Britain has the worst level of drug abuse in Europe, and the second highest level of drug-related deaths, a report said on Wednesday.
The value of trade in illegal drugs is estimated at £5-billion a year, according to the study by Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University in the United States and Alex Stevens of Kent University in Britain.
The study showed that about a quarter of 26 to 30 year olds have tried a “class A” banned drug such as heroin or cocaine at least once, and about 45% of young people have used cannabis.
Overall, Britain has the highest number of addicts with 0,85% of the population — more than twice that of European countries such as France and Sweden (0,4 %) or Germany and The Netherlands (0,3%).
The lowest rates of drug abuse are in Poland and Germany, said the study.
In terms of deaths linked to drug abuse, Britain comes second only to Denmark — although both are well behind the United States and Australia. France has the lowest number of acute drug-related deaths.
Drugs are cited in the deaths of 34 people per million of Britain’s adult population.
The British government has underlined its commitment to fighting drug abuse.
“We are determined to continue tackling drug misuse through enforcement, education, early intervention and treatment,” Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said.
He said Britain was spending “unparalleled sums” on drugs strategy “which has been vindicated by record numbers of people in drug treatment and significant falls in drugs misuse and drug-related crime.
“We are proud of our record and intend to build on our success,” he said.
However, the new report was scathing about efforts to cut drug abuse through education.
“There is little international or UK evidence to suggest that drug education and prevention have had any significant impact on drug use,” it said.
Its authors urged the government to focus efforts more on developing treatment- and harm-reduction programmes, which it said had been shown to reduce levels of crime, ill-health and death linked to drugs. — AFP