MORE than one in ten Londoners took illegal drugs last year, an NHS report has revealed.

The most popular drug was cannabis, used by eight per cent of the population, while 2.9 per cent, one in 34 Londoners, said they had taken cocaine.

Overall drug use was almost unchanged on the year previously, with 10.4 per cent saying they used drugs compared to 10.1 per cent in 2005-6.

But almost 5,000 people a year are admitted to London hospitals each year with mental health problems connected to drugs.

Ministers insisted they were winning the battle against drugs, claiming the number of users had fallen in the past ten years.

The figures were published by the NHS, in a report based on hospital admissions and information from the British Crime Survey.

Across England, 17 per cent of children aged 11 to 15 claimed to have taken drugs in the past year, almost one in six.

This was slightly down on the figure of 20 per cent in 2001, when figures for children first began to be collected, but suggests that little progress has been made in steering young people away from drugs.

The figures cover illegal narcotics, glue and amyl nitrate.

And among adults, the proportion using drugs has fallen fractionally from 11.1 per cent to 10 per cent today.

London hospitals last year dealt with 4,930 cases in which patients were related with drug related mental health and behavioural disorders.

And they dealt with 960 cases of drug overdoses or poisoning by drugs.

A Department of Health spokesman said: ""More people than ever before are getting into and staying in treatment, drug-related deaths are down and the level of drug-fuelled crime has fallen substantially.

"The high-quality drug treatment that is being provided is the most effective way of reducing illegal drug misuse, improving the physical and mental health of drug users, as well as reducing the harm they cause to themselves and society."

Related links: NHS Figures.

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