Cocaine addict of 25 years shares images of 'lumps of flesh' that fell off
A man who was addicted to cocaine for 25 years revealed the impact it had on his body, after admitting to spending £400 a week to fuel his habit.
Ian Higginson, from Wythenshawe near Manchester, admitted to snorting about eight grams of cocaine every week, leading to his nose to practically fall off.
He was just under a year clean from the drug when he opened up about how the over two decades of drug use had 'destroyed' his nose and caused 'lumps of flesh' to fall off.
Taking to Facebook in 2019, he wrote of his health problems, revealing that his habit had ‘done me absolutely no favours at all'.
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He explained that ‘it's only once you stop that you see it for yourself.'
According to the UK Addiction Treatment Centres website, 'coke nose' - when the nose disintegrates due to excessive cocaine use - can occur due to a variety of things.
From cocaine restricting blood flow through the nasal blood vessels, to the chemical toxicity of the cocaine, using coke regularly can cause the nose to begin to break down.
This can happen in either the bridge of the nose, leading to a flat-looking nose, or in the septum area, which can then look like there is no separation between a person's nostrils.
For Higginson, it was mostly around the septum.
'My nose was destroyed'
He told the Manchester Evening News: "When I blew my nose lumps of flesh would come out.
"I was disgusting. The pain was so bad, but I'd still put coke up it to try and stop it."
He eventually checked himself into hospital in 2016, suspecting he had cancer.
He went on: "They said it was a brain infection and thought there may be cancer, but my nose was too badly destroyed to tell if it was carcinogenic or not."
After two biopsies, his nose collapsed, and Higginson was told something shocking: he had an allergy to cocaine.
But still, he continued to use it, even after a stint in rehab.
'All the money went on drugs'
Higginson's addiction really took off when he became an air steward and flew to the Caribbean, where he claims cocaine was 'everywhere', turning him into a 'complete slave to it'.
He said: “When I was in the UK, I'd spend my days off working the doors as a bouncer, earning more cash, taking cocaine while working to keep me awake.
"I was spending three, four hundred pounds a week on it, easy, sometimes even £1,000.
"I'd set up a few businesses which were successful, but all the money from them went on drugs.”
But even after taking up an office job, Higginson called himself a ‘functional user’, before getting clean in 2018.
He said: "My addiction was like a jail sentence and since I've been clean I feel like I have been released."
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Britt Jones