Warning of extra heart dangers from mixing cocaine and alcohol

Drug addiction clinics say they are becoming increasingly concerned by the health risks associated with the chemical – the only known example of the body forming a third drug following the ingestion of two others. For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is also blamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge in social problems. But because so little is known about the drug, few experts can agree on the nature of the threat to users, and indeed society as a whole.

Many who consider themselves social users – for whom a line or two of cocaine coupled with a few drinks in a bar or a club is a weekly or monthly event – do not consider the health implications of their drug taking. "I am not sure I have ever taken coke when I haven't been drinking alcohol," one 30-year-old television producer who has been taking the drug socially for the past seven years said yesterday. "It allows you to drink more, so if I am feeling a little too drunk I might take a line as a sharpener. It makes you feel a bit more sober."

Increasing cocaine use among the young may explain heightened concerns about the effects of cocaethylene. Last year's British Crime Survey revealed that there had been a 25% increase in the number of 16- to 24-year-olds taking the drug compared with the previous year. The number of people under 25 who have sought help for cocaine abuse has doubled in the past four years.