Call 888-647-0579 to speak with an alcohol or drug abuse counselor.

Who Answers?

UK top of European cocaine league

The UK has recorded the highest number of cocaine users in the EU for the fifth year running, a report suggests.

Annual figures from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction showed that 7.7% of Britons aged 15-64 had taken cocaine.

The Tories accused the government of failing an “entire generation” of young people with its drugs policies.

The Home Office said the statistics and other figures suggested the overall use of drugs in the UK had stabilised.

Cannabis use

The figures suggested 11.2% of Britons aged 15-24, and 12.7% of those aged between 15-34, had taken cocaine.

An estimated 12 million EU citizens aged 15-64 had taken cocaine at some point, 11 million had used amphetamines and 9.5 million had taken ecstasy.

Some 71 million European citizens – about one in four people – had tried cannabis.

The figure for cannabis in the UK was 30.1% of the 15-64 age group, topped only by France (30.6%) and Denmark (36.5%).

The report also said ecstasy use had remained consistently higher in the UK compared to other countries.

It added: “Data from a few countries suggest that cocaine could be replacing amphetamines and ecstasy among some sectors of the drug-using population.

“This may be the case in the UK and Denmark, and to some extent in Spain.”

‘Generation betrayed’

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said the report confirmed the UK’s status as the “cocaine capital of Europe”.

“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 said.

“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.”

Last week, figures from the British Crime Survey suggested about 810,000 Britons had taken cocaine in the past year.

Some 3% of people questioned admitted using class A drugs over the previous 12 months, which was less than the previous year.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Home Office figures published last week show overall drug use in the UK is at an all time low and the number of seizures is up 15% on the last annual statistics.

“Alongside this, new figures today show the number of problem drug users has remained stable. We continue to focus our efforts on reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs through tough enforcement, education and treatment.”

source: BBC

More Treatment & Detox Articles

Women who binge drink more likely to engage in unsafe sex

A U.S. study says women who have more than five alcoholic drinks at one sitting are at increased risk of having unsafe sex and contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Researchers at John Hopkins University medical school in Baltimore looked at the correlation between binge drinking and risky sexual behaviours in women. They interviewed patients at an….

Nepal-born scholar in alcoholism neuroscience breakthrough

Finding could spawn novel ways to treat alcoholism, epilepsy A team of researchers, with Nepali-born Prafulla Aryal as key member, of the Salk Institute of Biological Sciences in La Jolla, California, has located the alcohol-binding site in the brain that could pave the way to a whole new approach to treating alcoholism, drug addiction, abuse-related….

Adults no help to teenage drinkers

What would you do? A 16-year-old comes up to you and asks for a little help. He and his friends are bored and just want to have a little fun that night. He asks you to buy booze. Got a problem with that? The Pittsfield Prevention Partnership says you should, but not everyone does. And….

Heavy drinkers may develop Alzheimer's earlier

Drinking or smoking heavily can speed up the development of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. Scientists found that drinkers developed the disease almost five years earlier and heavy smokers just over two years earlier, after studying 938 people aged 60 or more who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Ranjan Duara, of the Mount….

Binge Drinking Puts the Brain, and Life Itself, at Risk

Nearly half of students at four-year colleges do it regularly (and, it’s not sex). Rather, it’s binge drinking — downing five or more alcoholic drinks at a sitting. “People have a hard time identifying alcohol as a drug,” said Jenny Hwang, associate dean of students and director of the counseling center at Stony Brook University….