Drugs are so widely available they are as easy to buy as pizzas, reveals Government review

The easy availability of high quality drugs like cocaine has created a ‘perfect storm,’ the head of a Government review has warned

Illegal drugs are so widely available that they are as easy to order as a takeaway pizza, the head of a Government review has warned.

Some three million people took illegal drugs in England and Wales last year at a cost of £19 billion to society through crime, violence and ill health, said Dame Carol Black, a leading medic commissioned by the Home Office to review the country’s £9.6 billion drugs market.

“To me, having done this work, it feels like a perfect storm. We have an abundant supply coming into our country from around the world more than ever before. It’s purer, it’s more available. You can buy whichever drug you want almost anywhere,” she said. 

“It wouldn’t be too far to say that it’s almost - for some drugs - as easy as getting your pizza.”

The rise has been partly fuelled by middle class users of cocaine where the review said four in ten (37 per cent) of the one million taking the drug earned more than £40,000 a year.

They consumed nearly £2 billion of cocaine last year, up 25 per cent in five years, with young white men under 30 blamed by the review for the surge. Cocaine accounted for a fifth of the total £9.6 billion drugs market.