Berlin - one of the world’s party capitals - has been found to have high cocaine residue in its water. Consumption of MDMA and crystal meth is also increasing among the city's partygoers and residents.
Newcomers to the Berlin party scene may be taken aback when it comes to how brazenly Berliners snort their mysterious white powders in the city’s nightclubs. What could that possibly be? Well, an EU-wide study of wastewater in multiple European cities has revealed Berliners drug of choice: cocaine.
More cocaine is taken in Berlin than anywhere else in the federal republic, and consumption is on the rise in the German city. In the past five years, koksen (taking cocaine) has become 58 percent more popular, according to an analysis of the city’s water. MDMA and, worryingly, crystal meth are also becoming more popular among Berlin partygoers.
The wastewater of 100 German cities was analysed in the study. After the capital, Dortmund and Munich were found to have the biggest population of snorters. In fourth place was not the banking capital of Frankfurt but, surprisingly, Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt.
Though Berliners love to powder their noses, inhabitants of Antwerp, Istanbul, Prague, Riga, Barcelona and Milan are in the habit of doing it even more regularly. After a stable period between 2011 and 2015, “2016 marked a turning point” the report writes, after which cocaine consumption has increased each year in the majority of cities.
In other European countries, MDMA supersedes cocaine as the favourite upper. The water in Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal told the tale of a wild, you’re-all-so-amazing-I-love-you-all-so-much night out. In comparison to the rest of Germany however, Berlin also topped the charts when it came to MDMA consumption, with 48 milligrams consumed per 1.000 inhabitants every day.
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