Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

COCAINE users were yesterday warned their habit is killing the planet.

Police heard using just two grammes of the Class A drug is the equivalent to devastating an area of tropical forest the size of a club dancefloor.

Cutting down the rainforest to grow coca for cocaine is also endangering wildlife and devastating the environment, Colombian Government spokeswoman Ana Maria Caballero reported.

She warned: "It is a silent environmental catastrophe ... about 2.2million hectares up in flames."

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland's drugs conference at Turnberry, Ayrshire, heard evidence of the environmental catastrophe.

Miss Caballero told users: "If you are driving a hybrid electric vehicle and doing cocaine at a party once a month, you might as well be driving a Hummer."