“Don’t do this, you don’t need to do this, why are you doing this?” These were the words I heard coming from the cubicle next to me, followed by the sound of snorting. I wasn’t in a glistening London superclub, or at a dingy east London warehouse rave. I was at a friend’s birthday party, in a countryside village hall.

Surprised? Perhaps. The truth is that where once cocaine was the preserve of wealthy party-goers, today it's permeated more corners of society, as likely to be found in community halls and middle-England dinner parties as London nightclubs. According to a report released towards the end of last year, the number of those taking cocaine is at its highest in a decade: an estimated 875,000 people in England and Wales aged 16 to 59 used powder cocaine were found to have used the drug in the last 12 months. That's around 2.6 per cent of the country.

It’s widely available (in some cities it takes less time to order and receive than a takeaway), decreasing in value, and increasingly viewed as a social norm. I've heard cocaine referred to as an alternative to alcohol, and shrugged off as something taken “only once a month or so”.