26/06/2008

Cocaine Now Second Widely Used Drug

A report by a national advisory committee has found cocaine is now the second most popular drug in Ireland.

In the survey, commissioned by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, the use of the drug was shown to have trebled in the last five years and has over-taken the use of ecstasy.

Over a third of all those surveyed admitted having taken illegal drugs at least once in their lifetime, although males and young people were more likely to have taken drugs than females. However, female use was considerably higher than the previous survey.

Cannabis was the most commonly used illegal drug, 17% of respondents reported ever taking the drug, 4% had done so in the previous year, and 1% in the previous month. Males were more likely than females to have used cannabis in each of the time periods examined.

The all-Ireland survey, conducted between October 2006 and May 2007, looked at the drug-taking habits of 4,967 respondents between the ages of 15 and 64 to see whether they had ever tried drugs, were currently using them or had recently used them.

Despite the scope of the report, the statistics gleaned may still not have uncovered the true extent of drug taking in the state.

According to the report: "Problematic drug users may be underrepresented in this type of survey because of the complicated and problematic nature of their lives."

(DW/JM)

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