It's been a hard year for Londoners: a group of students unsuccessfully fought for London to become a country in its own right post-Brexit, the average rent continued to rise due to a number of gentrification projects across the city and transport has been, occasionally, at a standstill due to intermittent Southern rail strikes.
Now, London has been dethroned as the party capital of Europe by the small Belgian city of Antwerp. London, with an estimated population of over 8,500,000, now takes less Cocaine than Antwerp, estimated population around half a million, according to recent annual research.
In the annual European drug epidemiology study, London's sewers waters were found to contain 894.9 mg of cocaine per 1,000 people while Antwerp sewers were found to contain 914.8 mg of cocaine per 1,000. London had previously been the largest consumer of cocaine in Europe since 2013.
London tops mid-week cocaine use table
London, though, still tops the table for mid-week cocaine consumption. The capital jumped from 730.mg of cocaine per 1,000 people in 2015 to 949.3 mg per 1,000 people this year. But the drop in cocaine use at the weekends means London is no longer Europe's capital of cocaine. Separate research published this year found that cocaine use has risen in households with an income over £50,000 across England and Wales.
The study does not hypothesise a cause for the dramatic rise in London's midweek cocaine use, nor does it provide a reason for Antwerp's ascent to the top of the league table.The EU's European Monitoring Centre for drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), said: "Traces of cocaine in wastewater indicate that cocaine use is highest in western and southern European cities, particularly in cities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.
The analysis points to very low to negligible cocaine use in the majority of eastern European cities."
The EMCDDA also found that the use of MDMA increased in European cities compared to 2011, which the EMCDDA suggested was due to the increased availability, its therapeutic properties and the mainstream popularity of the drug.