Cocaine overtakes heroin as leading cause of drug deaths in England and Wales

Charities say government ‘must act now’ with cocaine-specific deaths eight times higher than in 2010

Cocaine has overtaken heroin as the biggest cause of drug deaths in England and Wales, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.

The government “must act now to reverse this deadly trend”, charities have said, with 1,233 deaths caused by cocaine last year.