AS reports of cocaine-related deaths steadily accumulate, doctors are gaining a sharper awareness of the dangers of the drug.

Professor Shiela Bird, a statistician at the Medical Research Council, has suggested the ban of mephedrone may lead to more cocaine-related deaths.

In the first six months of 2009, the number of cocaine-related deaths fell for the first time in four years, and fewer soldiers tested positive for cocaine in 2009 than in 2008.

In June, there were 29 cocaine-related deaths, compared with 3 in the same month last year.

In some cities they report a decline in the number of cocaine-related deaths and hospital emergency room cases.

Tennant was hired in 1986, shortly after the cocaine-related deaths of college basketball player Len Bias and pro football player Don Rogers.

The figures on cocaine-related deaths, which are gathered from medical examiners across the nation, are only reported annually.

Thus, he said, the autopsy also provides ammunition for a defense argument of a cocaine-related death.

Dr. Edgar Adams, the institute's director of epidemiology, said the increase in cocaine-related deaths was "somewhat understandable."

Dr. Sullivan said the decrease "was noted in virtually all metropolitan areas" of the system and reflected in preliminary fourth quarter figures from reports of cocaine-related deaths by medical examiners.