Last updated 13:41, Friday, 04 July 2008

SOUTH Cumbria is in the grip of an explosion in cocaine use.

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Ninety eight people aged under 20 asked for help for addiction to cocaine in the county last year, and it is claimed the destructive Class A drug can be delivered to your door quicker than a pizza.

Plummeting prices are making it easier to buy cocaine, as its use escalates in Furness and south Cumbria. As a result, for many people, from across the social spectrum, cocaine is now the social drug of choice.

Since the late 1980s, cocaine prices in Cumbria have fallen from £120 per gram to just £40 per gram, which is often the amount used by a person in one night.

In Barrow, Dalton and Ulverston the average cocaine user is aged between 25 and 30, holds down a job, and often raises children, but uses cocaine at weekends in pubs and clubs.

A lot of South Cumbrian women also use cocaine as a way of losing weight because it’s an appetite suppressant.

One 20-year-old, who wishes to remain anonymous, said the number of people he knew using the drug was on the increase. He said: “It’s everywhere now. If I wanted it I know exactly which pubs to go to and who to talk to. I see friends and friends of friends, who I never thought would take drugs, now using it.

“If I wanted some I could have it delivered to my house in about 20 minutes. It’s that easy.”

Barrow drug squad boss Mike Brown admitted there had been a marked increase and they would continue to crack down on dealers, adding: “The courts can and will impose a term of imprisonment if you are supplying it.

“Users may get the wrong impression in that they see a dealer as someone who they get the drug off, but if you give a friend a couple of lines of cocaine then you are supplying and will be sentenced as a dealer if caught.” Paul Brown, Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Service director, gave a disturbing insight into the general availability of cocaine. He said a 12-year-old coke addict was a rare occurrence, but an extremely worrying one.

He said: “We’re now getting referrals throughout Cumbria. There’s a lot of cocaine about – it’s cheaper than it’s ever been. People who use it don’t see themselves as dropout drug users: they see it as a celebrity drug. But it puts pressure on people’s hearts and it pushes your pulse rate up. It can cause a lot of stress on a social level.

“I was talking to somebody last week who now doesn’t go out unless there’s cocaine available. It’s a very corrosive substance. People also use cocaine to give themselves what’s called alcohol stamina, allowing them to drink and drink and stay on their feet, which obviously carries risks.”

“It’s been shown that 40 per cent of bank notes have minute traces of cocaine on them because people roll them up and use them as a tube to snort it up. Fourteen per cent of cocaine users catch hepatitis because there are microscopic blood particles in their nose which can be transferred to the notes used to snort.” Drug squad boss Mike Brown added: “We have seen a significant increase in intelligence concerning the availability of cocaine powder in South Cumbria, it is also clear that is being abused in licensed premises which has been highlighted by testing that has taken place by officers showing that toilet cisterns are the favourite place for people to snort it off.”