Cocaine is making its way into the British water supply

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last updated 8 January 2015

British scientists working to see what pharmaceutical compounds are appearing in purified water discovered trace amounts of cocaine, The Independent reports.

Researchers from the Drinking Water Inspectorate found benzoylecgonine, which is the metabolized form of cocaine after passing through the body. According to DrugScope, close to 700,000 people between the ages of 16 to 59 are believed to take cocaine in Britain every year, while about 180,000 are dependent users of crack cocaine. "We have the near highest level of cocaine use in western Europe," Steve Rolles of the drug policy think tank Transform told The Sunday Times. "It has also been getting cheaper and cheaper at the same time as its use has been going up."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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