My son, 23, died from cocaine addiction he developed at university. These are the hidden signs we missed. Scores of young people are secretly using cocaine to beat social anxiety – this is what EVERY parent must know before it’s too late

When Daniel Mervis succumbed to a serious, and ultimately fatal, cocaine addiction he developed while studying at St John’s College, Oxford, his grieving parents reached a surprising conclusion.

They did not, as some might have been tempted to do, accuse the college authorities of failing to take drug taking seriously. Quite the opposite.

In fact, St John’s had a strict, ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to substance abuse.

But that, says Daniel’s father, Hilton, was the problem. Along with other colleges and universities around the country, St John’s had failed to grasp the sheer scale of drug-taking among British students, he suggests, or the depth of the addiction it causes.

And he says that by believing a sweeping ban would be sufficient, the college had been unable to spot the signs of drug abuse that would eventually prove so disastrous for his son.

Instead he says there is a ‘culture of silence’ that hindered intervention.

‘It was extremely stressful because we didn’t know about Daniel’s drugs at the time,’ Hilton says today. ‘When we went up to meet them, they just said: “Oh, he’s falling behind in his studies” or “he’s behaving a bit erratically”.

‘But if they’d had proper knowledge about drugs, they should have said something, or been able to tell Daniel: “You’re suffering from addiction, you need help.”’

Daniel’s father suggests St John’s strict policy showed the college had failed to grasp the sheer scale of drug-taking among British students

With the use of illegal drugs proving ever more widespread at universities, a rising tide of serious cocaine abuse is causing particular concern.

More than a quarter of the students who take drugs are using cocaine in its powder form, according to a report this month from higher education charity Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS). According to SOS, cocaine, despite its comparative expense, is more popular among students than ketamine or MDMA and comes second only to cannabis.

This runs against the prevailing expert view that cocaine is falling out of favour with the young compared to cheaper alternatives, including ‘study drugs’ that aid concentration, such as Ritalin.

Cocaine, long established as the leading Class A drug in Britain, is today consumed in quite staggering amounts.

In April, based on analysis of chemicals in waste water, the government estimated that Britons snorted or smoked around 120 tons of the drug in a single year, more than any other illicit substance.

Compared with 2021, overall consumption has risen by 26 per cent and today the market is thought to be worth nearly £10 billion.

Dangerous at any age, cocaine poses particular risks for the young, whose brains are still developing.

Annemarie Ward from addiction charity Faces & Voices of Recovery UK, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We have absolutely seen an increase in younger people struggling with addiction over recent years, including students and graduates. What has changed is not simply the number of people presenting with problems, but the normalisation of drug use itself, particularly cocaine.’

Statistics paint only a partial picture of cocaine’s place in student life. Ward’s research suggests it has become a standard and highly effective social lubricant for many – a routine part of ‘going out’ culture for a cohort who often struggle with real-world interactions as a consequence of having been stuck at home as young teenagers during the Covid pandemic.

‘Many young people no longer view cocaine use as especially dangerous or unusual,’ Ward added. ‘It has become woven into student culture, nightlife and social status.’

It is often consumed alongside alcohol, with 87 per cent of students polled for SOS who use cocaine taking it while drinking, with ten per cent doing so weekly.

This combination creates a dangerous and intoxicating substance called ‘cocaethylene’ that is formed in the liver, increasing the risk of memory loss and permanent damage to the vital organs. It also makes the effects of the drug more potent and longer lasting.

University is often the first experience of complete independence for young people who – already hit by the modern epidemics of loneliness, academic pressure and social anxiety – appear to be particularly vulnerable.

I spoke to students around the country who told me that cocaine – also known as ‘blow’, ‘gak’, ‘chisel’, ‘snow’ or ‘sniff’ – makes them feel more confident and awake in pubs or while out clubbing. Until it doesn’t, of course.

‘By the time families or universities recognise there is a serious problem, dependency, mental health deterioration, debt, isolation and in some cases psychosis can already be well established,’ Ward explains

Daniel Mervis, a physics student from London, was just 23 when he died from an accidental overdose in 2019. ‘It’s an absolute nightmare, addiction.

‘There is nothing compared to it,’ his father told the MoS. ‘It doesn’t have to be physical addiction, cocaine particularly is not like heroin, it’s mental and psychological.’

Daniel was a competitive power lifter and physically fit in many ways so there wasn’t an obvious gradual decline, explains Hilton. ‘In hindsight there were some signs of misbehaviour and isolation but everyone around us told us we were overreacting.

‘It was only when Daniel came to us and told us he was using heavy drugs that we found out – we were utterly shocked.’

‘The last thing Daniel wanted to do was relapse,’ says his father. ‘He had a lovely life worked out for himself and plans and hopes, but if you’re truly addicted, it’s just very hard’

Annemarie Ward from addiction charity Faces & Voices of Recovery UK says the class A drug ‘has become woven into student culture, nightlife and social status’ [stock image]

By that point, Hilton believes, it was too late, Daniel was already in the depths of his addiction. The student took time out from Oxford and began a series of treatments all over the world to help recover, including travelling to Thailand, America and South Africa for help.

‘Once someone becomes addicted, you get separated from society. Not just the child but the whole family, because now you’re facing something completely unfathomable,’ Hilton says.

‘There are all these groups of people talking to each other who have children who are addicted, but they’re never sharing that with people who are on the verge of addiction or universities – it is completely segregated.’

For a period, things appeared stable. In September 2019, Daniel left Oxford and enrolled at University College London where he remained drug-free for around eight months. Then he relapsed.

On October 24 that year, Daniel went into cardiac arrest following an overdose.

According to the coroner’s report, the 23-year-old was resuscitated but later discharged himself from hospital. Tragically, the following day, he was found in the flat of a known drug dealer, and despite attempts to revive him, he died just after 4am.

‘The last thing Daniel wanted to do was relapse,’ says his father. ‘He had a lovely life worked out for himself and plans and hopes, but if you’re truly addicted, it’s just very hard.’

Safe Course – the charity Hilton founded after Daniel’s death – argues that there needs to be a student-led approach to stop the normalisation of drug use and ensure universities endorse evidence-based harm reduction policies.

‘There’s no point saying he chose it or he liked it,’ Hilton says of Daniel’s fatal addiction. ‘Yes, maybe at first he chose it, along with a lot of other students. But once you’re addicted, it’s more powerful than anything. How do you know the true scale of what’s happening if there is a denial around substance abuse at university?’

‘Under the shade of zero tolerance, drug use thrives because the two are disconnected. There’s no education, there’s no involvement, and it’s illegal – so no one’s going to report anyone. The whole ecosystem paradoxically conspires.’

Annemarie Ward agrees, adding: ‘In universities there is often a strong emphasis on mental health language, but much less confidence in talking honestly about addiction, compulsion and risk.

‘They are generally far better at discussing wellbeing than they are at recognising emerging substance dependency.’

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, cocaine deaths have been on the rise for 13 consecutive years across Britain. In 2024 there were 1,279 deaths involving cocaine, eleven times more than in 2011.

This time of year is particularly dangerous. In April, wastewater analysis by Imperial College found that traces of illicit drugs – particularly cocaine – showed clear spikes during bank holiday weekends, heatwaves and sporting events. And it turns out that the Eurovision song contest in May ranks as one of the most drug-fuelled nights of the year.

Across Europe, cocaine supply chains have expanded dramatically over the past decade.

Last year, British police forces carried out the highest number of seizures of powdered cocaine – more than 23,000 – since records began in 1973, confiscating more than 18 tons of the drug.

Yet law enforcement officials acknowledge that only a fraction is ever intercepted. ‘It’s like water,’ Dutch anti-trafficking prosecutor Martin Van Nes said recently. ‘It finds its way.’

This abundance is bringing down the price. Recent analysis of encrypted messaging sites Telegram and Signal by drugs expert Dr Josh Torrance showed that the average wholesale price of cocaine in the UK is now at around £730 to £740 per ounce of powder – a substantial reduction from four years ago, when it was £1,300 an ounce.

Dealers advertise openly across messaging apps and social media using the snowflake emoji to signify the drug

The picture is the same across Europe. In France, the price per gram has dropped by an ‘unprecedented’ 12 per cent to €58, according to 2025 data from France’s anti-narcotics office, Ofast. In the UK it hovers around £50 a gram.

Dealers advertise openly across messaging apps and social media using the snowflake emoji to signify the drug. They offer cheaper variants, too: heavily cut ‘pub grub’ – cocaine mixed with caffeine or methamphetamines – and so-called ‘pink cocaine’, a synthetic blend of ketamine, MDMA and stimulants that can contains little actual cocaine at all.

Speaking to students from around Britain, it’s clear cocaine in all its forms is ubiquitous.

Matilda, 21, who is in her final year at the University of Exeter, explains: ‘It isn’t something that is acknowledged as an issue.

‘No one minds sharing a bag and dropping an extra £50 on a night out. That’s the equivalent of too many cocktails. We all dabble in it a lot – maybe once or twice a week – but I wouldn’t say anyone has a problem. I was shocked when Lola Young admitted she did.’

Young, 25, a Grammy-winning singer from south London who went viral on TikTok with her song Messy, last year said she checked into a rehabilitation facility for a long-term cocaine addiction.

‘It’s everywhere,’ Matilda told the MoS. ‘You might share with a friend and no one would think twice at the pub or out clubbing.

‘Looking at mates who have already left university, their consumption doesn’t seem to have slowed down. Those who have found jobs now just have more money. And for the rest who are trying to get them… it’s a way of blanking out the future.’ Grace Willsher, from the drug support charity WithYou said their workers have seen an increase in ‘polydrug use’ – using many different drugs at a time – including cocaine, which students are using as a form of self-medication for mental health problems or trauma.

‘Covid had a big part to play in that we are seeing with so many young people, not just using substances to experiment, but using it as a coping strategy,’ she says.

‘They may have conditions they have disclosed to us, including anxiety or a depression diagnosis, and they’re using substances as a way of treating that for themselves.’

‘That group of young people are going into a party culture away from home, potentially trying to reinvent themselves and swallow down all that anxiety that anyone would feel going into that scene.

‘But with those traumas or mental health worries, everything is amplified. I think it is a bit of a perfect storm.’

This month, a study by University College, London found that 22 per cent of Generation Z in England – aged between 14 and 29 – report having a long-standing mental health condition, twice the rate of millennials at a similar age ten years earlier.

As Robert, 19, who is currently studying at Manchester University, puts it: ‘I turned up for freshers’ week and suddenly felt bombarded. I had to fit in, make new friends and go clubbing with thousands of other people.

‘Of course I was going to get high – and frankly the dealers sharing out their little business cards at the beginning of term or their prices on their Instagram stories are more helpful for that stress than a university counsellor would ever be. I also think it is because we have got more awkward, depressed and antisocial as an age group.’

‘It’s much more straightforward to buy a bag [of cocaine] and everyone the next day says you were on “great form” – it feels easier somehow…

‘Otherwise I would just sit in my room and game. Going out sober would be horrific, let’s face it.’

The charity SafeCourse plans to engage students to lead in a nationwide student media competition to raise awareness for the harm caused by drug use.