Britain has worse cocaine habit than Mexico and Colombia

HealtH editor

BRITAIN has the worst cocaine habit in Europe, with rates of consumption far higher than Mexico and Colombia, international data show.

Experts warned of a cocaine epidemic in the UK, fuelled by binge-drinking culture. They said the drug could be ordered as easily as a pizza, and was as likely to be snorted at a pub or wine bar as at a football match.

Research from the Organisation for

Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the UK is now second only to Australia for global use.

The annual figures show 2.7 per cent of adults aged 15 to 64 use the drug in the UK, with men twice as likely as women to take it.

British cocaine consumption is the highest of 27 countries in Europe, and higher than in the US. People in the UK were four times as likely as those in Colombia to take the drug, and three times as likely as those in Mexico.

UK rates are also more than twice the average of 1.2 per cent across the OECD developed western nations analysed.

Only Australia exceeds the UK’s cocaine habit, with 4.2 per cent of adults taking it, according to the data.

Dr Niall Campbell, lead addiction consultant psychiatrist at the Priory Hospital, Roehampton, said cocaine is increasingly socially acceptable.

He said: “Cocaine use is pretty much an epidemic at the moment. It’s everywhere, it’s not a drug of the moneyed classes anymore, everybody wants it. They’re all fuelling the criminal empire.

“We talk to people at all levels of soci- ety. From those on building sites having “builder’s coke”, to people paying £5,000 at a time for the pure stuff.

“If you go to a football match at half time there’s a queue of young men going into the loo to use cocaine.

“Alcohol is the number one reason for admissions to our residential addiction unit, and cocaine and alcohol is the second reason.

“Cocaine and alcohol always go together ... It’s as quick to get cocaine as it is to order a pizza.”

Experts said the consequences were being seen in hospitals across the UK.

Dr Campbell said: “Every day in A&E someone will come in with an irregular heartbeat caused by cocaine,” he said.

“You get older guys ... Their hearts can handle it in their 20s or 30s but they can’t as they get old.”

Ian Hamilton, associate professor of addiction at the University of York, said the drug had become far more available as the price has fallen relative to income, and that it “is better value than it’s ever been.”

He added: “£10 to £20 would buy you a reasonable amount of cocaine, enough for a few lines for a night out. That’s the price of a cocktail.”

Prof Hamilton said it was now being used by all classes and ages, with use among women catching up with that of men.

He said that people access the drug through a “friend or an acquaintance” rather than a dealer.

Some people even use the drug at work in an attempt to increase concentration and energy.

Prof Hamilton called for a public health campaign to alert people to the risks of the drug, with adverts in public lavatories, wine bars and sports grounds.