Rising cocaine use in Europe in focus at global drugs conference

(MADRID) - A meeting of drug law enforcement officials from around the world underway in Madrid on Wednesday threw the spotlight on the sharp rise in cocaine use in Europe in recent years, especially in Britain and Spain.

"Cocaine is surging in Europe at levels similar to what America experienced in the 1980s," the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Karen Tandy, said on Tuesday on the opening day of the three-day event.

Around 10 million Europeans, or over three percent of all adults, have used cocaine at least once in their lives, a historically high figure, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

Britain and Spain posted the highest rates of use, with over four percent of adults reporting having consumed the drug over the past year compared to an average of around one percent of adults in all of Europe.

Use is concentrated among young adults, especially men, in urban areas.

The supply of cocaine in Europe has increased since the late 1990s leading to lower prices and this, combined with its association to a supposedly glamorous lifestyle, is fueling its growing use, drug experts say.

"Cocaine is very much associated with success, urban lifestyles, a party atmosphere," EMCDDA analyst Julian Vicente told AFP, before adding cocaine was now the second most used illegal drug in Europe after cannabis.

The price of cocaine on Europe's streets fell by 22 percent between 1999 and 2004, according to the Lisbon-based European drugs monitoring centre.

The DEA-sponsored International Drug Enforcement Conference brings together over 300 senior drug law enforcement officials from over 80 countries to share intelligence and devise strategies for fighting drug trafficking

It is the first time that the event, held every year since 1983, has been held in Europe. Only the opening session was open to reporters.

Speaking in Madrid on the eve of the start of the conference, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos urged the European Union to boost its cooperation with South American nations to fight drug trafficking.

"Spain has a serious problem regarding rising drug consumption and I think it is in the interest of us all to cooperate more to fight drug trafficking, which in the case of Colombia is totally linked to guerrilla groups and violence," he told AFP.

Colombia is the world's leading producer of cocaine while Spain, with its historical and linguistic ties to Latin America, is the main gateway into Europe for the drug.

Roughly 80 percent of cocaine from Latin America that was destined for markets outside of the United States in 2005 was bound for Europe, according to DEA estimates.

International drug trafficking rings have been drawn to the European market because of the higher prices paid for cocaine on the continent.

Last year wholesale prices for cocaine in the European Union ranged between 38,000 and 77,000 dollars (28,000 and 56,600 euros) per kilogram compared to between 9,000 and 40,000 dollars in the United States where the supply is higher, according to the DEA.

"The potential for this high profit margin has increasingly lured Colombian traffickers to European markets," DEA director of operations Michael Braun said during his testimony before the US Congress last year.

Colombian traffickers are increasingly shipping cocaine to Europe via Africa where they take advantage of weak governments to carry out their smuggling activities, he added.

To tackle the problem seven EU nations -- Britain, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands -- have agreed to set up a new body that will share intelligence and coordinate police seizures of cocaine and cannabis on the high seas. It will be established in Lisbon later this year.