Cocaine is still widely used among City workers following the credit crunch, it has emerged.
Leading doctors involved in the treatment of drug-abusing professionals told the Financial Times that the number of bankers coming to him for treatment had risen over the past three years, despite rising unemployment and lower wages.
Neil Brenner, medical director of Priory psychiatric hospital in north London, said: “I still think this is a real problem in the City.”
Brenner told MPs on the parliamentary home affairs committee on Tuesday that people working in financial services were more likely to use cocaine than other workers.
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“They often have high-pressure jobs, and will start using it not so much as a reward system but as a way to keep themselves going,” he said.
One million people are estimated to have taken the drug in the UK in the past year. About 12,000 people are being treated for their use of powdered cocaine.
