Cocaine seizures hit a record high last year, the interior ministry said on Friday after the government sounded the alarm over a sharp spike in consumption of the powerfully addictive drug.
The ministry said 4,624.8 kilos of cocaine were confiscated in anti-drug operations in 2006 - an increase of 5.74% over 2005.
Heroin seizures during the same period fell 3.5% to 1,325.6 kilos and the amount of cannabis seized dropped 4% to 24,653 kilos.
The figures came a day after Interior Minister Giulio Amato warned there was now "gigantic" use of cocaine in Italy.
"The demand for the drug is frightening... If there is such a demand from Italian families, adults and young people, how can we expect the police to stop it?" Amato said.
According to the most recent figures, from 2005, 7% of Italians between the ages of 14 and 54 admit to trying cocaine at least once in their lives, with an 80% rise in cocaine use in the period 1995-2005.
Cocaine consumption is believed to be higher in only two other European countries - Britain and Spain.
Other statistics estimate that 10-12% of Italian teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 have tried cocaine and 7-10% crack, which is a processed form of cocaine hydrochloride.
Experts stressed that the drug is no longer restricted to a wealthy elite.
With average prices ranging from 50-100 euros per gram but falling as low as 30 on the streets of some cities, they said students, secretaries, truck drivers and construction workers were among the new, habitual users.
In Milan, the country's financial capital, 10% of the local population is estimated to have tried cocaine.
Father Gino Rigoldi, a Milan priest who runs one of the country's top cocaine rehabilitation centres, said that "in this city, cocaine is no longer considered a drug but a trendy habit - it's simply a fashionable thing to do".
"The problem is rising among teenagers because prices have come down so much. While celebrities and models pay around 300 euros a gram, the kind of cocaine that kids use costs 30-40 euros," he said.
The head of Milan's public health department for drug addiction, Riccardo Gatti, said in an interview published by the daily Corriere della Sera that "cocaine is a mass market product... Its consumption is now considered normal by society".
"Under-18s sniff it for sexual purposes, seeing it as a way to overcome their inhibitions, while lots of adults use it as an anti-depressant, with very serious consequences," Gatti said.
He said cocaine consumption was forecast to increase a further 50% by 2009.
The drug monitoring agency of the northern region of Veneto warned that crack would constitute the next national drug emergency.
Crack can be found for as little as 10 euros per dosage unit, the observatory said.
POLITICAL ROW OVER DRUG LAW.
The cocaine alarm sparked a political row as members of the centre-left governing coalition attacked drug legislation passed by the previous government and opposition officials warned Premier Romano Prodi not to relax the law.
Welfare Minister Paolo Ferrero, who is in favour of decriminalising drugs, said the tougher legislation had done nothing to prevent drug consumption and that "all prohibitionary policies" were doomed to fail.
He said the law should be revised, with the focus shifting from the punishment of consumers to the fight against drug trafficking and helping addicts.
The drug law, passed by the Silvio Berlusconi-led centre-right government in February 2006, enshrines a "zero tolerance" approach to all types of drugs.
It makes possession of hard and soft drugs a potentially criminal offence with jail terms ranging from six to 20 years for suppliers.
Former health minister Francesco Storace, a member of the opposition rightist National Alliance, said that "if cocaine use is as bad as Amato says, then the government had better leave the drug law alone".
"Taking drugs isn't a right but a crime against oneself and society," he added.
A cult TV show caused uproar recently by exposing allegedly widespread drug use in parliament itself.
The show Le Iene (The Hyenas) secretly tested 50 lawmarkers last October for drugs, revealing that one in three had apparently taken them in the preceding 36 hours.
A total of 12 tested positive for cannabis and four for cocaine, Le Iene said.
