'Don't stick head in the sand about illegal drugs'

Spreading a harm reduction message about illegal drugs is important to allow people to make informed choices, an academic has said.

Prof Anne Campbell, from Queen's University's Drug and Alcohol Research Network, said there should be similar awareness messages for cocaine as there are for alcohol and smoking.

"The difficulty with cocaine is that it's an illegal drug, it's a class A drug, so we will not see a public health campaign to educate our young people and our older people about the possible negative effects," she told BBC News NI.

It comes as a drug and alcohol support manager in County Fermanagh warned cocaine had become "normalised" in rural areas of Northern Ireland, such is its prevalence.

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