‘Ultra-strength’ cocaine hits UK streets as deaths surge to record high

A. A deadly wave of ‘ultra-strong’ cocaine is emerging across the UK as deaths linked to the party drug spiraled reached a record level, Independent can reveal.

South America’s cocaine boom has triggered a sharp increase in the purity of the powder sold at street level over the past decade, and users are unwittingly taking ever greater risks with their health, experts say.

In an undercover operation at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, which was attended by more than 200,000 people, Independent They collected cocaine samples from toilet surfaces and found that two of the three cocaine sent for analytical testing were 85 percent pure.

Britain’s former drugs tsar Mike Trace described the findings as “extremely worrying” and called on the government to take urgent action on the “health scandal” as the number of deaths continues to rise.

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According to the NHS, cocaine use can cause heart attack, stroke and seizures; This adds that mixing the substance with alcohol can further increase the risk of overdose.

At Cheltenham on Gold Cup day in March, Independent He used testing wipes on surfaces in toilets to find traces of cocaine before collecting a dozen samples that were sent for testing to Kingston Analytical Services Toxicology (KAST) at Kingston University.

Initial tests detected cocaine in nearly every sample. Three were then sent for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) testing; this testing revealed that two of them, including one taken from the baby changing facility at Best Mate Enclosed, had 85 percent purity.

Postdoctoral researcher at the university, Dr. Arijac Durrant said: Independent: “Here we have two samples of high-quality cocaine; these are above what we usually see at street level. I am not a medical expert, but I think the risk of overdose is high for someone taking this drug who is used to taking a lower purity substance.”

A spokesman for the Jockey Club, which runs the Cheltenham Festival, said it was “extremely disappointing” and that illicit drug use remains a wider social issue at many major events.

The UK government does not publish figures on the purity of cocaine but the National Crime Agency estimated Average purity at the “user level” was between 32 and 38 percent in 2013.

Experts told Independent Record cocaine production in South America, combined with an increasingly diverse supply route from Eastern Europe, has left the UK market flooded with the drug. This resulted in a reduced need to break it down with other substances before selling it.

Peter Cain, drug science consultant at Eurofins Forensic Services, which tests drugs seized by police forces, said purity levels reached around 75 per cent during Covid and have since risen to over 80 per cent in the last five years.

Meanwhile, the European Union Drug Agency he said last year It was stated that the average cocaine purity reported by half of the states increased between 66 percent and 81 percent.

“It’s a buyer’s market,” Mr. Cain said. “Users are getting a stronger product and paying less, and this is at a time when everyone is paying more for beer and other things.”

Mr Trace, who was appointed deputy drugs tsar in Sir Tony Blair’s government and is now chief executive of the drug and alcohol support service Forward Trust, said: “I am extremely concerned that we are seeing higher purity in more places because Independent shows and that’s where the death rate comes from.

“Higher, unpredictable purity is the biggest risk factor, because if someone buys white powder from a Friday night dealer and says, ‘right, I think I’m that impressed with this stuff overall,’ and if they’re used to being so impressed with the 30 percent pure stuff, but what they’re buying this Friday is the 60 percent stuff, they’re in trouble.”

The latest available data on hospital admissions for cocaine and crack cocaine use between 2017-18 showed numbers have tripled in the past decade. Meanwhile, the number of cocaine-related deaths has increased for 13 consecutive years, rising 14 percent from 1,118 in 2023 to 1,279 in 2024.

Among those who died in the last decade was Lucy White, a third-year criminology student at the University of the West of England in Bristol. A coroner found he had suffered a heart attack caused by the class A drug. His sister Stacey Jordan has since called for changes in education.

And last year, Emily Rose Browning, a 24-year-old teacher in Cardiff, died of a heart attack hours after taking cocaine on a night out, an inquest into her death heard: According to BBC. That same year, 41-year-old Lindsey Strickland died of a heart attack after taking cocaine on a night out with friends. In Salford.

Warrington North MP Charlotte Nicols warned in November that the Home Office was “fundamentally inadequate” to deal with drug-related deaths and claimed it was showing “hostility” towards more de-criminal solutions.

Despite the Tory government’s 10-year drugs strategy launched in 2021, figures from the National Audit Office show a 40 per cent reduction in real-term spending on adult drug and alcohol treatment between 2015 and 2022.

Mr Trace wants the government to introduce a drugs-checking program in towns and cities that would allow users to test the purity of the medicine they are taking and develop a better understanding of drugs to help guide policy. He added: “Cocaine deaths are rising every year and we are not taking it seriously enough. This has become a health scandal that we must fix quickly.”

Harry Sumnall, a professor of substance use at Liverpool John Moores University who advises the government on drugs policy, also voiced concerns. The Independent’s The findings define cocaine with purity above 85 percent as “ultra-potent.”

“What Independent This is an indication that we have a strong market for high purity cocaine; 85 percent is very high… I think the reality is that these high purity drugs exist [across the country] “And people can buy them if they want because they’re affordable.”

He added: “Cocaine markets have never been as risky and harmful as what we face today.”

The UN’s 2025 World Drug Report found that more than 3,708 tonnes of cocaine were produced in 2023, thanks in part to an increase in coca cultivation in Colombia. Maps showing the flow of drugs show drugs are reaching the UK as well as other European countries by air and boat.

Last year five people caught He is trying to smuggle £26.5 million worth of 89 per cent pure cocaine onto the West Country coast by speedboat. Cocaine weighing 332 kg was left on a cargo ship. That same year, a police chase on the Cornish coast of three men collecting bales of cocaine from the sea stunned onlookers who filmed the arrests.

The import and sale of cocaine in the UK is largely dominated by Albanian organized crime groups, with the market worth £1.9 billion in 2020, an independent report written by Dame Carol Black said.

NCA head of drug threat Adam Thompson said: “Cocaine production in South America is at a record high, pushing wholesale prices traded by organized crime groups to historic lows. “Cocaine purity has also increased in recent years as there is no need to dilute it to make a profit, given the large volumes some producers supply to the illicit market.

“UK law enforcement has held the line but without a reduction in demand from users, stemming the supply of cocaine will be an ongoing battle.”

A Home Office spokesman said it had strengthened border security to tackle criminal gangs, with nearly five tonnes of cocaine seized at one port alone in less than a month, depriving criminal gangs of £400 million worth of drugs.

“We will continue to work across health, policing and wider public services to reduce drug use and stop those profiting from the drug supply.”

In Cheltenham, the Jockey Club targeted drug users with dog searches at the entrance and patrolling teams of security guards. Organizers also placed drug amnesty boxes at the entrances.

A spokesman said: “Illegal drug use remains a wider societal problem affecting many high-profile events and we are extremely disappointed that this type of behavior is occurring here.

“The Jockey Club operates a zero tolerance policy towards illegal substances and a number of measures have been implemented to deter and detect drug use throughout the Festival, including dog detection, bag searches, searches at all entrances and amnesty boxes.”