Cocaine: Still Popular, Still Dangerous

08/26/2008

Cocaine: Still Popular,

 Still Dangerous

 By Rebecca Oppenheim

 Rebecca Oppenheim writes extensively about health issues in the United Kingdom. In this article, she offers a British perspective on the cocaine problem among youth. Oppenheim writes that cocaine is again on the rise as a party drug, considered safer than Ecstasy or other psychedelics. Young, affluent professionals treat cocaine as a social stimulant, she writes, reserving use for after work and on the weekends. Clearly, though, Oppenheim considers cocaine a dangerous scourge that exposes users to the risk of overdose, heart attack, stroke, and addiction.

 Cocaine use in the UK is on the rise, according to the results of the British Crime Survey. Experts are unsure why, but one probable reason is because it has become cheaper. Although prices vary widely across the country, in some areas, such as Leeds, a gram of cocaine can cost as little as 20-25 pounds [about 36-45 American dollars], according to Brendan Cox from UK drug charity Drug Scope.

 Another possible reason for the increase in cocaine use is the negative publicity surrounding Ecstasy. Annabel Boys, a research psychologist at the National Addiction Centre, in London, has conducted a study into cocaine use and found that attitudes towards certain drugs are changing.

 "There was some suggestion that users, particularly younger ones, saw cocaine as less dangerous than Ecstasy and amphetamine," she says. "This was possibly stimulated by the fact that there had been at that time a lot of deaths related to Ecstasy use that had received a great deal of media coverage."

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