STOCKHOLM, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Cocaine use is increasing sharply in Sweden and more are dying because of the drug, Swedish News SVT reported on Thursday.
"Cocaine has increased at least fourfold," Robert Kronstrand, toxicologist at the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine, told SVT.
Cocaine has become cheaper, cleaner and more common according to police and customs authorities, who are seizing the highly addictive drug more often.
Customs seizures are now between 250 and 350 per year, a significant jump from the less than 100 seizures each year prior to 2012. In 2018, Swedish customs seized over 485 kilos of cocaine.
In 2018, Swedish police made over 3,700 seizures of cocaine. Prior to 2012, annual seizures stood at less than 1,000.
A collaboration of Swedish newspapers has mapped cocaine use across Sweden. The investigation showed an increase in the number of people testing positive for cocaine in connection with small drug offenses.
For several years, cannabis and amphetamines dominated the results of these tests. In 2011, cocaine accounted for just over five percent of the positive drug tests. in 2018, this proportion had jumped to over 21 percent -- one-fifth of all cases.
Although improvements in blood testing technologies since 2011 may partly explain the increase in positive tests, Kronstrad does not believe this accounts for the sharp jump.
"The increased number of positive tests for cocaine relative to other drugs...is not due to the police changing the tests as such or in what way the tests are done. We see the results as an important indicator of an increased spread of cocaine in society," Stewe Alm, expert and analyst with the police at the National Operations Department intelligence unit (NOA), told SVT.
Over the same time period, the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine has seen a tenfold increase in the presence of cocaine in autopsies, from 11 cases in 2011 to 104 cases in 2018.
Of the 104 autopsies last year where cocaine was present, cocaine was judged to be the cause of death in 20 cases, either alone or in combination with other substances. Previously, cocaine was found to be the cause of death in one case per year on average. This sharp increase triggered an investigation into cocaine-related deaths.
One surprising insight from the investigation is that situational cocaine use appears to have changed. Previously, cocaine-related deaths all occurred in connection with parties. In contrast, almost everyone who died from a cocaine overdose last year was found in their homes.
"This is a different scenario than we have seen before," said Kronstad. "This suggests that the use of cocaine has shifted from the party scene to this more common addict."
