'Quarter of young adults take cocaine or cannabis'

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Cannabis was the most common substance taken with more than 1.3 million 16-to 24-year-olds smoking it.

Cocaine was taken by 375,000 young adults — slightly up on the previous year's total and equivalent to more than six per cent of the under-24 age group.

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Popular: Cannabis was the most common substance taken by 16-to 24-year-olds last year

The figures, drawn from the Home Office's British Crime Survey, cover the year ending in March.

They also show that the percentage of those aged between 16 and 59 who took at least one illegal substance fell from 10.5 per cent the year before to 10 per cent.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently ordered a review of the classification of cannabis, which is expected to revert to class B status.

A separate Home Office report also published today shows that drug seizures have risen sharply.

Figures for 2005 reveal a 50 per cent increase in the number of seizures which brought in 69 tonnes of cannabis, 3.8 tonnes of cocaine, 1.9 tonnes of heroin and two tonnes of amphetamines.