One third of Bulgarian school children in the 9th to 12th grade have at least once tried narcotics in the past year.

Compared to data from 2003, the number of school children who have tried some kind of drug, has increased with 6 per cent, Momchil Vasilev of the head of the National Focus Centre said.

Between 35 and 40 000 school children have tried cannabis in the past 30 days. Around 15 to 20 000 of them use on a regular basis, Vasilev said.
Compared to 2003, the percentage of cannabis users among 15 to 18 year old school children had increased from 27 to 30 per cent, while the use of heroin had doubled. Cocaine was tried by six per cent of school children. In 2003, this was only two per cent.

The use of amphetamine and Ecstasy increased significantly.

Trends showed that cannabis was mostly used by 15 to 34 years-old, estimated at between 315 and 330 000 people, 10 per cent of this group has used drugs in the past month. This group accounted for around 90 per cent of Bulgarian drug users between 15 and 60 years-old.

In Sofia, the percentage of drug users was higher than in other cities. Most popular was the use of marijuana, followed by synthetic drugs, according to the research.

Around 70 million people between 15 and 64 years-old in Europe has used cannabis, which was a historically high level of usage of the drug, Roumen Sedefov from the European Centre for monitoring of drugs and narcotics, said.