Cocaine use 'rising among families in suburbs'

 
Drug warning: Cocaine use is on the rise in suburbs, according to a shock report

Cocaine users in London were today accused of fuelling gang crime and other serious violence in the capital as an official report warned that the drug’s popularity is causing “acute” harm across Britain.

The report, by the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said that even first time cocaine users risked significant health risks including heart problems, psychosis, convulsions and poisoning by toxic “cutting” agents.

It also highlighted the way in which the drug encourages “high risk’‎ sex and binge-drinking ‎and warned that its use, still most common among City professionals, is rising in young couples and families in the suburbs.

But the most striking warning is about the role that cocaine plays in organised crime and street gangs in London.

The report says that “around 300” of the 1,200 organised crime groups in the capital are “linked with cocaine” with 60 involved in importing the drug and warns that the effects are being felt on the streets.

“In a number of cases, organised dealing is linked to street gangs and to serious violent crime,” the advisers state.

Today’s report, which has been sent to Home Secretary Theresa May, adds that as well as “engagement with criminal networks and violence”, other “societal harms” include “accumulation of debt, relationship breakdown, loss of employment”.

It says users also risk acquiring a criminal record and that each of the problems can affect the drug takers’ families and friends.

A long list of health risks is also set out by the advisers, who include leading medical experts as well as drug charities and police.

These perils include hyper-tension, chest pain, heart attacks, stroke and a life-threatening rise in body temperature.

Figures showing nearly 2,000 “in-patient discharges” a year caused by cocaine poisoning and another 3,502 with mental disorders caused by the drug are cited. The report says that this is an under-estimate and quotes a study showing that a quarter of 18 to 30-year-olds admitted to two unnamed London emergency wards with chest pains tested positive for cocaine.

The report also highlights the danger posed by adulterants used to “cut” cocaine and add bulk to the drug sold to users. It says these substances include levamisole, a drug used to worm sheep, and the cancer causing drug phenacetin.

On the drug’s popularity, the advisers say that around 750,000 people a year are estimated to take cocaine, but that a rise in consumption since the 1990s has stabilised since a peak in 2009. But it warns that there has been a recent increase in use among those in their 40s and 50s and to the “comfortably off” living in the suburbs. It says this is driven by the increased availability of low-purity cocaine costing as little as £40 a gram.

Recommendations include training police and local authority staff involved in the “night time economy” to be trained to spot the signs of cocaine use so that they can assist those suffering the effects.

The report warns, however, against “mass education initiatives” to highlight the dangers because of the “possibility of unintended consequences”.

Professor Les Iversen, the advisory council chairman, said that he “deplored” the use of cocaine by celebrities and warned that ‎it was encouraging others to wrongly assume that the drug was safe.

“The association of cocaine with celebrity culture is one reason why people might think misguidedly that it is a safe drug. That is is not doing a service to the understanding of the realities of the drug.”

He added that although overall use of the drug was small, cocaine was the second most popular drug in Britain and added: “We are struck by the spread of cocaine throughout society. “

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