More than 120 000 Bulgarian teenagers have taken drugs and one in three highschool students in the country got drunk at least once during the last month, experts claim.

Drug abuse among Bulgarian teenagers has increased by 6 percentage points over the last 4 years, Momchil Vassilev, head of Bulgaria's government agency that collects drug abuse data, said on Thursday.

The institution, called the National Focal Point on Drugs and Drug Addictions, said in its report on drug abuse for this year that 360 000 Bulgarians have tried illegal drugs at least once. About 60 000 used drugs during the past month.

"Drug-abuse in Bulgaria is concentrated among youngsters, as 88% of the users are aged between 18 and 34," Vassilev said.
Drinking is also a common problem among Bulgaria's teenagers, 30% of whom get drunk regularly, according to the agency's data.

About 70 million Europeans have used illegal drugs at least once in their life and 3 million use drugs daily, statistics show. Drug use claims around 8000 lives every year in Europe.

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