Large rise in cocaine use in England

The Serious Organised Crime Agency says that the price of cocaine has plummeted in recent years to as little as 25 pounds a gram, while purity levels have also fallen which could pose dangers to users.

"People using cocaine are likely to be snorting a powder that they think they know how their body will react to but which actually contains other unknown substances which may have other side effects," an official told Reuters recently.

The government report also confirmed that a "slight underlying upward trend" in the use of the most serious "Class A" drugs such as cocaine and heroin was now "significant over the long term."

The overall use of illicit drugs in the last year rose slightly to 10.1 percent of adults, but that figures was down from 11.1 percent in 1996, the report said.

"It is encouraging that overall drug use remains historically low and that use of the most harmful drugs is stable," said Home Office minister Alan Campbell.

He said police and other agencies were seizing record numbers of drugs and that cocaine purity was at an all time low.

"When people think they are taking cocaine, in some instances the actual purity is as low as four percent," he said.

"Police are increasingly seeing drugs cut with a hazardous cocktail of chemicals which include phenacetin, a known carcinogen."

(Editing by Steve Addison)