More young people are taking cocaine than ever before: 6% of 16- to 24-year-olds have tried it, despite the fact that, overall, fewer young people take drugs in general.
In the UK in 2017-2018, 2.6% of people aged 16-59 took powdered cocaine (as opposed to crack cocaine, the more potent variant of the drug, which was taken by 0.1% of the population in the same period), up from 2.4% in 2013-2014, according to Home Office figures. “Cocaine use is going up,” says João Matias of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The country snorts more cocaine than almost anywhere in Europe. Lines at house parties, weddings, birthday parties and for no reason at all, other than that cocaine – the white powder that makes no one a better version of themselves, but that many of us continue to do anyway – is everywhere and freely available.īritain is a cocaine-loving country, and its love for the drug is growing. Lines on a Wednesday evening at a friend’s house while earnestly discussing 90s hip-hop. Lines in the pub on a Friday night after work. Now 36, Dan estimates he has spent £25,000 on cocaine. “I don’t like thinking about that,” Dan says, shaking his head as we sit in a London pub. When Dan, one of his favoured customers, hadn’t been in touch to buy the cocaine he usually took several times a week, the dealer knew something was wrong. It was his cocaine dealer, calling to check he was OK. T he moment Dan (not his real name) realised he had a problem with cocaine, he had been off work for a week, sick with flu.