CLOSER NEWS REPORT
As the number of over-40s being hospitalised for drug use hits record highs, Closer speaks to two women who quit drug-taking after hitting rock bottom…
On Christmas morning last year, Kathy Hall* arrived at her friend’s house armed with gifts, cheese and bottles of wine. Over the course of the day, Kathy and her friends – none of whom have children – enjoyed present-opening, playing board games and eating Christmas dinner with free-flowing wine.
FILLED WITH SHAME
Then came the final course –two bags of cocaine. Kathy, from south London, says, “My friend’s husband had bought the coke from his dealer a few days before, knowing that we’d all probably want it. For us, it was a normal way to socialise and make the fun last longer.”
Although Kathy, 47, who is single and works in recruitment, wouldn’t describe herself as an alcoholic or drug addict, she admits to regularly taking cocaine at weekends with friends, along with heavy drinking. She says, “With some friends, I could have a couple of glasses of wine and that would be it. But with other mates, after a few drinks, we’d put in a call for a couple of bags of coke. It would cost anything from £60 to £100 a gram and would arrive within an hour. More often than not, I’d end up in someone’s kitchen for several hours chatting rubbish until the next morning or afternoon until the drugs ran out.”
Last Christmas, Kathy and her friends drank and took the drugs until 4pm the next day. Kathy explains, “I got a few hours’ sleep before driving home in a terrible state. I was definitely over the drink-drive limit. I still feel ashamed that I’d put other people’s lives in danger.”
Kathy’s story isn’t an unusual one. Although people tend to associate taking illegal drugs such as cocaine with hard-partiers in their 20s, according to the Office for National Statistics, record numbers of people over 40 in England and Wales are being hospitalised for drug-use. In a decade, the number of cocaine hospitalisations has leapt five-fold – with 209 admissions for the over-40s 10 years ago, rising to 1,100.
At private residential rehab clinic Delamere in Cheshire, the average age of their female guest is 48, and the clinic has noticed a steady increase in female admissions over the last three years. This year, they made up 36 per cent of the cohort compared to 27 per cent in 2020.
The founder and Chief Executive at the clinic, Martin Preston, says, “The number of female guests here is absolutely on the rise and most of the women who come here are between the ages of 40 and 60. There’s usually a catalyst as to why their drug or alcohol dependency has spiralled. It’s very often a divorce or death of a partner or close relative. Many of these women are isolate
