Britain is now the cocaine capital of Europe with soaring numbers of young people taking the drug, a United Nations report has revealed.
It revealed more than 900,000 Britons buy cocaine, which means the country has overtaken Spain as the biggest user in the continent.
In addition, Britain’s 350,000 heroin users are the largest number in any country in Europe.
The UN Document from which these figures are taken can be downloaded from here. It has this to say about cannabis:
For the United Kingdom, which was Europe’s largest cannabis market for many years, cannabis use is now showing a downward trend. Use among the general population (age 16-59) declined in England and Wales from 10.8 per cent in 2003/04 to 8.7 per cent in 2005/06. Including data from Scotland and Northern Ireland, the UK has now a prevalence rate of 8.4 per cent and thus ranks behind Spain and France.
The downward trend among young people in England and Wales appears to have started shortly after 1998, as the UK drug prevention budget was expanded and a number of new activities targeting youth became operational.
The trend then became more pronounced in the new millennium, probably because extensive discussion about re-scheduling cannabis brought new scientific findings on the potential harm of cannabis into the limelight. Growing awareness of the dangers of cannabis use among young people went in parallel with declining cannabis use.
Filed under: illegal drugs
