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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4746787.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 4 August 2005, 23:41 GMT 00:41 UK

"Italian river 'full of cocaine'"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "According to official estimates, people living around the Po consume about 15,000 doses of cocaine a month.

But the research claims more than three times as much cocaine is used in the area.

The team, led by Dr Ettore Zuccato from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, said they were taken aback by their findings, whose economic impact they described as "staggering".

"The large amount of cocaine (at least 1,500 kg/3,307lb) that our findings suggest are consumed per year in the River Po basin would amount... to about $150m (£84m) in street value," the scientists wrote in the journal.

They hope that in the near future, they will be able to develop similar tests in order to assess the true number of cannabis and heroin users."