Holding a cider can and moving to the rhythm on a bright afternoon, Lisa observes the Scissor Sisters perform at a Lake District music festival. Residing in Gateshead alongside her fiancé, the 30-year-old has taken a short break from her employment as a veterinary nurse. She loves going to festivals, especially as she loves meeting new people, and she makes friends easily because, as she puts it, she is on a bit of coke. While punishable by up to seven years behind bars, this illegal act usually remains right out in the open and is frequently dismissed by the public as barely illegal at all.
Wastewater metrics and the soaring scale of consumption
By many estimates, use of the class A drug is soaring across England. Wastewater analysis suggests people consumed 123,000kg of cocaine in the 2024-25 period, representing a rise of 26% since 2021. That volume equates to roughly 2.5 billion lines of cocaine, carrying an estimated street value of almost £10bn. Research from wastewater samples in 2022, carried out by Imperial College London, found that consumption spikes during major sporting and music events, heatwaves, and bank holidays. Concurrently with this growth, an investigation by the Guardian has uncovered a 10% increase since 2019 in recorded offences referencing the substance.
Its reputation as a middle-class drug still stands, though availability has widened across different demographics as prices dropped year-on-year to reach historically low levels last year. That wider use brings wider societal problems. Widespread trouble at Wembley stadium during the Euro 2020 final in 2021—when thousands of fans without tickets forced their way past security—was believed to be significantly driven by cocaine. Lady Casey’s independent review later that year found that excessive consumption of alcohol and cocaine fuelled a febrile atmosphere. More than half of fans surveyed afterwards said they had seen open drug use at the stadium or on the way from the station, with safety officials noting that drug usage caused volatile behavior requiring multiple stewards to intervene.
Pubs, workplaces, and the daily coping mechanism
Beyond massive stadiums and festivals, cocaine has entrenched itself deeply in everyday environments, from nightclubs and student house parties to middle-class dinner parties and local pubs. A pub manager in east London explains that she cleans cocaine residue off toilet surfaces most mornings. She notes that the accessibility and ubiquity of the drug have become significantly worse over the past five years, becoming heavily blended with the concept of a day or night out.
For others, the drug functions as an everyday workplace coping mechanism. Will, a 37-year-old carpenter in TV and film whose name has been changed, first took cocaine at age 15 and eventually dealt it as a teenager before building a severe daily habit. He has used it to push through long hours on set, noting that parts of the industry essentially run on the substance. Although he has managed to cut down his expenditure from thousands of pounds a week to between £120 and £180 a weekend, he admits he has built a physical dependency and likely will never be fully sober.
