BS.
Maybe the crowd you hang with is into that sort of thing, but that's a social/cultural grouping that is not universal and I don't think it's even close to the majority, even if you count people who tried it only once as a "past user".
OK, it was a stupid statement to make blind like that without evidence. First off i would like to say that i have tried coke some good stuff, some terrible, and never really seen the point of the drug. I am not defending its use, and would urge anyone who regularly snorts coke to cease the activity. If you want to be loud and arrogant you dont need a drug as an excuse, just be it.
In the UK, I would suspect that of the current generation, age group 15-30, 'most' people have either accidentaly come into contact with (search for stats on the amount of bank notes that test possitive for cocaine in any given region, its interesting and worrying), tried one line, or abused cocaine. The official figures say 1 in 20 aged 16-59 is a USER of cocaine. Not tried it once, a 'user'.
By Michael Day
Health Correspondent
The Telegraph - UK
10-4-3
"...the Home Office [is preparing] to publish research suggesting that the number of cocaine users in Britain has been radically underestimated. Current figures show that the number of users has risen fivefold in the past 10 years, from one in 100 to one in 20 of the 16 to 59 age group."
Thousands of cocaine-abusers are putting hospital casualty wards under strain by turning up with serious chest pains caused by taking the drug, according to a study by one of Britain's leading authorities on drug abuse.
Hospital staff have to drop other cases to deal with the drug-takers - all young men under 30 - as potential medical emergencies because the symptoms are so serious.
The research, by John Henry, a professor of medicine at Imperial College London School of Medicine, found that one in three such visits to accident and emergency departments in inner-city hospitals may be due to cocaine abuse.
Prof Henry conducted anonymous urine tests on 450 men who came to his A&E department with chest pains over several months and found that a third tested positive for cocaine.
The study, which has been submitted for publication, provides worrying evidence that the surge in cocaine use will result in a tide of heart disease in young people.
Prof Henry, a former director of the National Poisons Unit who is based at St Mary's Hospital, London, said: "This is a lower rate than some American studies have found, but higher than we expected, and very worrying."
He said that the number of deaths from cocaine had been seriously underestimated. Government figures show that the number of cocaine-related deaths reported by coroners' offices rose by 42 per cent last year, to 95.
Prof Henry believes that the official figures are "the tip of the iceberg" because many go unrecorded as cocaine-related deaths. "They don't include all the trauma; people shooting other people or when someone gets a knife in the chest," he said.
Casualty departments in other inner-city hospitals are experiencing a similar rise in numbers of men complaining of chest pains that are probably cocaine-related.
Mr Manolis Gavalas, an A&E consultant at University College Hospital, said: "We frequently get people coming in with cocaine-induced chest pains. The drug is constricting the coronary circulation, so of course it's dangerous - and it can lead to heart attacks.
"Ten years ago it was unheard of, but now we see lots of young male patients in their 20s or 30s with this, especially on Friday and Saturday night," he said.
"If you see one of these young patients with these symptoms you know it's cocaine, but it's still very serious and you have to take it very seriously." That means the patients are given priority treatment, have medical histories taken and often have electrocardiogram readings.
Dr Carole Gavin, a consultant at the Hope Hospital in Salford, Manchester, said: "We do seem to see more young men with these symptoms.
"There have been a couple in the last six months who've had serious chest pains and who've admitted using cocaine. But of course there may be many who don't admit they've been using it."
Cocaine induces a feeling of well-being by raising dopamine levels in the brain, but also increases blood pressure and causes blood vessels to contract. Sometimes the arteries feeding the heart go into spasm, causing the severe chest pains which make users go to hospital.
If the spasms are particularly severe the patients may need drugs such as nitrates to force their vessels open and prevent a heart attack.
Four years ago the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the risk of death from a heart attack rose 24-fold in the first hour after cocaine use.
"There's also the risk of cerebral haemorrhage and stroke," Dr Gavin added. "We've seen one 40-year-old in the last year who had a stroke on cocaine."
Some researchers even fear that cocaine, along with ecstasy, could spark the early onset of Parkinson's disease, by causing the body to exhaust its supply of dopamine prematurely.
Prof Henry was so concerned about the more immediate ill-effects of cocaine that he persuaded his medical ethics committee to allow him to test urine samples from young men appearing in his hospital with chest pain in such a way that they were anonymous and could not be traced. He hopes to do follow-up research on the cost implications for the NHS.
The study comes as the Home Office prepares to publish research suggesting that the number of cocaine users in Britain has been radically underestimated. Current figures show that the number of users has risen fivefold in the past 10 years, from one in 100 to one in 20 of the 16 to 59 age group.
Research it commissioned from National Economic Research Associates warns, however, that many users go unnoticed. Edward Bramley-Harker, who led the research, said: "The current estimate came from looking at people arrested for cocaine abuse. But there are many affluent users who are not likely to be arrested, so the figure of 475,000 users is a considerable underestimate."
Neither do these figures include the growing, 200,000-strong group of crack cocaine users who are at risk from the same physical side effects as users of ordinary cocaine.
So you're right, I was talking out of my backside i admit, but a little research shows just how large the cocaine problem is in britain right now. Also figure that any official reports are at least six months behind the times by the time anyone has worked them out and published.
However, when it comes to death induced through the abuse of cocaine, one is just as more likely to be seriously damaged by abusing a big spoon of salt three times a day than three lines of charlie a day. Unless of course we consider financial damage...
The amount of salt - sodium chloride - that we eat has a direct effect on our health and blood pressure. The more salt we eat the higher our blood pressure. This is true, not only in people with high blood pressure, but also in people with normal blood pressure. A high sodium salt intake also causes other health damage, such as greater retention of water in your body, which leads to swelling of the ankles and weight gain. Too much salt also worsens thinning of the bones (osteoporosis), asthma and kidney disease and is closely related to cancer of the stomach. Therefore, everyone should cut the amount of salt they eat to improve their health.
The Food Standards Agency issued salt intake targets for adults and children. The target for adults is to cut their salt intake from the current amount of 10-12 grams per day (two teaspoonfuls) to 5-6 grams a day (1 teaspoonful) or less. Salt intakes for children depend upon their age, but are considerably less than for adults. If you can reduce your salt intake more this will lower your blood pressure further.
The problem is of course, the 'abuse' part.
My point with good old Billy, RIP, is that the fact he was a cocaine user is being considered his downfall, a very usefull missrepresentation to further help the crusade against illegal narcotics. His death may have been contributed just as equally to salt intake.
