Drug use on the rise

BOTH legal and illegal drug use is on the rise in Cyprus and the EU, police warned yesterday.

Cyprus is seeing an upward tend for cannabis and cocaine use.

Between 2006 and 2009, cannabis and cocaine users doubled from 2.1 per cent to 4.3 for cannabis and from 0.6 per cent to 1.2 for cocaine, according to the Cyprus National Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

The percentages are still low in a European context.

Teenagers are using both legal and illegal drugs less than their European Union counterparts, according to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs.

To help young users, police have launched a new programme in collaboration with mental health services and the British bases, police chief Michalis Papageorgiou said.

Police reported an increase in drug related arrests but young users are given rehabilitation options, Papageorgiou added.

In Cyprus, cannabis is the most widespread illegal drug.

Alcohol is the most common legal drug with tobacco following suit.

A record high of 41 new synthetic substances – some of which legal – were found in 2010 in Europe.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.