Miller and colleagues at the Scottish Crime & Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) reckon the average purity of Scottish street level cocaine is now only 5%.
Seizures of kilo bricks – which have still to be bagged up for street sale – with just 1% of the drug among the benzocaine are not uncommon. This compares with average purity levels of 25% in England – although there, too, gangsters have cottoned on to the profits to be made by wholesale adulteration of the product.