It is a white powder that keeps night owls and exhausted workers awake.
Cocaine is however very dangerous and, without substitute products, doctors find themselves very powerless to treat addictions to this drug, admits Professor Amine Benyamina, head of the psychiatry-addictology department at the Paul-Brousse hospital in Villejuif (Val -de-Marne).
Have you noticed an increase in consultations for cocaine addiction?
AMINE BENYAMINA.
Right now, it's almost one out of two patients!
The demand is so great that now all the addictologists in my department receive cocaine addicts for consultation.
This phenomenon is amazing.
What is going on ?
Is this an effect of Covid?
For years, we have seen an increase in consumption, but I would say that there has been an obvious magnifying effect in recent months.
We are facing a cocaine epidemic.
Who consumes it?
Everyone !
In the 1980s, this drug was reserved for an elite, the audiovisual press, business leaders.
Today, there is no longer any social determinism.
He is a business school student, a young employee of an advertising box, journalists, a lot, caregivers, too.
Kids use it from time to time and cocaine even circulates in high schools.
In consultation, the youngest patients are 16 to 17 years old.
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How to explain this epidemic?
Cocaine has followed the natural fate of a drug.
First, it circulates in confidential circles, reserved for an elite, because of its high price.
Then it is produced in large quantities to meet demand, and to sell it, it invests in different environments, the price drops, as a result, everyone consumes it.
Today, it is offered on every street corner.
In addition to its distribution, cocaine is purer, its quality is "better", it is consumed more, the effects are greater.
This is why the drug currently circulating is more dangerous.
What are the risks ?
The risk is cardiovascular, neurological, cardiac arrest, ENT sphere.
It is a highly addictive drug that affects mood.
It's a plane crash.
Once the effect is gone, the landing is difficult.
When you find yourself like a depressed and stunted animal, you take it back.
What also worries me is that there is no treatment.
For heroin, we have substitute products.
For cocaine, nothing.
As a result, we rebuild what is broken: we treat psychiatric illnesses, heart problems, we repair nasal septums.
We are helpless.
Despite all our warnings, we still think that cocaine is not dangerous.