We have "normalized" cocaine consumption: Projecte Home's alert

Cocaine is consolidating itself as the "most persistent" drug, and the "normalization" of its consumption and the level of integration it has in society is alarming. This is what Projecte Home, an organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of drug addiction, confirms. This 2025, 53% of the people attended by this entity were due to cocaine addiction, the highest figure in recent years.

Since 2016, this drug has generated the most demand, according to the annual report of Projecte Home, which attended 1,787 users across its seven centers in Catalonia (Barcelona, Montgat, Montcada i Reixac, Tarragona, Tortosa, Lleida, and Girona). The normalization of cocaine stems, according to the organization itself, from a "low perception of risk" and "easy access," which allows it to spread to different age groups, professions, sexes, and social strata.

How does addiction begin? Initially, it is usually a "recreational and weekend" drug, but it later becomes "a pattern of daily and solitary consumption," which eventually leads to "serious consequences" in the family, work, and health spheres, as explained by the entity. By sex, consumption in 2025 was more frequent among men (55.4%) than among women (42%). At the same time, the analysis indicates that cocaine is "almost always" accompanied by alcohol. Precisely, the habit of drinking "maintains a very significant incidence," with 30.9% of dependency cases. In this case, women accounted for 45.5%, a habit associated with "more solitary consumption patterns and the use of legal and accessible substances." For men, it represented 27.7%.

Long-term addicts

Projecte Home Catalunya has developed a user profile of cocaine addicts, who tend to be people with an average age of 43 years who have been struggling with addiction for around two decades. 82.1% of those treated were men and 17.9% women, a "very low" female percentage that the NGO attributes to the "accessibility problems" women have with care programs.

Regarding the economic level, 37.1% of the people attended by this service had work as their main source of income, and more than 40% were in a vulnerable situation. The 2025 report also specified that in 35.7% of cases, in addition to addiction, a diagnosis of mental disorder was added. In this regard, the organization emphasizes that more than half of the cases were women, which shows "the deterioration of mental health" among the female population attended.

Projecte Home's treatment programs also attended 1,009 relatives of addicts who often "accumulate years of suffering and emotional wear and tear." This support was "clearly feminized," as two out of three were women. In terms of kinship, mothers are the largest group (32.4%), followed by siblings (18%), with women being predominant (62.1%).