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Now widely affordable, cocaine has soared in popularity among the Ibiza set with more than three-quarters saying they have taken the drug, compared with only half last year. In contrast, there has only been a small percentage rise in the number of users of ecstasy, which once dominated the club scene.
The cost of cocaine has nearly halved over the past decade, which has also given rise to an alarming trend in bingeing on the drug. Nearly one in 10 people in their twenties who go to clubs admit to taking two grams in a session – the equivalent of 40 lines.These figures are based on a survey of more than 2,000 regular club-goers across the country, ranging from students to civil servants, carried out by the magazine Mixmag, seen as the clubbers’ Bible.They demonstrate that the drug is no longer used just by overpaid footballers and celebrities, but now touches every section of UK society. An investigation by The Independent on Sunday has found that dealers are openly selling it almost anywhere in London, from pubs to restaurant toilets.London is now the cocaine capital of the world, according to experts. A UN report revealed last week that one in 50 people have used cocaine in Britain – a higher figure than anywhere else in the world, including countries such as the US.There is huge concern among ministers and teachers about teenagers becoming hooked on the drug. In one case, four teenage girls were expelled from a school in West Sussex for snorting the drug in the toilets before lessons.

Police gave two a warning after being alerted by staff at Holy Trinity School in Gossops Green, Crawley.In response to the explosion in cocaine use, Scotland Yard has taken the unprecedented step of using undercover officers to pose as drug suppliers in a bid to target recreational users.Clubs, keen to avoid getting labelled as magnets for drug users, have introduced special amnesty bins in a bid to encourage people to hand over their drugs, without fear of police action, before a night out.Nick Stevenson from Mixmag said that the fact cocaine was almost half the price it was nearly a decade ago was a major factor in its popularity among people, law-abiding in every other aspect of their lives.”This not some dirty subculture. Our readers are everyone who likes music, from students to civil servants,” he said.”There is no longer the stigma there might have been with the drug and the price means it’s not just the preserve of rock stars.”Drugs education charities are warning that urgent action is needed so that recreational users are made aware of the dangers. Cocaine is a class A drug that can cause anxiety, a rise in blood pressure and heart problems, as well as long-term addiction.Tony D’Agostino, from the group Conference on Crack and Cocaine (Coca), said one alarming trend was for people to convert cocaine into crack using baking powder, a process known as “washing up”. “Cocaine is now literally everywhere and more needs to be done so that users can get support,” he said.The Mixmag survey, regarded as a reliable indicator of drug trends by police and lawyers, also found that ketamine and Viagra were increasing in popularity.

More than a third of young people said they had used ketamine in the past month and nearly a quarter had used Viagra as a stimulant.COKE UK750,000 PEOPLE IN the United Kingdom are estimated to use cocaine annually, according to Home Office figures.£30 IS THE average price for a gram of cocaine on the street. That’s down £30 in five years, according to a survey by dance music magazine Mixmag.100 PEOPLE DIE in Britain every year as a direct result of cocaine use.£200bn IS THE estimated annual value of the world market for cocaine.25% OF HEART attacks among those aged between 18 and 45 in the UK are attributed to the use of cocaine.20,000 TONS OF cocaine were seized by UK Customs officers during 2004.20 LINES of cocaine are what users will “chop” from each gram. A third of users will go through a gram in one session, according to the Mixmag survey.. City traders are braced for shocking revelations in a ground-breaking test case that will portray the world of high-finance as a environment rife with homophobia. In a £5m compensation claim, a former employee of the global banking giant HSBC will tell the first tribunal of its kind tomorrow that he was sacked simply for being gay. Peter Lewis, 43, the bank’s global head of equities trading, was fired in February 2005 after allegations of “gross personal misconduct”. His lawyer, Alison Downie of solicitors Bindman and Partners, said he “would not have been dismissed but for his sexual orientation”.
The case will be the first City claim brought to tribunal under new legislation that extends sexual discrimination rules to cover gays and lesbians.A spokesman for HSBC said the bank “utterly rejects” Mr Lewis’s allegations, but gay activists say the 10-day hearings are likely to cast new light on the casual homophobia that is deeply rooted in corporate life.

The activist Peter Tatchell says gay employees and women are still not accepted or respected by the “macho culture” of the financial world. “Business and sport are two of the last bastions of homophobia.” He says many prominent business people who are gay cannot come out, and that speaks volumes about the ongoing prejudice that blights the corporate world.Alan Wardle, of the gay campaigning group Stonewall, says: “A lot of City institutions will be watching nervously because of the size of the damages claim,” he says. “Organisations realise they’re open to discrimination claims if they don’t get their houses in order.”But the tribunal will hear HSBC say Mr Lewis was sacked because he sexually harassed another male employee. Pierre Goad, an HSBC spokesman, said Mr Lewis was dismissed only after a lengthy investigation and disciplinary hearing. “[He] was treated in the same way as any employee facing a complaint of sexual harassment by another member of staff,” he says. “We believe in doing what is right and not what is expedient, and our sexual harassment policy applies to all staff.”In February 2005, a former Deutsche Bank executive became the first City employee to test the new legislation when he filed a claim against his erstwhile employer That case was settled before reaching a tribunal.