BRITISH TEENAGERS USE SO MUCH CANNABIS THAT MARKET IS SATURATED, SAYS EU REPORT
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Webpage: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/
Pubdate: Thu, 23 Oct 2003
Copyright: 2003 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Author: Alan Travis
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*Cannabis use among teenagers in the UK has begun to stabilise, but only because it is so widespread the market has become saturated, the European Union's drug agency warned yesterday.  The EU monitoring centre on drugs and drug abuse also warned of new public health dangers from the increasing potency of cannabis available in Britain.  It raised concerns about the long-term health implications of the emergence of a significant new group of teenage boys who are using cannabis intensively - more than 20 times a month.

Its annual report, published yesterday, says the official goal of reducing drug consumption by 2006 across Europe remains a long way off, with at least one in five adults in the EU having tried cannabis and an emerging problem of growing cocaine use in some cities, particularly in Britain.

The agency warns that the drug-related death toll continues to rise - there are between 7,000 and 9,000 deaths every year in the EU.

It says that glue-sniffing and other forms of solvent abuse have proved a much greater acute health risk for young people in the UK than ecstasy, which causes fewer but more highly publicised deaths.

It says that there were 1,700 deaths from solvent abuse in the UK between 1983 and 2000, with most of the victims aged 16 to 19 - far more than the "relatively rare" ecstasy deaths.

The authors say that recent government measures have been effective in sharply reducing solvent-abuse deaths in Britain over the last four years.
Solvents remain the third most commonly used drug after cannabis and alcohol, with 15% of 15 and 16-year-olds trying them at some time.

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