Cocaine users in England are hoovering up almost £10billion-worth of the drug a year, a new study has suggested.
Home Office analysis of the amount of six narcotics detectable in the water supply suggest that the South American stimulant is by far the most-used Class A.
It estimated that between August 2024 and July 2025 cocaine with a market value of £9.8million, weighing 132,000kg or 129 tonnes, was used by people in England.
The data also showed where cocaine use was the highest, with Liverpool, Sunderland and Scotland topping the list.
In an additional worrying sign, the horse tranquiliser ketamine was the second most prevalent drug discovered by market value, with estimated use of 30,800kg worth £0.9billion.
Again, Liverpool was a hotspot of use, along with Brighton, Portsmouth, Norfolk and Bristol.
The Home Office’s Wastewater Analysis for Narcotics Detection (WAND) programme found that between 2021 and 2025, the biggest leap in drug use was MDMA, the main ingredient in ecstasy, up 232 per cent.
This was followed by ketamine (229 per cent) methamphetamine (61% per cent) and cocaine (26 per cent).
However it also found that heroin use had fallen 40 per cent in the same time period.
Wand analysed the water at 50 treatment plants in England and Scotland, allowing it for the first time to estimate drug use on a national scale.
It measures metabolites, by-products of drug use that are excreted in urine.
Hellbound and Down 