Many drug users shifted from using heroin to abusing cocaine as the latter became more available and cheaper, George Grech, the clinical director of the government agency Sedqa, said.

The shift was not from heroin to cannabis use as erroneously reported in Thursday’s paper.

Sedqa staff are worried since cocaine is not perceived as a dependency drug. Besides, there is no method of treatment for cocaine addiction, like there is methadone for heroin, and, therefore, overcoming the addiction takes more will power through therapy.