The keyword search does not establish that cocaine caused an offence. Most offences mentioning the drug in 2025 were drug offences, while 18% were classified as violent crimes.
The rate of recorded offences mentioning cocaine rose by about 10% between 2019 and 2025, a Guardian investigation found. The figures track references to the drug in police notes, not offences proven to have been caused by cocaine.
| Year | Offences per 100,000 people |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 57.7 |
| 2025 | 63.4 |
Police recorded at least 29,922 offences mentioning cocaine in 2025. Most were drug offences, but 18% were classified as violent crimes, including stalking and harassment and one murder case.
The investigation used freedom-of-information requests to ask all 45 UK police forces for crimes mentioning the word cocaine. Thirty-nine supplied data, but not every force provided figures for every year or a breakdown by offence type. London’s Metropolitan Police supplied no data.
The figures came from keyword searches of police summary notes. A record could qualify because a witness said someone was known to use cocaine, even if the drug was only incidental to the offence. Conversely, searches could miss records where cocaine was misspelled or mentioned elsewhere in the notes.
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Separate Home Office figures show that nearly six in 10 police drug tests on people arrested on suspicion of domestic abuse were positive for cocaine between July 2025 and June 2026. Those results are not representative of all domestic abuse suspects: some tests were carried out only after police already suspected drug use. A positive test does not establish that cocaine caused the alleged abuse.
Harry Sumnall, a professor in substance use at Liverpool John Moores University, said scientific reviews had found no strong evidence that cocaine directly induces violent behaviour. He said perpetrators and survivors described cocaine intoxication escalating loss of control and jealousy, making existing abuse more frequent and severe. He also cautioned that a cocaine mention in a crime record did not prove the drug caused the offence.
The rise in recorded mentions comes alongside a Home Office estimate that cocaine use at sites across England has increased by 26% since 2021. That consumption estimate is separate from the police-record analysis.
Paul Court, a deputy chief constable and deputy drugs lead for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said demand for illegal drugs sustained a criminal market built on violence, exploitation and intimidation. He said enforcement alone was not enough and called for prevention, reduced demand and access to treatment and support.
Figures through May led the investigation to project about 64 recorded offences mentioning cocaine per 100,000 people for 2026. That remains a full-year projection, rather than a completed annual count.
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