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.

Though drug deaths fell slightly in 2025 compared with the previous year, they “remained historically high” at double the rates of 10 years ago, with cocaine-specific deaths four times higher than a decade ago and eight times higher than in 2010.

The Guardian revealed last week that police were recording a growing number of crimes linked to cocaine , including assaults, domestic abuse and dangerous driving.

Wastewater analysis shows consumption of the class A drug is surging, becoming a more common sight in pubs, festivals and workplaces . It is linked with a rise of 10% in crime associated with cocaine since 2019.

For the first time, cocaine was the drug most involved in drug-related deaths, the figures show, amounting to 22%.…