Cocaine may be ubiquitous in Britain – but it’s hardly cool: in fact it’s becoming cringe | Róisín Lanigan

Gen X and millennials are still embracing the drug, with all its drink-more, work-more, pre-2008-crash associations. But this mentality is no longer in vogue

There is one thing that defines London socialising, which is noticed by tourists and visitors from across the globe. It's not the price of pints. It's not even the lack of late-night venues. It's the proliferation of gak. Londoners, famously, love coke so much that five years ago it began seeping into the River Thames, stoking fears about hyperactive eels who all want to tell you about their ideas for a new podcast. As far back as a decade ago traces were being found in the city's sewage, the cokiest greywater in all of Europe.

Despite its obvious ethical issues - violent drug deaths both in the UK and at the drug's organised-crime controlled sources - and financial ones - a gram of cocaine in the capital can cost about 100 - cocaine, long associated with the City due to long hours and finance bros, is everywhere, still. These days, it's a way to supplement rounds in pubs that would cost the guts of a gram anyway. No longer an aid to a big night out, it's a Thursday after-work thing. It's part of many parties, every festival, and every football tournament abroad - videos from the Euros attested to this - with fans cheering each other on to do bumps in Trafalgar Square, before losing in the final anyway.

Roisin Lanigan is a freelance writer and the author of I Want To Go Home But I'm Already There, to be published in March 2025

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.