Cocaine Use Up in Europe - Report

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Cocaine use among young adults in Britain and Spain is almost as prevalent as in the United States and consumption of the drug is rising across Europe, a report published on Thursday showed.

About 9 million people in the European Union, 3 percent of all adults, have tried cocaine, while up to 3.5 million are likely to have to have used it in the last year and 1.5 million took the drug in the past month, the report found.

"Historically, cocaine was a fairly rare drug in Europe," said Paul Griffiths, scientific coordinator for the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, which published the survey. "Then in Britain, the Netherlands and Spain it became increasingly available in big cities and now it is very visible in national statistics in these countries and our concern is there could be further diffusion in Europe," he said.

In Britain and Spain, more than 4 percent of 15-34 year-olds consumed cocaine in the past 12 months, close to the level in the United States, where cocaine has been a problem for longer than in Europe, the report said. In those two countries, the number of young adults taking cocaine, often described as a trendy recreational drug, exceeded those using ecstasy and amphetamines.

Despite the rising trend in Britain, the growth in cocaine use there appears to be stabilizing at historic high levels while other EU members such as France show signs of catching up, Griffiths said.

The impact of increasing cocaine use is also showing up in health statistics. Although deaths attributed to cocaine use alone are rare, the drug played a role in 10 percent of all drug-related deaths, meaning there could be several hundred deaths per year linked to cocaine in the 25-nation bloc, the report said.