Glasgow drug dealers 'set up home delivery' of cocaine during lockdown

Experts say cocaine use is soaring in the city as public health experts struggle with reduced resources to tackle the issue.

The Glasgow Times has also heard how:

*Glasgow's homeless population is injecting powder cocaine “to feel warm” and "powerful" while rough sleeping on the city's streets

*Cocaine use has become "normalised" in Glasgow because of its availability and affordability

*Cocaine use is now more prevalent than heroin use in Glasgow and has been the “sleeping giant” behind rising drugs deaths.

From being the preserve of middle class yuppies, cocaine use now "breaks social boundaries".

Public health expert John Campbell says so many types of people now use the drug that a "very diverse, robust and resilient" market has sprung up.

Experts say there are now four tiers of cocaine use in Glasgow: firstly, people who prepare and inject their drugs in the city centre buying small bags of cocaine between £10 and £20.

READ MORE: We tested Glasgow's public toilets for cocaine and found this

At the next level, heavily cut substance - what is known by the nickname "council cocaine" - goes for around £100 for 3g.

At the high end of the market are people paying around £100 for 1g of the highest grade of purity.

And a relatively new level has been introduced - dubbed "50/50" - where the cocaine is higher quality and worth £50 a gram.

John said the idea of cocaine as a social drug meant the pandemic's severe restrictions should have erased the market.

Instead, home delivery services sprung up around the city.

John, who has been central to many harm reduction policies rolled out in NHSGGC, said: "People order it the same way as you would get anything delivered.

"You can get your shopping delivered from your local convenience store; that never happened before Covid but there was a market for it so the convenience store responded.

"The cocaine market is no different."

Even a cursory search on social media shows how easy it is to access suppliers of cocaine in the city.

The Glasgow Times found multiple accounts on Instagram and Facebook claiming to deliver the drug to any given address in the city - day or night.

READ MORE: Glasgow's shocking drug death toll reaches new high

But Glasgow also plays host to the serious problem of people injecting powder cocaine - a phenomenon that began in the city and has now spread across Scotland.

Dr Andrew McAuley's research in 2019 into the impact of homeless people injecting powder cocaine showed a "perfect storm" had been created for the largest outbreak of HIV in the UK for 30 years.

Andrew, of Glasgow Caledonian University, said: "In Glasgow our experience is that cocaine in Glasgow is normalised now, almost as normalised as people drinking alcohol, and it's all influenced by availability and affordability.

"In the homeless population a study by a charity in the city showed this is for reasons we never would have thought of.

"It made them feel warm in the winter and more confident to defend their patches in the city centre as it gave them more bravado and strength.

"It kept them awake during the night so they don't become victims of violence.

"So we see that people aren't just using it for the pleasure effect but for the practical use - the complete opposite end of the spectrum from the glamorous end of it."

As detailed in yesterday's Glasgow Times, the number of drug deaths where cocaine is implicated have been on the increase.

READ MORE: 'I attend a funeral a week' - shocking toll of Glasgow drug deaths

Andrew said this is likely due to the increase in people injecting powder cocaine, which receives far less media attention than opioid use. 

He added: "It's not unlikely that a lot of those cocaine deaths are related to injecting.

"It has been the sleeping giant in the background but all the media attention tends to be on heroin and [benzodiazepines]."

One of the difficulties in treating cocaine dependency is that there are no chemical substitutes as there are with opioid use.

Instead, talking therapies are used - but waiting lists for counselling can be long and it can be difficult to encourage people to engage.

John predominantly works with people who prepare and inject drugs in the city centre as IEP (injection equipment provision) improvement manager on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's Pharmacy Team.

He says an important way of tackling problematic cocaine use is early intervention and he would like to see GPs and debt councillors better equipped to spot the issue.

Only a small proportion of people who use cocaine recreationally will go on to develop problems.

But John adds: "What we have here now is the size of the population that is using cocaine is quite concerning - so even if a small percentage of that population goes on to develop problems it is by its nature a larger group."

John's team carried out risk assessments in Glasgow city centre in 2021 and 22 with people preparing and injecting street drugs.

They assessed 831 individuals in the city centre and 539 of them were injecting powder cocaine.

Some 118 were also smoking crack cocaine.

The numbers showed, as Andrew also detailed, that the number of people injecting heroin is falling while the number injecting cocaine has increased significantly.

John said: "This is in part due to the very well organised drug market and the purity of cocaine making it far more viable to turn into product for smoking it."

Chief inspector Anton Stephenson, of Police Scotland, said the force was aware of the "various tactics, mechanisms and platforms" used to distribute drugs.

He said officers were working to make Scotland a "hostile environment" for those selling illicit substances.

Andrew said services have also struggled to keep pace with the change in drug use from heroin to injecting powder cocaine.

He added: "The services are still pretty much lacking in that department and that's indicative of the wider stripping of resources over the past decade.

"If the services had been resourced adequately then this is something they could have been working on in the background but they have had their assets stripped away from them."

The largest population of people taking cocaine remains recreational drug users who are snorting the drug while also drinking alcohol.

This causes the liver to produce a chemical called cocaethylene, which causes a euphoric effect and it also prolongs that euphoric effect in the system.

John said: "That is something we are also seeing - wide-scale the mix of cocaine and alcohol.

"But we're living through an era now where there has never been a wider range of drugs available.

"Those drugs have never been easier to get. They have never been stronger.

"And, most importantly, they have never been cheaper.

"And cocaine fits right across all of those."