-40.

The bitter irony of the Katy French tragedy, according to senior
Garda sources, is that the last cocaine she snorted before collapsing
and suffering massive brain damage was pure, supplied by dealers who
feed the habits of Dublin's hedonistic socialites and who mix in the
same glittering circles.