Youth Cocaine Addiction on the Rise in UK
Reports have surfaced that indicate the number of minors who are in need of rehabilitation from cocaine addictions have risen by 50 percent over the past three years. The alarming numbers, released yesterday, indicate that there are a significant number of children under the age of 12 that have or are becoming hooked on the highly addictive drug.
For the under-18 age bracket, health officials treated 745 cases of addicted youths for the year 2008-09, which is significantly increased from 453 cases seen in 2005-06. Of those 745, an alarming 14 were between the age of 12 and 14 and already addicted to cocaine.
There were an additional 15 which were under the age of 12 and needed help breaking an addiction with coke or other highly addictive narcotics. In total this year, 25,000 youths have been treated for some sort of drug or alcohol abuse. 80 percent of these cases involved alcohol or marijuana.
Politicians have said in the wake of the news that it would be increasingly important to break the image that some drugtaking celebrities have given to coke. Norman Lamb, a liberal Democrat health representative, said that youths are given a mixed message regarding drugs because celebrities are making them look glamorous.
Despite, cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol abuse on the rise in youths over the last three years, crack and heroine use among young people has dropped by 40 percent in the past three years. The drop in crack and heroine use closely resembles a similar drop in adult users.
Marijuana abuse accounted for more than 50 percent of the 25,000 drug abuse cases for under-18s that were seen by drug therapists in the UK this year. Alcohol accounted for a third of the cases, according to the National Treatment Agency.
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