Cocaine price fall ‘behind use spike’

A fall in the price of cocaine could be behind its increasing popularity with drug users in Scotland, a report suggests.

The latest Scottish Drug Misuse Database revealed almost a fifth (19 per cent) of recent drug users had taken it or crack cocaine in 2016-17.

A total of 11,721 individuals came forward seeking help and were given an assessment. More than three quarters (76 per cent) of this group had taken illegal drugs in the month before their assessment.

Just over half (52 per cent) of those who had taken drugs recently had used heroin. But cocaine/crack cocaine was the fourth most popular drug on the list, behind cannabis and diazepam, which were taken by 32 per cent and 29 per cent of recent users respectively.

More than half (51 per cent) of addicts who were assessed in 2016-17 were aged 35 or over, up from 29 per cent in 200607.

Over the same period the proportion of users who were aged under 25 fell from 26 per cent to 14 per cent.

The 2016-17 figures also showed almost three quarters (72 per cent) of drug users who came forward to get help were male.