A new study has found that Londoners take an average of 23kg of pure cocaine every day, not just topping the list of Europe’s biggest cocaine consumers but eclipsing the top three cities altogether.
According to scientists at Kings College London, London takes more cocaine than Barcelona (12.74kg), Amsterdam (4.62kg) and Berlin (4.62kg) combined. Londoners are also the biggest weekday users of cocaine compared to other cities in Europe.
Dr Leon Barron, forensic scientist at King's College London, told Sky News it is an ‘everyday drug in London’ with ‘sustained cocaine usage across the week’ with only ‘a slight rise at the weekend’.
‘That is in contrast to other cities where you see a very marked recreational use at the weekend,’ he said.
The researchers studied the amount of cocaine taken in London by testing waste water for benzoylecgonine (BE) – the compound produced when the body breaks down cocaine. However, the 23kg figure only relates to pure cocaine and does not include substances the drug is cut with like benzocaine.
While cocaine consumption did double from 2011 to 2015, this figure actually represents a reduction in London’s cocaine use. But still, 23kg daily means London has been dubbed the ‘cocaine capital of Europe’. Which, at £40 on average for a gram in the capital city, says a lot.
Although, to be fair, the average salary in London is £35,703 according to Pay Scale, so perhaps it’s not that surprising that England’s wealthiest city is home to rampant cocaine use. Especially, with London consistently rated lower and lower in terms of quality of life.
That being said, for anyone worrying that their weekend sesh is too often entering weekday territory, this might serve as a wake-up call to try out some other forms of ‘self-care’. Because, while this news might be something you laugh at or roll your eyes or send to the group chat with an eyes wide emoji, it's actually pretty awful for England's capital city to be so overwhelmingly fueling such an unethical market.
We know how animals can be abused to smuggle cocaine, how people across the world are exploited to make it and the devastating conflicts that arise from it's supply - so while this news might sound like a joke to those who love a line at the weekend, it probably shouldn't be.
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