Begin forwarded message:
From: "Alamaine, IVe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: November 6, 2008 5:42:21 AM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ctrl] New heroin crisis threatens Britain, report says
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/06/drugsandalcohol-drugstrade
New heroin crisis threatens Britain, report says
o Drug agency warns of opium glut
o Britons still use most cocaine in EU
Alan Travis in Brussels
guardian.co.uk, Thursday November 06 2008 09.29 GMT larger | smaller
larger | smaller
Afghanistan has produced two record opium harvests, with Helmand
province,
where British soldiers are based, accounting for more than half the
poppies
grown. Photograph: John Moore/Getty Images
A glut of opium on the world market fuelled by a record Afghan harvest
threatens a new heroin crisis in Britain, the European Union drug
agency warns
today.
And the UK remains at the top of the European "league table" for
cocaine abuse
for the fifth consecutive year, according to the annual report of the
European
Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
But it reports that there are "stronger signals" of the declining
popularity of
cannabis across Europe, with a strong downward trend especially
noticeable
among British school students.
The agency suggests this decline may be a byproduct of the
introduction of
widespread bans on smoking tobacco in public places. Nevertheless the
drugs
experts say that a quarter of all Europeans - 71 million people - have
tried
cannabis at some point in their lives, 12 million of them within the
last
month.
The heroin warning follows two record opium harvests in Afghanistan of
8,200
tonnes in 2007 and 7,700 tonnes this year. These harvests represent
90% of the
world's illicit opium production, with Helmand province, the centre of
British
military operations, accounting for more than half of the poppies
grown. The
agency says "alternative development" measures to persuade farmers to
switch to
other crops are having a very limited impact.
The EU is worried that these record harvests are threatening to bring
to an end
the "slowly improving" heroin situation in Britain and across Europe,
and
reverse the decline seen in heroin-related drug deaths. Seizures have
doubled
in Turkey, an important transit country, are up 10% up in Britain, and
pockets
of new injecting heroin users are appearing for the first time in
recent years.
"Current evidence does not point to an epidemic growth in heroin
problems as
experienced by most of Europe in the 1990s," said the EU drugs agency
director,
Wolfgang Gotz. "Nonetheless, we cannot ignore the threat posed by the
glut of
heroin now available on the world market, the concerns raised by
indicators of
heroin use, or signs that synthetic opiates may be a growing problem.
Vigilance
is clearly required."
Britain's continuing position at top of the league table of 27 EU
countries for
cocaine abuse is based on the fact that 12.7% of young adults aged 15
to 34
have used the drug. Typical cocaine users in Britain are now just as
likely to
be poor working class young men as wealthy city traders. The latest
school
surveys show that 5% of teenagers aged 15 and 16 have tried the drug.
Cocaine use in Europe is concentrated in only a few countries. Use is
highest
in Britain and Spain but has stabilised in both countries in recent
years at a
level similar to that seen in the US. The increasing number of
Europeans using
the drug - an estimated 4 million last year - reflects its recent
growth in
Italy, Denmark and Ireland. The increasing popularity of cocaine has
been
matched by declining use of cannabis.
There is however some encouraging news about cannabis consumption in
Britain.
While the UK consistently had the highest levels of cannabis use among
school
children in the early and mid 1990s, in this European survey it has
seen the
sharpest decline in popularity of any EU country.
Britain is now fourth in the European league table for cannabis use
amongst 15-
to 24-year-olds, with 39.5% saying they have tried it and 12% saying
they have
used it in the last month.
The European drugs experts say domestic herbal cannabis production is
no longer
marginal in some EU countries, including Britain, with 2.3 million
cannabis
plants seized last year in Europe.
The most recent Eurobarometer poll on the subject shows increasing
support for
decriminalisation of cannabis, with 31% of Europeans backing the idea.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Alamaine, IVe
Grand Forks, ND, US of A
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a
philosopher." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
"Being ignorant is not such a shame as being unwilling to learn." -
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758 (Benjamin Franklin)
~~~~~~~
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