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UK: 13 million Britons have taken drugs

Reuters

Sunday 21 Apr 2002

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An ICM poll for the Observer newspaper said 51 percent of the nation's 16
to 24-year-olds had taken banned drugs, while five million people regularly
used cannabis, and more than two million regularly took ecstasy,
amphetamines and cocaine.

Britain tops the European tables in problem and casual drug users according
to figures from the European Monitoring Centre of Drugs and Drug Addiction.
A government survey last year found almost a third of young people had used
cannabis, but Sunday's findings suggest drug use is even more widespread
than previously thought.

"We are not surprised. The threat of criminal sanctions is simply not
stopping large numbers of young people experimenting with drugs," Roger
Howard, chief executive of charity Drugscope, told the Observer.

The issue of drugs has become a hot political topic in Britain in recent
months. In January it was revealed that 17-year-old Prince Harry, younger
son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, had smoked cannabis with school
friends.

That followed the introduction of a pilot scheme in south London, which
sees officers overlooking cannabis users and concentrating instead on
dealers in more destructive hard drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine.
The experiment, which began last July, has been heralded as a success.

Last October the government announced it would reassess its traditional
tough line on drugs. Home Secretary David Blunkett said he intended to
relax the law on cannabis by making possession no longer an arrestable offence.

Some senior politicians and Britain's former chief inspector of prisons
have even called for some, if not all, drugs to be legalised and made
available on prescription.

The ICM poll was based on a survey carried out in February and March of
1,075 people aged over 16.

 

 

 

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