Cocaine addicts have warned of the devastation a super-strength strain of the drug is causing across Scotland.

This week Scotland was named top of a global league table of cocaine abuse as the results of the 2018 Global Drugs Survey were released.

STV News has spoken to two recovering addicts about how the class-A substance affected their lives.

Lee, whose name has been changed at his request, started taking the drug in 2006. It led to a decade-long battle with addiction.

"I remember taking my first line in my friend's house in the east end of Glasgow and it changed everything.

"Cocaine became a big part of my life, I needed it to function."

Very quickly after starting his cocaine habit, the 47-year-old experienced severe health problems.

"I tried pink champagne cocaine, which my dealer said was stronger than the normal 'council' stuff, and I instantly took a heart attack.

"I used to say it was a 'slight heart attack'. But it is still a heart attack.

"I was admitted to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and they basically said to me, you're going to end up going out here in a box."

But despite the warnings, the taxi driver suffered a second heart attack a short time later in 2006. Lee said his life "had spiralled out of control."

The following year he lost his house as he paid for his heavy cocaine use before he was hit with another hammer blow in 2008.

"I was diagnosed with neck cancer. There was a surgeon wanting to save my life with a scalpel.

"Before my operation I was out of control. I took a line of cocaine in the hospital that morning.

"I just had total disregard for my own life and total disregard for the surgeon wanting to save my life."

He says the death of his parents when he was in his mid 20s and early 30s "destroyed" him, which in turn fuelled his drug abuse.

His cocaine addiction entered a new level in 2014 when he was introduced to a new strain of the illicit substance.

"My dealer called it Gucci, but it is also known as prop or proper cocaine.

"Forget about the heart attacks, forget about the neck cancer - this stuff seemed to take control of my life from the head upwards.

"My attitude was 'I'm invincible'."

At the lowest point of his addiction in 2016, Lee eventually sought help. He checked in to Abbeycare Rehabilitation Clinic in Lanarkshire.

Speaking to STV News at the centre, he says: "I was spiritually beat, I was mentally beat and I was physically beat.

"I just wanted to die. But for the first time in my life I actually asked for proper help."

Although his journey to recovery has not been an easy one. After an initial stint in rehab and three months of sobriety, he relapsed.

"In here (rehab) one of the things I was told was, 'Don't go in here (points to his head) alone, you'll get mugged'.

"I didn't follow that. I thought to myself I could get a wee half gram and I'd be in charge. It led to ten months of relapse."

He returned to Abbeycare last April and has been clean since.

Once he completed his stay at the clinic, he joined a fellowship of Cocaine Anonymous, where he got a sponsor. Like many addicts in recovery, he swears by the 12 step programme, adopted from Alcoholic Anonymous.

"That first line that I took in the east end of Glasgow took me to a ten-year addiction.

"Two heart attacks. Neck cancer. Lost my house. I should be dead. Honestly, I should be dead.

"Thank God I'm not dead and it's down to the 12 step programme."

Step eight is to "make a list of all persons harmed and make amends to them all".

To fulfil this Lee contacted the surgeon who removed the tumour from his neck to apologise for his cocaine use before he went under the knife.

He said: "Cocaine will strip you of absolutely everything. It'll give you heart attacks, it will take you to the grave.

"But there is help out there. You just need to ask and to surrender to your addiction. This place saved my life."

Looking back, Robert (not his real name) realised his cocaine addiction had got out of control when he started lying and hiding it from those closest to him.

"It got to the point where you could put my children in front of me and I would push them to the side to take drugs.

"When you're a drug addict you're spinning all these plates. The web of lies you create is just expansive.

"And when one plate falls, everything comes crashing down."

The construction industry worker started taking the occasional line of cocaine with work colleagues in the pub on a Friday night.

"Eventually it became a Friday and a Saturday night. Before long it would continue into a Sunday as well.

"And then it got to the stage where a Monday wasn't looking bearable anymore without cocaine either."

At the height of his addiction, Robert said he was taking around 4g of cocaine a day.

He describes being introduced to 'prop' or proper cocaine - a higher purity brand of the drug - as being a "gamechanger".

"I knew from the first time I tried it, that this was the only drug I wanted to take for the rest of my life."

Robert said he had four dealers he could get cocaine from in twenty minutes or less, at any time.

The 30-year-old's habit began to take over the rest of his life - his relationship, family and two young children.

"I lost my house. I lost my job. My partner left me and I wasn't allowed to see my kids anymore.

"I was getting chased by a lot of people - not very nice people, who I owed money to for drugs.

"My life was just not worth living as far as I was concerned."

It all came to a head for Robert in late December 2015.

"It was around Christmas time, I wasn't allowed to see my kids, I allowed anywhere near my family home.

"I was staying with my mum and dad. Life was at a rock bottom for me - I had hit my rock bottom.

"I thought dying would be a better solution for my kids because all I was doing was hurting them.

"So I decided I would go to a house for a week, take all the drugs I could find, and then kill myself.

"But then, I ran out of cigarettes."

While returning to his mum and dad's house to steal a packet of cigarettes, Robert collapsed in the driveway, where his family came to his aid.

Soon afterwards he was checked into Abbeycare, where he says he was "hungry" for sobriety.

"We come into recovery broken, desperate. We're told to grab this with the desperation of a drowning man."

Again, Robert places huge significance on the 12 step programme in turning his life around.

"We're told in (rehab) that all we need to do is follow 12 simple steps to get a life beyond our wildest dreams.

"But you'll be saying, I could just do five or I could just do six. That's the stubbornness of an addict.

"You need to do all 12. It is all in or nothing here."

He continues to be involved with the Cocaine Anonymous fellowship and says that seeing others coming back from the brink is "one of the best things you can ever see."

"Going from - no job, no house, wasn't allowed to see my kids, wasn't allowed to see my partner.

"I'm getting married in three weeks to that woman. I'm in a loving home with my kids. And I'm back working in the family business."

He continues: "If anyone is sitting watching this (STV's report) and going, 'I think I might have a problem', but it seems too hard, I would encourage them to come along to a meeting (of Cocaine Anonymous).

"It saved my life."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this report, you can find more information on help and support at Cocaine Anonymous.