UK drug addiction 'getting worse'

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by Change | 7 Dec 2009

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New figures have come as a major warning to the growing threat of cocaine addiction in the UK, with the country coming second in a table of European countries for the number of youngsters who have tried the drug.

A new study has placed the UK near the top of a table of European countries when it comes to the number of youngsters who have sampled cocaine.

The figures from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and drug addiction have caused alarm in the UK that a growing number of young people could be getting hooked on cocaine and developing serious drug addiction problems at an early age.

According to the study, as many as five per cent of British 15 and 16-year-olds have tried cocaine at least once, representing around 75,000 youngsters across the country, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The figures mean many young people could be growing up with an addiction problem and need addiction treatment by the time they reach their early 20s.

In the study of European countries, only Spain fared worse than Britain, with the report revealing more youngsters in the country have sampled cocaine than anywhere else in the world, including America.

The findings follow recent figures published by the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse in the UK, which found a growing number of young women are now heading to rehab clinics and other addiction treatment facilities to battle cocaine addiction.

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