SPEAK of drug addiction and most people’s thoughts will turn to heroin, a substance which notoriously ensnares users in a destructive lifestyle.

Other drugs, however, are also powerfully addictive. These include alcohol and tobacco – though too often we put these in a separate and, illogically, more benign category – amphetamines and cocaine.

It is the last of these pharmaceuticals which is now causing particular concern here in Jersey. That cocaine leads to addiction and to a range of adverse medical effects is beyond dispute, but other features may make it a particular threat against the background of conditions in this affluent, hedonistic community.

By common consent heroin is dangerous, but it is also associated with degradation, crime and deprivation. Cocaine, by contrast, is often seen as the drug of high-flyers, celebrities and big spenders on the party circuit. It might be surrounded by an aura of danger, but it is also likely to conjure up visions of glamour and glitz.

Alcohol and Drugs Service director Michael Gafoor, who is in a position to know as much as anyone in the Island about the dangers and spurious identity of cocaine, is concerned that the drug is now in very widespread use.

A survey which used swabs to detect surfaces in pubs and clubs which had been used to snort coke has revealed just how prevalent the habit has become. In addition, Customs have this year seized record quantities of the Class A substance – which, worryingly, is often mixed with a powerful veterinary anaesthetic.

Mr Gafoor is, therefore, quite right to say that an awareness campaign to alert people about the dangers of cocaine should be launched. That said, it should do more than cite facts about addiction rates, draw attention to the physical consequences of use – which include irreparable damage to the membranes and other tissues of the nose – and highlight the sheer folly of taking a drug that will have been adulterated by who knows which other chemicals. It must give the lie to the false notion that cocaine is an integral part of the high life.

Being trapped in a spiral of cocaine use can, for many, be just as horrific and destructive as heroin addiction. Unfortunately, the City whizz-kid and movie star image of cocaine plays a powerful role in leading the impressionable into experimentation. The danger of this, plus the additional risk of easy affordability in this affluent community, must be fully spelled out.