cocaine cost £70 a gram in 2003 but can now be found as cheaply as £40 a gram.

The figures show that three in 100 Britons aged between 16 and retirement age had used cocaine recently in 2008 compared to 2.3 per cent in 2007. In 2003, the level was two per cent.
Nearly one in six Britons aged under 34 said last year that they had tried cocaine at least once, and 6.2 per cent said they had used it over the previous 12 months. Some 6 per cent of 16-year-old children in this country have tried the drug.

In Spain, where cocaine use has been driven up by high levels of immigration from Latin America, the figure was 5.5 per cent.

The next in the European league table was Denmark, with 3.4 per cent, and then Ireland, with 3.1 per cent of people under 34 having used the drug over the previous year.
A reputable survey taken last year in bars and clubs in Manchester found that more than four out of five clubgoers had used cocaine.

Britain was also top of the league for users of ecstasy and amphetamine, and in the top four for cannabis use.

The popularity of cannabis has declined over the past seven years as users have been put off by the growing evidence of a link between it and mental illness, especially schizophrenia. Ecstasy and amphetamines have become less common as cocaine has become cheaper.

According to the Drugscope carity, cocaine cost £70 a gram in 2003 but can now be found as cheaply as £40 a gram. A gram, depending on purity, can provide ten or 20 hits or ‘lines’ for the user.

The falling price has been one of the major reasons why a drug that 30 years ago was used only by the wealthy and fashionable gradually spread through young professionals and to schoolchildren.