The Daily Star - The White Powder That Kills - Europe finds a new passion: cocaine, a 'drug for winners'? - by Antonio Maria Costa

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The White Powder That Kills - Europe finds a new passion: cocaine, a 'drug for winners'? - by Antonio Maria Costa

European leaders need to get serious about Europe's cocaine problem. The "white lady" is seducing a steadily growing number of Europeans, and remaining in a state of denial will only worsen the consequences. Cocaine used to be America's problem, to the point that the United States started a major campaign against sellers and consumers of crack cocaine in the inner cities, drug traffickers, and suppliers in the Andes. But now demand for cocaine in most of the world is stable or dropping. Coca cultivation has been slashed by a quarter in the past five years, and seizures of cocaine have almost doubled. An impressive 42 percent of all of the world's cocaine was seized in 2005.

Only Europe is bucking the trend. Cocaine use is on the rise, especially in Spain, Great Britain, and Italy. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence indicating traces of cocaine found on bank notes and in water supplies.

The level of cocaine use in Spain - 3 percent of the population aged 15 to 64 - now exceeds that in the US. And the United Kingdom is not far behind. In 2005, 2.4 percent of the British population used cocaine at least once, up sharply from 0.6 percent a decade earlier. Ten years ago, 20 percent of all new clients entering treatment for drug abuse in the Netherlands were addicted to cocaine. Now it is 40 percent.Cocaine is fashionable because it is attractive: white, not dark; sniffed, not injected; consumed in a living room or a fashionable night-club, not in a dark alley. It is seen as a drug for winners, not losers. To many it is a symbol of success, until they end up in a hospital or treatment center.

Europeans need to be reminded that cocaine is highly addictive and harmful. That is why it is a controlled substance. Many European governments fail to invest political capital in preventing and treating drug abuse. While addicts may be in denial, thinking that they can control their recreational use, cocaine, to quote the famous song by J.J. Cale, "she don't lie."