Switzerland’s urban areas have been declared at the top of the league of cocaine consumption, claims the findings of the study that was published on August 6th in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Swiss cities are hot spots for cocaine consumption, says the report. The experts have thoroughly checked the samples of waste water through European-wide comparative studies in which they founded acute traces of the drug.

They insisted that the drug usage increases to almost double during music festivals. According to them, the daily average of the drug, this is approx 1.5g of cocaine per 1,000 people, increases by almost 2-4 percent during the peak periods in Switzerland.

Statements enlightening deeply upon the issue have come from Eawag too, Switzerland’s aquatic research office. They talked about the earlier studies, which too confirmed some similar statistics of finding cocaine traces in effluent. The research was run over Bern, Geneva, Lucerne and Zurich in 2009.

Regarding the earlier findings, Mr. Christoph Ort of the Department of Urban Water Management at Eawag, said in 2011 that “The amounts of cocaine in the effluent were in the same range as those of European cities with the highest consumption.”

He added that the same amounts increase during weekends and at special events like the Zurich Street Parade.