AUDIO: High cocaine use in SH: An overview (1 min)
As of: January 24, 2026 1:07 p.m
Schleswig-Holstein is the German state with the highest diagnosed cocaine consumption. Figures from the Barmer Institute allow this conclusion to be drawn. Advice centers are reporting increased demand for their services.
“Snow”, “Charley” or “Coke” – harmless code words for a drug with destructive effects. Cocaine is considered to be performance-enhancing, invigorating and euphoric. But behind the white facade lie addiction, mental illness and social decline. This is exactly why experts in Schleswig-Holstein are looking at current developments with growing concern.
Hamburg and Berlin were more people being treated for cocaine abuse. | picture alliance / Geisler-Fotopress, Christoph Hardt” class=”responsive” loading=”lazy”/>Only in Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin were more people being treated for cocaine abuse.
An analysis by the Barmer Institute shows: In 2023, Schleswig-Holstein was at the top of the federal states when it comes to doctor-diagnosed cocaine abuse. Only in the city states of Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin were even more affected people treated. The evaluation is based on extrapolated health insurance data. Only people who are receiving medical treatment because of their consumption are included – according to Barmer, the actual number of users could be significantly higher.
The most coke is consumed in Kiel and Lübeck
Table of Contents
- The most coke is consumed in Kiel and Lübeck
- More cocaine use, more crime
- NDR expert: Drug investigators don’t have the market under control
- Addiction expert calls for more wastewater analysis
- The drug scene is so digitalized
- Two lines of cocaine every fifteen minutes
- “If I had continued to live my life like this, I would have died soon”
- From seeking help to helping
- Triggers for consumption are often difficult to determine
- How relatives can help
In order to make regions comparable, the institute does not work with absolute case numbers, but with quotas. What is important is not how many people are affected overall, but rather how high the proportion is in relation to the population. Using Kiel as an example, this means that around 13 out of 10,000 residents were receiving medical treatment for cocaine use in 2023. It doesn’t sound like much at first, but it’s a value almost four times higher than the national average. This puts Kiel in the sad first place in Schleswig-Holstein, followed by Lübeck and the Stormarn district, where the values are almost three times as high as the national average. The value for all of Schleswig Holstein is more than 70 percent higher.
More cocaine use, more crime
In parallel with the increasing consumption, the police are also recording a significant increase in cocaine-related crimes. According to the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), crimes have more than tripled since 2015. The LKA is reporting another significant increase for 2024. The police registered a particularly large number of cases in the independent cities of Lübeck and Kiel. When comparing the districts, Pinneberg is ahead.
NDR expert: Drug investigators don’t have the market under control
According to NDR investigative journalist Benedikt Strunz, statistics on cocaine imports into Germany must be viewed with great caution. Officially, the seizure quantities in Germany have even declined. “At the same time, we know that smugglers are using new ways and are consciously relying on smuggling routes that customs and police have not yet controlled so closely,” explains Strunz. In this respect, the question of how much cocaine ultimately ends up in Germany is very difficult to answer.
According to Strunz, one thing is certain: cocaine remains popular throughout Europe. And it has become a “people’s drug”. What can be done about it? “No drug investigator I speak to would claim that the police have this market under control. On the contrary: the cocaine trade has brought huge profits into the coffers of organized crime,” says Strunz.
Addiction expert calls for more wastewater analysis
In order to determine how big the problem really is, expert Björn Malchow believes there should be more wastewater analysis. “The breakdown products of cocaine consumption can be easily detected in wastewater,” explains the managing director of the state office for addiction issues. An NDR research had previously shown that a lot of drug residues can be found in the wastewater of northern German cities. In Neumünster and Itzehoe (Steinburg district), among others, large amounts of cocaine residues were discovered in wastewater.
The drug scene is so digitalized
The procurement route has changed significantly due to digitalization, as Strunz explains: “Cocaine – like any other drug – can now easily be ordered over the Internet.” If you would like it to be more anonymous, you can also order via the darknet, which is difficult to control.
“I also know dealers who simply give their customers business cards with a telephone number and QR code,” reports Strunz. This way you can get information about current offers and then order the drugs via “coke taxi”. The dealer then delivers the order to the customer.
Two lines of cocaine every fifteen minutes
Jules von Kehler used cocaine for the first time at the age of 15.
As sober as statistics are, they tell us nothing about the individual fates behind them. One of them is the story of Jules von Kehler from Flensburg. The 29-year-old comes from Schleswig (Schleswig-Flensburg district) and grew up in an environment where drugs were omnipresent. “It was part of everyday life for me. My inhibition threshold for drugs was therefore very low,” he remembers. To fit in, he started drinking alcohol and smoking weed at an early age.
At the age of 15, he tried cocaine for the first time: “A friend simply brought it with him and asked if I wanted to try it.” At first it was only consumed irregularly at parties – also because the drug was difficult to obtain. That changed when I was 17. “Then I took it regularly because then I had more contacts,” he says. He then consumed it every day for almost eight years. According to their own statements, at weddings it was up to nine grams a day. To put it into perspective: a “line” has around 0.3 grams. “Sometimes I drew two lines every 15 minutes,” von Kehler reveals.
“If I had continued to live my life like this, I would have died soon”
At some point he moved to Flensburg with a girlfriend at the time. Shortly afterwards they separated and he became homeless. For nine months he slept with friends or on the street. “I spent a lot of time at Südermarkt or in the Mauseloch under the railway bridge,” he says. To finance his consumption, he started dealing. During that time he not only took coke, but also morphine, for example. For a while he was spending around 3,000 euros a month just on cocaine.
One night brought the turning point. “I had a dissociative episode, they told me later. I couldn’t remember anything when I suddenly woke up in a park.” A friend then took him to Diako Hospital: “The doctors there told me that if I had landed there two days later, I might not have survived.” Long-term therapy followed, and today von Kehler lives in a sheltered facility in Flensburg with eleven roommates. “Everyone here is clean, so it’s easier not to fall back into addiction.”
From seeking help to helping
According to expert Nicolai Altmark, many people use cocaine to improve performance and manage stress.
Jules von Kehler has been drug-free for four years now. Today he is training to become an occupational therapist. “I want to use my experiences to help other people who are in a similar situation to what I was in,” he says. This goal motivates him to stay away from drugs. In the long term, he would also like to find his own apartment in Flensburg.
He was also supported on his journey by Nicolai Altmark, the head of the Flensburg Addiction Help Center. Altmark reports that the demand for advice has increased massively: “In the last five years, requests for advice have tripled. That’s more than ever before.” What is particularly noticeable is who is looking for help today. “In the past, the people who wanted advice came from a certain background. Today they are students, craftsmen or senior employees.” Most are under 45 years old.
Triggers for consumption are often difficult to determine
According to Altmark, why people start using cocaine varies greatly. “It’s much more available than it was back then, so the inhibition threshold to just try it out is lower.” In addition, the culture of celebration has changed: “Today, people consume mixed things when they celebrate.” Unlike before, the drug and alcohol scene is no longer so strictly separated.
The Barmer Institute data supports this observation. Nationwide, around 41 percent of patients treated for cocaine use also suffered from alcohol abuse. And almost half have depression as a comorbidity. It is often difficult to separate what is the cause and what is the consequence. “It’s like the chicken-and-egg problem. Some people do coke because of depression, others get depression from coke,” says Altmark.
How relatives can help
If you want to help those affected, you should proceed carefully, the addiction expert advises: “The most you can do is express your concern for the person, and then you can’t do anything more.” Too much pressure can be intimidating. It is important to give time and approach offers of help carefully – without dramatizing them.
Addicts and their families can find support, among other things:
Transparency note from the editors:
In the original version of this article we wrote that ex-cocaine user Jules von Kehler said that his parents had already taken cocaine. We deleted this sentence after the mother contacted us and denied ever having taken cocaine. She was also not aware of her husband’s cocaine use.
