The number of 20-24 year olds who admit using cocaine in the last year has more than doubled. The BCS found that the use of heroin and crack is extremely rare, but this contrasts with the results of a second Home Office study published yesterday which looked at the patterns of drug abuse among schoolchildren in Northumbria and West Yorkshire. The official survey confirms that drug abuse is relatively uncommon among adults and is generally confined to a short period of experimentation in the mid to late-teens.
Men are almost twice as likely to have used illegal drugs in the last year or month than women.
Single people of all ages, including those divorced, have higher rates of drug use than those who are married and responsible for children. The researchers are seriously concerned by the sharp spread in cocaine use in the last three years. They say that while heroin, crack and methadone remain largely taboo, cocaine has lost its social stigma, is not seen to be physically addictive in the same way as heroin, and is not usually injected - at least not by novices. The latter have the highest levels of clubbing and pubbing and double the average personal consumption levels of illicit drugs. The survey says that the growth in the popularity of cocaine has so far been confined to London, Merseyside and the south of England, but it warns it could become more widespread.