Florence tests positive for cocaine
Pastor Dale Morgan
Florence tests positive for cocaine*
Tom Kington in Rome
Tuesday February 27, 2007
The Guardian
Milan may have highly strung models and Rome stressed out politicians,
but a new study has found that medieval Florence is on the frontline in
Italy's cocaine boom.
Researchers tested a mammoth urine sample taken from the sewerage under
the city's streets, museums and art galleries over six months that
revealed over 12 kilos of cocaine had been snorted, equivalent to more
than 482,000 lines, almost one line per Florentine. Sampling also
indicated about one kilo of heroin consumption.
"This new research, added to what we already knew, is very alarming,
especially given the harm being done to young people," said the city's
health assessor, Graziano Cioni. Florence's bars and night clubs will
now get more frequent visits from plain clothes policemen, he said.
The research team from the University of Florence said sampling sewers
gives an accurate measure of a city's drug habit, even indicating
seasonal peaks. August showed a high level of cocaine usage, they said,
possibly suggesting the use by tourists of the drug to survive hot,
soporific queues at the Uffizi gallery. But the team also discovered a
peak at Christmas.
The Florence findings are just the latest in a series of revelations of
burgeoning cocaine use in Italy. Habitual users are believed to have
doubled to 700,000 since 2000, a leap the interior minister, Giuliano
Amato, called "frightening" when he launched an anti-drugs campaign this
month.
Despite cocaine seizures rising 5% to four tonnes last year, southern
Italian mafia clans are ramping up their operations and have pushed down
prices from around €100 a gram three years ago to €40 (£27). The drugs
turnover of all Italian mafia clans is estimated at €59bn a year,
accounting for over half their business.