A Very Greedy Drug

First Published in 1997. This book sketches the recent history of the panic over cocaine in Britain, before reporting in-depth research on more than a hundred users in Scotland. This group contained all types of users, from casual users to heavy users who had cut down without problems, to people with multiple drug problems. The book considers why some people can give up cocaine and others become addicted. It compares British users with those elsewhere in the world, showing that the effects are similar everywhere -- cocaine does not addict most of its users. The picture of drug use obtained from addicts in clinics is a distorted one. Cocaine use in Britain has caused much concern but its extent has been unknown. Users are still quite affluent, but when cocaine hits street level -- as it is predicted to do in the late 1990s -- problems are likely to increase.