The shocking extent of cocaine abuse among young people in Brighton has been revealed in a new study.

Researchers for The Face magazine interviewed 1,000 young people aged from 16 to 24 throughout Britain as part of the survey.

They found 86 per cent of respondents in Brighton claimed they had taken the drug and the average price per gram was £30 to £60.

The survey also showed 74 per cent of all those surveyed considered cocaine less dangerous than ecstasy.

The Brighton statistics were far higher than in other cities with less than one third of those polled in Manchester, Birmingham, Northern Ireland and Cardiff saying they had used cocaine.

The main reasons cited for its use were its increasing availability and falling price and the growing publicity given to the drug by celebrity confessions in newspapers.

The Face quizzed the youngsters in March this year and included in its findings were the words of Steve, 24, of Brighton.

He said: "Getting hold of coke is as easy as buying chips."

Adam Frankland works for the Turning Point charity which helps people with drug and mental health problems.

He said: "We are certainly seeing more users of crack coming for help.

"This trend does seem to be spiralling down towards the early teens."

Frazer McEwen, director of services at Addaction in Brighton, said: "Years ago we had the E-culture which blew up and was related to the clubbing and music scene and that has not gone away but now the new trend is cocaine.

"It is about going out and it is all to do with the recreational party scene.

"This does not surprise me that they would come up with a figure that high. Here we have people using substances in many different ways.

"A lot of people's lives who read the Face magazine would revolve around going out and going to clubs and that sort of thing."

Police in Sussex have made major inroads into the cocaine trade in the last year but the menace still exists.

Detectives broke a Liverpool-based drugs ring last month which was netting thousands of pounds from selling substances.

Officers seized cash and drugs, mainly crack cocaine, in the raid in Shoreham.

Last year a gang of dealers were sent to jail for a total of 34 years for peddling the drug.