For the first time ever, cocaine users exceed heroin clients seeking treatment at Caritas

Cocaine is becoming cheaper and in a society flush with money, has gained wider appeal, workers in the field of substance abuse report.

Long having lost its billing as the drug of the rich, a combination of factors have seen cocaine overtake heroin as the hard drug of choice.

For the first time in the history of Caritas, the Catholic organisation that runs drug rehabilitation centres, the majority of clients treated for addiction in 2018 were hooked on cocaine.

Anthony Gatt, director at Caritas, said that from the 738 people who sought help for drug addiction last year, 41% had a cocaine dependency. Another 31% of Caritas clients had a heroin dependency and 23% were habitual users of cannabis.

Gatt believes the shift is the result of cheaper cocaine, combined with a more affluent and pleasure-seeking society.

“Cocaine can be bought for €50 per gram, which is very cheap when compared to the prices charged for cocaine up to a decade ago, which put it out of reach for many people,” Gatt said.

The stimulant, glamorised in art as much as in real life, remains one of the most available forms of recreational party drugs, often laid out in lines on a surface for snorting.

It is by far a more expensive option from the destructive and deleterious addiction of heroin, which is injected or smoked by inhaling the vapour from heating heroin, what is described as “chasing the dragon” in Cantonese slang.

Gatt draws a link between the rise in cocaine use and contemporary culture.

“Contrary to heroin, which is a downer that people take to forget problems, cocaine gives the individual a high and in a more hedonistic culture it has been glamorised as a party drug,” Gatt said.

But Caritas is also witnessing a combination of cocaine and alcohol use. “We have seen people who go out bingeing on alcohol and taking a line of cocaine to spruce up and continue binging on alcohol.”

Caritas director Anthony Gatt

A marked difference between cocaine and heroin addicts is the onset of problematic addiction that pushes people to seek help.

“Unlike heroin, people with a cocaine addiction come to us later some eight to nine years after they would have started taking it habitually. With cocaine, the progression is slower,” Gatt said.

The Maltese phenomenon is no different to that in the rest of the EU. A recent report by the EU’s drugs agency, EMCDDA, showed that cocaine was the most commonly used illicit stimulant drug in the bloc, with around 2.6 million young adults (15-34 years) having used it in 2017.

The report said that around 73,000 clients entered specialised drug treatment for cocaine-related problems across the EU and for the first time, the number of ‘new’ clients requiring treatment for a cocaine problem rose by 37% between 2014 and 2017.

Cocaine seizures across Europe are also at record levels. The Maltese customs has, so far this year, seized 750kg of cocaine, worth €83.9 million at Malta Freeport. The drugs are usually carried in containers from South America, bound for destinations other than Malta.

“These are indications of where the drug trends are going. We are seeing serious damage being caused by synthetic drugs and clients sometimes are unsure of what substance they are consuming. We are concerned that drugs are becoming cheaper and stronger, factors that strengthen dependency,” Gatt said at the graduation of 16 clients from a Caritas drug rehabilitation programme last week.

Talking to MaltaToday, he said Caritas reviewed its programmes two years ago to reflect the exigencies of dealing with a changing drug addiction scenario.

The programmes were originally crafted with heroin addicts in mind because it was the prevalent problem drug at the time.

“Today we have increased sports activities because that acts as a stimulant and at San Blas we have a sporting activity every day, while in the past clients used to have a sporting activity once a week,” Gatt explained, adding that residential programmes have been reduced from nine months to six months.

But Caritas is also seeing a higher uptake of its evening programmes and outpatient services.

“These are popular with people who are more socially integrated and require help to kick their addiction but prefer not being resident,” he said.