COCAINE USERS FACE GREATER RISK OF HEART ATTACKS

TAKING cocaine even in small amounts causes blood clots which may explain the high rate of heart attacks among users, research shows.

The study suggests the drug thickens the blood and increases the chances of a thrombosis.  The effect is seen even in users who take it only for recreational purposes, exposing as myth the popular notion that occasional cocaine abuse is safe.

Researchers in the United States monitored the heart rates and blood chemicals of 14 people aged between 23 and 41 up to two hours after they were given a small dose of cocaine and the same amount of a sugar pill, or placebo.  None of the volunteers had used the drug before, according to a report in the medical journal Heart.

Compared with the placebo, cocaine slightly increased heart rate and blood pressure, but chemicals which indicate that the blood is "stickier" and which enhance the formation of clots - thrombosis - had significantly increased two hours after the cocaine was taken.

The bleeding time, a measure of how long it takes the blood to form a clot around a wound, had fallen in two-thirds of the volunteers.

Bleeding of the linings of the nose and stomach is a frequent side-effect of snorting cocaine, which is not usually linked with thickening of the blood, but the researchers at Pittsburgh University Medical Centre said cocaine sets off a chain of events in the blood that promote clots, making the user susceptible to heart attacks.

The report was welcomed by anti-drugs campaigners, who said it would help to disprove the notion that cocaine was a safe drug.

Willie, 50, a project worker and a founder of the Calton Athletic Recovery Group in Glasgow, which helps drug users to overcome their addiction, said: "It has always been considered far less harmful than other drugs, almost an organic alternative, especially to those who smoke it rather than snort it."

Willie, a former addict, said: "When I first tried it in the Eighties it wasn't believed to be addictive.  Try telling that to the addicts I've seen in here."

He said cocaine users should not be surprised at the report.  "You can feel it speeding up your metabolism straight away, and your heart rate creeps right up, so it's definitely having some effect."