Cocaine has become the stimulant drug of choice for many young Irish people and its availability here has increased enormously, according to the EU's drug monitoring centre.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, in its annual report published yesterday, also criticises policies on containing the spread of hepatitis C among injecting drug users here.
The Lisbon-based centre says 5 per cent of Irish people aged 15-34 have tried cocaine at least once. Cocaine seizures increased by 1,200 per cent between 1995, when there were 42, and 2003, when there were 566. Police seizures of a drug, it says, are indicative of its general availability.
Between 1 and 12 per cent of young people are reported to use the drug across the 25 EU member states. Cocaine use is highest in Britain and Spain, where it has now overtaken ecstasy and amphetamines in popularity.
The report also highlights that cocaine plays a "determining role" in about 10 per cent of all drug-related deaths and this is now a serious and unreported problem across the EU.
In Ireland, hepatitis C among injecting drug users is "endemic", it says. With between 66 and 72 per cent of injecting drug users in Ireland testing positive for hepatitis C, the centre says the incidence of hepatitis C among this population is "three times that in injecting populations living in other countries, indicating that harm minimisation strategies were not effective in containing hepatitis C".
Among injecting drug users here, "overdose is common, in particular those who use opiates, and is also a common reason for admission to hospital".
However, it says that once a user is admitted to hospital here, mortality is very low, suggesting that the greatest risk of death is before arrival in hospital.
"This . . . indicates that overdose prevention and management must be delegated to drug users themselves and to ambulance crews."
Voluntary drug treatment centres such as Merchants Quay Ireland have been calling for this for a number of years.
The EU body describes drug use in Irish prisons as an "underlying problem for a large proportion of prisoners". It notes that between 19 and 21 per cent of injecting drug users in Irish prisons say they started injecting in prison. However, it points to positive developments such as the introduction of easily accessible methadone treatment in Irish prisons.
The report also shows that cannabis use among young people in the Republic is among the highest in Europe, with 39 per cent of people aged between 15 and 16 having tried the drug.