Middle class cocaine use spiralling

COCAINE use is ‘spiralling out of control’ among Britain’s middle classes, with addiction referrals soaring by 300 per cent during the pandemic.

Jan Gerber, who runs the Paracelsus Recovery clinic, warned that social media and the ‘dark corners of the web’ had made it easier for people to find dealers who will deliver drugs to their door – with the result that usage levels are at an all-time high among professionals.

‘From what we are seeing among our clients, cocaine has become the norm at dinner parties in the UK,’ said Mr Gerber, who runs centres for wealthy clients in London and Zurich.

‘People are acting like wine snobs when it comes to cocaine, priding themselves on having the strongest and more pure forms of the drug.’ He added that people in Britain were increasingly taking a cocktail of substances.

Experts warn the strength and purity of the drug has increased from 20 per cent a decade ago to 80 per cent. Scotland recorded 459 cocaine deaths last year, more than four times higher than in 2015.

It comes as six men were arrested off the Devon coast and more than two tons of cocaine worth £160 million was seized.