Cocaine use has spiked in Florida in recent years, fueling fears of a resurgence in use of the stimulant that came to symbolize the drug wars of the 1980s, Medical News Today reported Oct. 21.

The University of Florida and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement recently released data showing that cocaine-related deaths have been on the rise, nearly doubling in the state in a recent five-year period. The cocaine death rate increased from 150 per 100,000 residents in 2000 to nearly 300 per 100,000 in 2005, researchers said.

Moreover, the death rate has climbed highest in college towns and wealthy enclaves, suggesting that cocaine retains some of the broad allure that it did in the Eighties.

"With death reports, there is no fudge factor," said University of Florida researcher Mark Gold, M.D. "The other states will show the same thing: That we are in the early stages of a new cocaine epidemic that is being led by the rich and famous and students with large amounts of disposable income, and that is responsible for more emergency-room visits and more cocaine-related deaths than we have seen at any time since the last cocaine epidemic."

Gold presented the findings at the recent Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Atlanta.