Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images
Topics: Alcohol, Health, Science, Life, Explained, Food and Drink, Mental Health
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Alcohol, Health, Science, Life, Explained, Food and Drink, Mental Health
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
An expert has issued an urgent warning over a very disturbing new substance that gets created when you mix cocaine and alcohol together.
Millie Gooch, an author and motivational speaker, shared a clip speaking at a public event on Instagram last month (13 November) where she shared an anecdote about a woman named Sophie Gradon.
Sophie was a former Love Island contestant who died age 32 by suicide in 2018, the same year Millie got sober.
Advert
An inquest into Sophie's death in 2019 found that she had alcohol and cocaine in her blood system, with Northumberland South coroner, Eric Armstrong, saying that he was 'certain she would not have acted as she did without taking alcohol and cocaine' (via the BBC).
"Sophie's toxicology report revealed that she had a blood alcohol reading of 201mg/100ml, which is about three times the legal driving limit, and she had also taken cocaine," Millie explained.
According to Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton, Sophie was two-and-a-half times the drink driving limit in addition to cocaine.
Millie continued: "So when news of Sophie's death broke, much of the narrative online focused on the mental toll that reality TV can take on its contestants.
"And while this information was crucial, equally important things were missing from the dialogue."
She then asked: "Did you know that the 24-hour period following alcohol consumption is associated with a seven-fold increase in the risk for suicidal behaviour, meaning the 24 hours after you drink, you are seven times more likely to act on suicidal thoughts?
"And when you combine alcohol with cocaine, you create a whole new substance called cocaethylene, and the risk for suicide with this is sixteen-fold."
An article in the National Library of Medicine explains: "When cocaine and ethanol are used together, a psychoactive metabolite is produced with similar pharmacological and psychoactive properties as cocaine.
"This metabolite, cocaethylene, is considered more toxic to the cardiovascular and hepatic systems than cocaine, the parent drug."
Professor of addiction psychiatry Julia Sinclair, who is chairwoman of the faculty of addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, explained to the BBC that alcohol and cocaine were very different pharmacologically.
"Alcohol is a depressant; it increases the levels of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in the brain, which is like its handbrake and makes us feel less anxious," she stated.
"You add cocaine into the mix and you have a rocket-fuelled increased impulsivity which gives people the driver to complete an act that they may not otherwise do.
"It's like crossing a road in front of a car speeding towards you."
Echoing Millie's statements, the outlet outlined that some research in the US even suggests the mixture could increase the risk of suicide by a factor of 16.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Please drink responsibly. If you want to discuss any issues relating to alcohol in confidence, contact Drinkline on 0300 123 1110, 9am–8pm weekdays and 11am–4pm weekends for advice and support.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week