More young Britons have tried cocaine than contempories in any other European country, amid a sharp increase in use of the Class-A drug across the Continent, a survey indicated yesterday.

The number of cocaine users in Europe - classed as those who used the drug in the past year – rose by 29 per cent from 3.5 million to 4.5 million, while seizures of the drug leapt by nearly half.

Britain was identified as the country with the highest proportion of young people who had tried cocaine and the second-highest level of active users, behind Spain.

Just over 12 per cent of young British adults have taken the drug – three times the European average.

One in 25 British schoolchildren aged 15 to 16 admitted to having taken cocaine at least once, the highest level alongside Spain and more than double the average in Europe.

The annual EU-funded survey also confirmed the place of cannabis as the most widely taken illegal drug but forecast that its usage had peaked. Nearly a quarter of all European adults – about 70 million people – said that they had tried cannabis, while 23 million admitted to using it in the past year, the report said.

“The new data confirms cocaine’s place as Europe’s stimulant drug of choice and as its second most commonly used illicit drug after cannabis,” the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said in its annual survey.

Officers accross the Continent seized 107 tonnes of cocaine in 2005, a 45 per cent increase on 2004.

“Most of the cocaine seized in Europe comes from South America, either directly or via Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa,” the report added.

“The main point of entry remains the Iberian peninsula, with Portugal appearing to be increasingly important,” the report said.

“Cocaine is also directly imported to other countries, with the Netherlands remaining a key entry point,” it added. Both Spain and the Netherlands were “regarded as main distribution centres” for the drug, the report said.

While prices have steadily fallen since 2000, so has the purity of the drug, suggesting that seizures were having some impact on supply.

The highest rates of regular cocaine use among young adults were in Spain and Britain. In Spain, 2.8 per cent of the 15 to 34-year-old age group said that they had taken cocaine in the past month, followed by 2.3 per cent in Britain. Next highest was Italy, with 1.2 per cent.

Britain also has the highest EU level of young adults who have tried amphetamines, the report showed. The 16.8 per cent who said that they had tried amphetamines compared to 12.7 per cent in Denmark, the next highest. The trend in amphetamine use in Britain was definitely downwards, however, with only 2.6 per cent saying that they had taken the drug in the past year, compared with 4.4 per cent who could say the same thing in 2000 and 6.5 per cent in 1996.

When it came to cannabis Britain had the third-highest level of young adults confessing to having taken it at least once.

In the 15 to 34-year-old age group 41.5 per cent said that they had tried cannabis, which was lower than in Denmark (49.5 per cent) and France (43.6 per cent). The latest figures for having taken cannabis in the past month for this age group put the British usage at 9.6 per cent, behind Spain (15.5 per cent), and France and the Czech Republic (both 9.8 per cent).

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