The Home Office has admitted that the street price of both cocaine and heroin has fallen by nearly half in the last ten years, making the most dangerous illegal drugs cheaper than they have ever been.
Based on reports from police forces, the Home Office said that cocaine is now being sold for as little as £20 a gram in some parts of the country.
The most common price for the drug is £40 per gram. Home Office figures for 1998 show the average price was £77.
A gram of heroin can now be bought for as little as £25, with the average price somewhere between £40 and £50 per gram. In 1998, the average was £74.
The Home Office figures are based on data collected from police forces and the Serious Organised Crime Agency.
According to DrugScope, a charity that provides research and advice on drugs policy, gram of cocaine can make between 10 and 20 lines for snorting, depending on its strength.
That means a line of cocaine can cost as little as £1, with an average price per line of between £2 and £4.
The average price of a pint of lager is around £2.75, although some pub chains have reacted to the credit crunch by cutting the price of a pint as low as 99p. A glass of wine typically costs £3.50.
The figures were uncovered by the Tories, who said they proved that Labour had failed to stem the flow of Class A drugs into the UK.
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