Experts warn 90% pure cocaine is driving surge in deaths across Britain

A woman whose sister was left brain dead after taking super-strength cocaine has sent an urgent warning to users as crime gangs flood UK streets with lethal coke which is 90% pure.

Deaths have soared in the past year, with dealers smuggling in triple-strength drugs from South America in a sick battle to offer the ‘best value’ coke on the high street.

Organised crime gangs are peddling a substance smuggled in from South America, and with Brits consuming the most cocaine in Europe, experts are warning that partygoers are dicing with death.

Drug charities and even plastic surgeons have reported a surge in cases of users struggling with the physical and mental toll of their cocaine use.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun Stacey Jordan, who lost her sister Lucy White, 24, in 2018, is giving an urgent warning about these drugs.

She said: “People don’t consider the consequences. Their mate could do it in a club one night and have a lovely night, so you think it will be fine, and you might do it and have a completely different experience.

“In Lucy’s case she did it on and off for 18 months and it caused a cardiac arrest. I think she liked the escapism it gave her after a difficult childhood, to try and fix problems, but after two days in hospital doctors told me she was brain dead.

“Even if she had have woken up, she would have been severely brain damaged. The effect on myself and my family has just been horrendous.

“I’ve never done drugs but people my age do it all the time and it’s something you come to accept because it’s just so out there.”

Experts warn that increasingly pure cocaine has fuelled a spike in British deaths, with people dying from cocaine rising by 15% in a year.

Traditional cocaine, with a purity level anywhere betwen 10 and 30% was known as ‘pub grub’ – three times weaker than the lethal drug now on offer, which can be 90%.

Once dubbed the ‘yuppie drug’ due to its popularity among executives and upper- class dinner party guests in the eighties, the drug claimed a record 1,279 lives in 2024, an increase of almost 15 per cent on the previous year, when 1,118 people died after taking it, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Professor of addiction at the University of York, Ian Hamilton, said: “It is clear the increasing purity of cocaine is a result of improved growing techniques and then more sophisticated processing techniques that transform raw coca into cocaine.

“Organised crime gangs are also becoming increasingly competitive with each other trying to provide more potent cocaine that represents better value to their customer base.

“This means cocaine is cheaper and stronger than it has ever been, this bucks the broader trend in the cost-of-living crisis that has seen most consumables going up in price.

“There are serious risks to health because of more potent cocaine availability. Whether you are an experienced or naïve user of cocaine the increased strength can catch people out. They have no way of knowing how strong the cocaine they are taking is until it is too late and they have ingested it.

“This is why we have seen increased fatal and non-fatal overdoses over the same time that cocaine strength increases. It is important for the government to intervene and sanction drug testing facilities so warnings about high strength cocaine can be given to people using the drug.”

Gangs selling cocaine typically cut the drug to increase profits, using a wide range of other substances like anaesthetics, caffeine, painkillers and amphetamines.

Harry Sumnall is a Professor in Substance Use at the Public Health Institute, Liverpool John Moores University. He said: “Despite levels of cocaine use remaining relatively stable in the general population, we are seeing record high levels of cocaine related deaths in England
and Wales.

“Treatment services have reported a sharp increase in people seeking support for their cocaine use, although many more people might be hesitant to seek support either due to stigma or not being aware of the help on offer.

“Despite the best efforts of police both here in the UK and internationally, cocaine has never been more affordable and more pure, and for those who want to take it, its readily available.

“We also know there’s a high level of harm in people who are mixing cocaine with alcohol. It’s therefore important that we increase efforts to reduce demand for cocaine, work on initiatives to reduce harm, and to make treatment services as welcoming as possible.”

Powdered cocaine, usually snorted or taken orally, can cause heart attacks, cardiac arrest, strokes and seizures, according to the NHS.

Mixing it with alcohol causes the liver to produce a highly toxic metabolite called coca ethylene, a chemical which stays in the body longer than either substance, and heightens the risk of medical effects on the heart, as well as seizures.

Today the drug is widely used among white and blue-collar sectors, and readily available to all ages, classes and ethnicities via WhatsApp, Snapchat and other social media apps.

Pre-covid a gram of the drug, also known as charlie, blow, sniff and marching powder, cost £100, but now is it as little as £50.

Brits use more cocaine than any other country in Europe, and the second most in the world, after Australia, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It is the most commonly used drug in the UK, after cannabis, with around 20 per cent of that being ‘crack cocaine’, according to the government’s landmark Review of Drugs.

Users are mainly young adults. According to the ONS, 3.8 per cent of 16- to 24-year-olds took the drug in the year ending March 2024, compared with 2.1 per cent of people aged 16-59.

Mike Trace, who was appointed deputy drug tsar for Sir Tony Blair’s government and is now chief executive officer of the Forward Trust, a drug and alcohol support service, said: “I’m highly concerned we are observing higher purity in more places…and that’s where the death rate comes from.

“Higher, unpredictable purity is the biggest risk factor because if somebody buys white powder off their dealer on a Friday night and says, ‘right, well I generally think I get this much of a hit off that substance,’ and if they’re used to getting that much of a hit on 30 per cent pure substance, but if what they bought this Friday was 60 per cent substance, they’re in trouble.”

Police forces in the UK routinely test seizures of drugs and send them off to be tested for purity. The National Crime Agency estimates the average purity at ‘user level’ was between 32 and 38 per cent in 2013.

Anonymous drugs investigations police source told The Sun: “All drugs seized are sent off for testing, and whereas a decade ago they were maybe 30 per cent pure, we’ve seen a sharp increase and even had up to 90 per cent pure.”

“We’ve seen a sharp increase of people coming to us for help with cocaine addiction,” said Abigail Wilson, Director of Pharmacy at We are With You drug and alcohol support charity.

“This is because it is becoming purer, cheaper and more socially acceptable. It used to be something you’d only see happening in a movie but now it’s becoming the normality for people to take in pubs, especially during national events like the World Cup.

“It’s also increasingly available online. The death rate is 11 times higher than in 2011, and the only way to address this is to teach people to use safely.

“We could say to people ‘say no to drugs’ and to not take them, but that doesn’t work.”

We are With You has shared advice on how to reduce risks when taking cocaine on their website.

The nation was shocked in the early 2000s when former EastEnders actress Danniella Westbrook was pictured with a missing septum, caused by years of cocaine addiction.

Dr Anil Joshi is a facial plastic surgeon who has seen an increase of people coming to him with signs of cocaine abuse.

He said: “When I examine patients, I can generally tell if they use cocaine. The first is the condition of the nasal lining. Instead of looking pink and healthy, it can be dry, sore and crusted. In some cases, ulcers bleed easily.

“Secondly, I often spot a literal hole in the septum, which is the wall separating the two nostrils. Cocaine can cause inflammation in the inner lining of the blood vessels that supply these areas, and therefore nourishment to these areas gets depleted and causes that region to necrose.

“The third is varying destruction of the nose. The septum and the sidewalls can lose their attachments and disappear altogether. This can result in creating a large cavity filled with thick secretions and crusts. This can produce a deeply unpleasant smell.

“The fourth is damage to the roof of the mouth or floor of the nasal cavity, thereby causing a hole between the nose and the mouth. This will severely affect eating and drinking, with food coming out through the nose, along with an extreme change in the tonality of speech. All of these can cause collapse of the midface, resulting in
gross disfigurement of the face.

“These signs are serious clues, not proof. I still have to rule out infection,
autoimmune and connective tissue disorders and cancers that cause similar damage.

“Pure cocaine is not cleaner in any meaningful sense. It can be more destructive because the same amount may contain a much larger dose. Street cocaine can also contain other chemicals. Some irritate the nose whilst others harm the immune system in a far more destructive way.

“The damage may not always be obvious at first. One may present to us with only mild congestion and a blocked nose, which can then progress to the loss of part of the septum, causing a hole that may whistle, form crusts, and bleed. I have regularly seen very severe cases in my clinic with total destruction of the nose and the face, and in some cases where it has progressed beyond repair.”

“I have received calls and then had to see them as emergencies when the situation has been both physical and psychological.

“This is why I wish every young person could understand before they get tempted by their first line.