COPS in Scotland's largest force have dealt with more than 2400 crimes linked to the Old Firm in the last two years.

‘popular misconception’ has taken root that cocaine is safe to be snorted at ‘middle-class dinner parties’, the chief drugs adviser says.

Professor Les Iversen, who heads the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs, announced a year-long investigation into the harm caused by the Class-A substance.

Prof Iversen said he hoped this would convince the public of the damage cocaine was doing to their health.


Party drug: But Government advisers are keen to dispel the idea that cocaine is safe

It follows concerns over a three-fold rise in the number of cocaine users over the past ten years.

Experts have voiced concerns that the drug is seen as more socially acceptable and glamorous thanks to the likes of Kate Moss, Jodie Kidd, Katherine Jenkins and Amy Winehouse being exposed as users.

 
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Prof Iversen said there was a ‘popular misconception, at least as far as powder cocaine is concerned at middle-class dinner parties, that it’s a safe drug’.

He added: ‘We want to examine whether powdered cocaine really is safe. I do not believe it.’


Socially acceptable? There are concerns that use of the class A drug is tolerable thanks to celebrity use

Last month, the United Nations warned that the UK was becoming an increasingly important hub for the importation of cocaine into the rest of Europe.

Belgium, Holland, Portugal and Spain are the traditional routes for the drug’s entry to the EU, but the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said there had been a recent surge in cases of the UK being used as point of entry.

Powder cocaine was the second most popular drug in Britain after cannabis, British Crime Survey figures for 2009/10 showed.

An estimated 2.4 per cent of adults, about 800,000 people, reported using powder cocaine in the last year.

The ACMD stressed there are no plans to even consider changing the classification of cocaine.

The review will investigate some of the substances being ‘cut’ with cocaine by dealers - which now include dental anaesthetic.

In a separate move, the ACMD controversially suggested giving freed prisoners a ‘magic medicine’ to protect them against heroin overdose.

Advisors say a single injection of naloxone would bring an addict back to life if they fell into a coma.

They want to target newly released convicts in case they fall back into a life of taking hard drugs.

It would cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds to equip criminals with the £15 injections.

But the ACMD, which has repeatedly called for the relaxation of drug laws, said the move could save hundreds of lives.

Prof Iversen said the most vulnerable period in a heroin addict’s life is in the week or two weeks after they leave prison.

One in eight succumb to an overdose and - among those who inject heroin,- one in 200 die, research showed.

Prof Iversen said: ‘A heroin overdose person could keel over and go into a coma and a single injection of naloxone can bring them back to life again. It is really a magic medicine.

‘The issue here is whether or not naloxone could or should be made available more widely so that we can rescue more people from heroin overdose.


Concerns: The United Nations warned the UK was becoming an increasingly important hub for the importation of cocaine into the rest of Europe

‘Issuing naloxone kits to heroin addicts as they leave prison as a way of trying to save some of their lives.’

‘Getting it as widely available as possible is the name of the game.’

The medicine, which would be funded by the NHS, is already made available to freed prisoners in Scotland, under a £500,000 pilot. Small trials are also taking place in England.

Addicts have to be trained how to inject the drug. It must be prescribed to a particular individual.

The scheme has proved controversial north of the border.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: ‘This sends out completely the wrong message and won’t do anything to move a prisoner towards abstinence, which must be the long-term goal of any drugs strategy.

‘We need to be prioritising drug-free wings in prison and this is the complete opposite of that aim.’

The ACMD has yet to make a formal recommendation to the government, which would then decide whether to fund the scheme in England.

13,000 cancers in the UK every year are the result of people's drinking habits

13,000 cancers in the UK every year are the result of people's drinking habits, according to one of the largest studies ever carried out into diet and cancer.

The research, carried out across eight European countries including the UK, has found that thousands of cancers could be prevented if men had the equivalent of no more than two drinks a day and women had no more than one.

Nearly half of the alcohol-related cancers in the UK – nearly 6,000 – were related to the mouth and throat. Alcohol is a key cause of cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, voicebox and pharynx.

But alcohol also causes more than 3,000 colorectal cancers and about 2,500 breast cancers every year, according to Cancer Research UK, which cofunded the study.

The full extent of the damage is revealed by the Epic study (European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition), which is monitoring the links between diet and cancer in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Denmark. It finds that 10% of men's cancers and 3% of women's cancers in western Europe are caused by drinking.

Doctors and health groups are already concerned about the rise in liver disease. The British Liver Trust said the study should trigger a Europe-wide effort at preventing alcohol-related harm.

"Once again we are seeing the impact alcohol can have in all areas of health," said the trust's campaigns manager, Sarah Matthews. "While alcohol damage is often linked to the liver, this study highlights the impact alcohol has on the rest of the organs in the body.

"The results are not a surprise as we feel we haven't touched the tip of the iceberg in preventing alcohol health harms in the UK. Substantive measures, such as setting a minimum pricing at an effective level, have been ignored and we continue to employ a half-hearted attempt in protecting the health of society. This study should form the basis of EU action to tackle the four Ps of alcohol marketing – price, promotion, placement and product. Only then will we see a change in how alcohol is viewed and consumed."

The study looked at the past and present drinking habits of nearly 364,000 men and women, mostly aged between 35 and 70 at the time of recruitment in the mid-1990s. They completed a detailed questionnaire on diet and lifestyle when they joined the study. Alcohol consumption was measured by specific questions on the amount, frequency and type of drink.

The study, published by the British Medical Journal, found that thousands of cancers could have been avoided if people had consumed no more than one drink a day for women or two for men.