Broadcasting executives addicted to cocaine are routinely praised by bosses for their “creative genius”, a former BBC producer told MPs.

Sarah Graham, who worked on children’s programmes for the corporation and took cocaine for nine years, said use of the drug remained widespread among senior media executives and taking it helped to boost their careers.

Appearing before a Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the cocaine trade, Ms Graham, 40, said that she had been offered the drug on her first day at the corporation by a Radio 5 Live presenter. “The producer and presenter took me to a Soho media watering-hole after the show. I had a few glasses of champagne,” she said. “They asked if I wanted to go to the toilet and do some cocaine. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know much beyond the hype and glamour about the drug and I said yes.”

Ms Graham, now an addiction counsellor, said that many television executives continued to use the drug beyond their 20s. But as it warped their character, and their behaviour became more erratic, they were often praised for their off-the-wall brilliance. “As your addiction progresses, certain behaviour that would not be tolerated in a normal job can be spun as part of your creative genius or extraordinary personality,” she said.

“Their off-the-wall behaviour is tolerated and people bow down to them. It’s similar with City traders whose cocaine addiction combines with a gambling addiction, causing them to take incredible risks.”

Ms Graham, who went on to use heroin and crack, said: “I worked at MTV in 1997 and there was very much a cocaine drug culture existing at that time. If you wanted to be a top director, that’s what you did. It was very easy for a young person to get pulled into that.”

She added: “Some companies I worked for were worse than others. It tended to be from the top down — if you had somebody who owned the company who was a heavy cocaine user or if the bosses used cocaine.”

Ms Graham called on the Government to provide more rehabilitation centres and said that stars caught using cocaine should have advertising contracts terminated. She said: “Certainly the pictures of Amy [Winehouse] and Pete Doherty in those car crash moments don’t make the drug look very attractive. What’s more dangerous and damaging is when you have a person who is ostensibly successful in public and is being rewarded by big business because of their celebrity status, even when they are caught taking cocaine.”

Mitch Winehouse, the singer’s father, who sought treatment for crack and heroin addiction, also gave evidence to the committee. Mr Winehouse said he had interviewed a number of families for a new documentary about drug abuse. “People are definitely committing offences so they can have a chance — and it’s only a chance — of receiving treatment,” he said. “The biggest impact on families is that there is very little help available to them, especially if their relative is a non-offending addict.

Mr Winehose said his daughter had been free from hard drugs for a year. The former cabbie said that many families found it difficult to support their relative if they had a drug problem. “The overriding message I get from most families, including my own family, is of guilt. Most families are angry at themselves but unless you are actually involved you know very little about it.”

Paul Hayes, the chief executive of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, which is part of the NHS, said waiting lists for drug treatment in England had fallen to an average of one week, while 93 per cent of people got the help they needed in three weeks — even a stay in a residential rehabilitation centre.He said: “Drug treatment in England has never been more available to members of the public who need it. We think it is important that the public knows that, if they or a family member needs help, they can get it on the NHS.”

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