UK young cannabis users top EU league

Children in Britain use cannabis more than in almost any other country in Europe, according to a report published yesterday by the EU's drug monitoring agency.

The figures also show that one in 10 British adults - a higher proportion than anywhere else in the EU - is using cannabis, while across the union one in five people has tried it once. British adults also use more than twice as much amphetamine as anyone else in Europe.

Luxembourg, the smallest state in the 15-member EU, has the highest proportion of "problem" drug users - mostly heroin addicts - at around seven for every 1,000 people between the ages of 15 and 64. It is followed by Italy, with six, and Britain and Spain with five.

According to the annual report, State of Drugs in the EU, cannabis is now the most widely available and commonly used drug. Use of cannabis by British children is in the range of 30% to 40%, along with Ireland and the Netherlands, compared with 5% to 7% in Portugal and Sweden.

The Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said that at least 45m Europeans had now tried it, up 5m from more than a year ago.

"Recreational use of cannabis is simply not considered as the first step down the road to drug abuse," George Estievenart, director of the centre, told reporters in Brussels.

But in remarks that will have resonance for debate in the UK, he warned that prison was not the answer. "If you slap people in prison for having a small amount of cannabis for their own use, after a few years you choke the prisons. Prisons are overcrowded, so they share cells with people who have done much worse. Someone who enters prison as a weekend consumer of cannabis comes out with very different habits," he said.

Ecstasy and amphetamines were the second most popular recreational drugs, with use of the former showing signs of stabilising, or even falling, while the latter could still be on the rise. Amphetamines are generally used by 1%-4% of adults across the EU, but by up to 10% in Britain.

Although Britain heads the list for cannabis use over the past 12 months, Denmark is top of the table for taking the drug over the past decade.

The report highlights the rise in Britain and Spain in the availability of cheap heroin. Mr Estievenart pointed to concern about heavy multiple drug use arising from the ecstasy/rave scene.

"Patterns of weekend and recreational drug use increasingly involve combinations of illicit and legal drugs, including alcohol and tranquillisers," the report said.

"There is a significant rise in drug use, often in conjunction with heavy alcohol consumption. Abuse of lighter fuel, aerosols and glue is often more common among children than amphetamines and ecstasy and is increasing in some countries."

Cocaine is less commonly used than either amphetamines or ecstasy, but its use is still rising and spreading to a broader population.

The report shows too that women drug users are deterred from seeking treatment because they fear being labelled as unfit mothers and losing their children. The result is that only one female drug user goes into drug treatment for every three men.