Cocaine In Sewage: London Tops European Drug League Table
London's Sewers Have More Cocaine In Them Than Any In Europe
Sara C Nelson— Huffington Post UK
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London sewers are positively bubbling with cocaine, a drug monitoring body has found.
The research affords Britain's capital the dubious honour of having the highest levels of the drug in sewage in all of Europe - with the average daily concentration in waste water measured at 737mg per 1,000 people in 2014.
Levels of cocaine in London's sewage peaks on a Friday and a Saturday, falling away on Sunday and into Monday.
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Levels of cocaine in London's sewage are the highest in Europe
London is even ahead of Amsterdam in the cocaine sewage stakes – though drains in the Dutch city contain greater amounts of cannabis.
Around one in 24 (4.2%) people aged between 15 and 34 in the UK admitted taking the drug in the last 12 months, figures for 2013/14 showed.
This was the largest proportion of all countries for which statistics were available.
It is almost 1% above Spain, which was second highest with 3.3% of youngsters taking cocaine in the previous year, and more than double the EU average of 1.9%.
The finding was one of a series of figures showing that the UK has some of the highest rates of drug use in Europe.
The report also showed that:
Nearly one in 10 people (9.5%) in the UK aged between 15 and 64 have taken cocaine in their lifetime - the second highest in Europe
One in nine (11.1%) have used amphetamines at some point - the highest in Europe. The prevalence in the last year (1.5%) was exceeded by several other countries
Close to a 10th (9.3%) of UK adults have taken ecstasy - the highest in Europe.
The proportion of young people who took the party drug in the previous year, 3%, was joint second highest.
Health officials insist the long-term trend for drug use is falling.
Rosanna O'Connor, director of alcohol, drugs and tobacco at Public Health England, said: "Drug use continues to be considerably lower than 10 to 15 years ago and this is particularly true for the more harmful drugs like heroin and crack.
"Public Health England will continue to be vigilant and work with national and local partners to raise awareness of the harms, provide effective prevention as well as drug recovery services for those who need them."
The front man for The Libertines and Babyshambles and ex-boyfriend of Kate Moss said in an interview in July that he is still addicted to crack. When asked what would make him stop, he replied: "Probably my sex drive will have to go. Or I'll have to lose a hand." (credit:AP)
Lawrence Taylor(02 of09)
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The former NFL star wrote in an autobiography that he was high on crack cocaine during games and borrowed urine from his New York Giants teammates to fool NFL drug testers. (credit:CP)
Elton John(03 of09)
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The singer admitted in a book that he wasted much of his life being an addict, saying "I was consumed by cocaine, booze, and who knows what else." (credit:CP)
Marion Barry(04 of09)
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The former mayor of Washington, D.C was arrested for possession of cocaine in 1991 and re-elected in 1994. An 83-minute video of Barry smoking crack was watched by jurors in Barry's trial and featured the mayor yelling "bitch set me up!" about a woman he was with. (credit:CP)
Robert Downey Jr. (05 of09)
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The reformed actor admitted to drug addiction throughout the 1980s and also owned up to using crack. "The guy I was seeing didn't know I was smokin' crack in his bathroom. You can't make a diagnosis until somebody's sober," he told Esquire magazine in 2007. (credit:AP)
Barack Obama(06 of09)
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The President of the United States wrote in his first book "Dreams From My Father" that before entering politics he had used marijuana and cocaine ("maybe a little blow," he wrote). (credit:AP)
Sigmund Freud(07 of09)
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The founder of modern psychology extolled the virtues of cocaine use and self-experimented with the drug, finding it useful in fighting depression and anxiety. (credit:AFP)
Oprah Winfrey(08 of09)
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One of the most idolized women in America said she did cocaine in the 1970s when she was an anchorwoman in Nashville. "I did your drug. This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever said. ... I had a perfect, round, little afro, I went to church on Sunday and I went to Wednesday prayer meetings when I could ... and I did drugs," she said on her show in 1995. (credit:Getty)
Angelina Jolie(09 of09)
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The megastar admitted to doing "just about every drug possible," including cocaine and heroin in a 1996 interview with The Mirror. In a later 60 Minutes interview she said her drug use is “nothing I want to go into a lot of detail about, but I think people can imagine that I did the most dangerous and I did the worst. For many reasons I shouldn’t be here." (credit:Gerry)