Cocaine death toll up 20% in a year: Fatalities from all illegal drugs at an 8-year high

Deaths from cocaine are up by a fifth in a year, figures show.

The tragic toll lays bare the lie that it is a safe, middle-class 'dinner party' drug.

Some 235 deaths were linked to cocaine last year, up from 196 in 2007. This is the fifth year in a row that the number of victims has risen.

Deaths from all illegal drugs have also hit an eight-year high in England and Wales.

Many of those dying are middle-aged, with the steepest rise among people in their 40s.

With a line of cocaine now often costing less than a glass of wine, there has been a huge increase in the number of users.

About a million Britons are thought to take the drug - up a quarter in a year.

Martin Barnes, chief executive of the charity DrugScope, said: 'Every drug-related death is a tragedy and many could have been avoided. It is extremely concerning that deaths related to illegal drugs are at their highest since 2001.

'The steady rise in deaths linked with cocaine use underlines the drug's harm at a time when use of the drug is again increasing, particularly among 16 to 24-year-olds.

'The fall in the price of the drug and evidence of its increased availability may be reasons for this increase.'

There were 1,738 deaths linked to all illegal drugs in 2008, up 8 per cent.

As well as the ready supply of cheap drugs, experts have blamed celebrity users for making cocaine appear glamorous. Government policy has also come under fire with a UN report naming Britain the cocaine capital of Europe earlier this year.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: 'These are horrifying statistics. The toll of damage from drugs is immense and the cost to the NHS is enormous.

'The Government's punitive policies and heavy-handed rhetoric on drugs are failing.

'Ministers must make sure that schools and public services work together to make sure that the message gets out that drugs kill. Ministers have been very good at talking tough when it comes to drugs, but this isn't working.

'They must urgently rethink their strategy before even more lives are lost.'

In 2004 there were 154 deaths from cocaine abuse, including crack cocaine. The latest Office for National Statistics figures show that this toll has risen by more than 50 per cent in four years. Heroin and morphine account for almost a third of all drug-related deaths.

Mr Barnes said: 'The fastest rise in drug-related deaths is among older users and heroin remains the most commonly linked substance.

'This trend could reflect the fact that the heroin using population is ageing, with fewer younger people using the drug.

'While it is right to focus on drug use among young people, the need is for public health and overdose prevention interventions across all age groups.' continues here

One million users make Britain cocaine capital of Europe - UN report

Britain is the cocaine capital of Europe with more than one million users while one in 20 school children have tried it, according to the United Nations drugs report.

Three per cent of 15 and 16 year-olds even claim to have tried crack cocaine, the report found.Cocaine is shipped here via the Caribbean or - increasingly - the west coast of Africa.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime also found four per cent of youngsters have taken ecstasy and almost three in ten have tried cannabis.

In absolute numbers, the UK is the largest market for cocaine across Europe and has the second highest prevalence rate - 2.3 per cent - behind Spain.

However, the quality of the Class A drug has declined dramatically in recent years, which the UN attributes to a crackdown on traffickers pushing prices up and leading dealers to cut the drug more.

Some seizures by police revealed substances being passed off as cocaine that were only five per cent pure.

The UN found dealers diluting their product with cutting agents such as dental and veterinary anaesthetics that mimic the effects of cocaine but are much cheaper.

The World Drug Report 2009 revealed that cocaine use increased dramatically in the UK from the mid-90s, but remained stable over the last two years.

Dr Sandeep Chawla, lead author of the report, said: "If you take year and on year there seems to be a decline in this market but there is considerable cause for concern as the UK has still in absolute terms the largest numbers in Europe."

The report also found five per cent of 15-16 year-olds in the UK have tried cocaine.

Chris Grayling, Shadow Home Secretary, said: "This is a really depressing snap shot of the drugs problem in the UK and underlines just how ineffective the Government's strategy on dealing with the drug problem has been."

Data given to the UN by the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) shows wholesale prices have risen to record levels.

The cost of a kilogram of cocaine has increased by 50 per cent from £30,000 to £45,000 since 2007.

There are estimated to be 860,000 cocaine users in England and Wales and around 140,000 in Northern Ireland and Scotland combined.

The report states: "The UK thus continues to be - in absolute numbers - Europe's largest cocaine market, with its second highest cocaine use prevalence rate."

The report revealed a concentration of "problem drug users" in the capital, with around a quarter of all problem users in the UK living in London - a total of 74,000 people. continues here

Cannabis linked to testicular cancer

The soaring rate of testicular cancer in the UK and other Western countries is linked today to the increased popularity of cannabis. Testicular cancer has more than doubled over the past 30 years and its rise parallels that of the use of cannabis, Britain's most popular illegal drug.


Researchers in the US have found that men who regularly smoke cannabis have a 70 per cent increased risk of testicular cancer. The risk was highest – twice that of those who never used the drug – in those who smoked it at least once a week or had a long history of use, beginning in adolescence.

The study is based on findings from 369 men with testicular cancer who were questioned about their history of cannabis use. The results were compared with 979 men who did not have cancer. Cannabis was linked with testicular cancer independently of smoking, drinking and family history.

Experts from Cancer Research UK said it was the first time a link had been suggested and the size of the study was small. More than three million people smoke cannabis and only a tiny proportion develop the cancer.

The results, published today in the journal Cancer, showed a link between cannabis use and one type of testicular cancer, called nonseminoma, which is aggressive, tends to strike younger men and accounts for 40 per cent of testicular cancer.

Stephen Schwartz, an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, Washington, who led the research, said: "Our study is not the first to suggest that some aspect of a man's lifestyle or environment is a risk factor for testicular cancer but it is the first that has looked at marijuana use."

There were 2,109 cases of testicular cancer in Britain in 2005 and 78 deaths. In 1975 there were 850 cases. Unlike other cancers, it is most common in young men with a peak incidence between the ages of 20 and 40.

The more common, slower growing type, called seminoma, was not linked with cannabis use, even though both types have been growing by 3 to 6 per cent a year since the 1950s in the US, UK and other developed countries.

Although testicular cancer is normally curable when caught early, some patients are not diagnosed until the disease is advanced. Undescended testes in childhood and a family history of the disease are known to increase the risk.

The disease is thought to begin in the womb when germ cells in the foetus (those that will eventually make sperm in the adult) fail to develop properly. Exposure to male hormones in adolescence is thought to trigger development of cancer in the affected cells. Chronic cannabis use is known to reduce sperm quality and increase impotence, which are linked with testicular cancer.

The testes have receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, and the male reproductive system is known to naturally produce a cannabinoid-like chemical that is thought to protect against the disease. continues here

Britain now official drugs capital of Europe as more youngsters use cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines

Drug abuse in Britain is worse than anywhere else in Europe, a devastating analysis showed yesterday. 

Young people in the UK are more likely to take cocaine, Ecstasy and amphetamine than those in any other country on the Continent, it said. 

They are using cocaine in quantities and with a frequency unmatched anywhere else in the world apart from the U.S., the report found.  

One in 20 schoolchildren of 15 and 16 - around 200,000 teenagers - have used the drug, it said. 

The analysis, by the European Union's drug agency, also pointed to levels of deaths from drugs that are higher here than in any other major nation in the EU. 

Only four small European countries - Luxembourg, Estonia, Norway and Denmark - lose a higher proportion of their young people in drug-related deaths, the report 
said. 

Deaths linked to drug abuse in Britain are, the figures suggest, running at double the rate of those in Germany and four times those in France.
 

Ecstasy use 'remained consistently higher in the UK compared to other countries', said the report, from the Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. 

It suggested that young Britons who would in the past have used amphetamine are switching in large numbers to cocaine. 

The report said that four European countries now have a higher level of cocaine use than Australia, which has high levels. But only Britain 'reports a lifetime prevalence estimate that is similar to that of the U.S.A.'. 

The 5 per cent of teenagers and young adults who use cocaine in Britain is now ahead of levels in Spain, where links to South America have produced a cocaine boom in recent years. 

Britain has seen cannabis use decline. The report noted that the UK had highest cannabis use in the mid-1990s but now ranks third. 

Eighty per cent of those who had stopped using cannabis 'cited a lack of interest', the report said. 

The report came as a rebuke to ministers, who are trying to paint a picture of declining drug use among young people. They point to the controversial British Crime Survey as evidence of lower drug abuse. 

The European report showed that even the real good news for Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is qualified. 

While cannabis use in Britain has been going down, young people in this country remain more likely to use the drug than those in any EU country apart from France and Denmark. 

Shadow Home Secretary Dominic Grieve said: 'This report confirms Britain's status as the cocaine capital of Europe, not to mention the fact we also have the highest prevalence of amphetamine and Ecstasy use amongst adults. 

'It is particularly disturbing that we have the highest proportion of 15 and 16-year-olds using cocaine - the Government's failure is betraying a whole generation of young people.'

He added: 'This is due to Labour's chaotic, confused and staggeringly complacent approach to drugs. Drugs wreck lives, destroy communities and fuel crime - the fact Labour do not recognise this make them part of the problem, not the solution.' 

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which advises Miss Smith, is holding an inquiry into whether Ecstasy should be downgraded from the most serious legal status of class A.  continues here