To think people are naive re cocaine

I have DC in their 20s, both in professional jobs. DS1 tells me he doesn't know anyone in his wider circle who doesn't do cocaine. He's not interested because he's very health conscious and a bit of a hypochondriac.

Agreed.

This just about sums it up.

I think that user might be confused by women who get into a cycle of being used for drugs by men they're trying to date. The types that try and buy grams of coke to share with everyone to feel like they have real friends and then only really do a line or two. themselves. Of course they develop a toxic, damaging habit, but drugs aren't their primary motivation. It's about their low self esteem and loneliness.

Oh dear, you arent "educated about the drug" at all- it couldnt be more obvious from your posts. I get it- you love taking coke.

But your raging cognitive dissonance about it is obvious to literally everyone on this thread.

I remember Coke being about in my mid to late 20s nearly 30 years ago!!

Personally I don't do, or see people taking drugs (now). I've never tried drugs and am not interested in experimenting. I'm too old for all that.
But, they are around, even in my quiet village. Some of my friends have done coke in the past, some still do- I don't see them much- they are very different to how they used to be. If I wanted to get hold of some it would be easy.

But the ethics is a big thing. It troubles me how people go on about the environment, being vegan, health conscious, donate to children's charities etc when the human and environmental cost of drug production and trafficking is so high. It is just such a huge blind spot.

Drug takers are cunts.

they do random tests in my workplace (local government) and every workplace should do this.

@Knockonw00d
I also see a lot posters describing a change in behaviour and people suggest it could be drugs. But unless you’re doing things like heroin or spice, cocaine does not make you act in the ways people suggest.

Others have said it but it's you who is naive. It absolutely can cause personality and behaviour changes.

I do not know one person that I’ve met through going out that doesn’t do cocaine.

As others have said, it's the circles you're mixing in, latest stats are showing Powder cocaine use has remained steady in the last year for people aged 16 to 59 years (2.1%) and 16 to 24 years (3.8%), compared with year end March 2023
so while it's common, it's not the case that everyone or even most people do it. Most people still don't.

@DEAROP
The point is that you aren't going to be robbing grannies and selling yourself in the streets for cocaine. You can hold down a job and still have a raging cocaine habit. You won't be still working as a banker with a crack habit.

They might not rob their grannies but there will have been plenty who had to get money from them to pay off their debts. Also some heroin users still function and have decent jobs.

@MajesticWhine
No friends of mine take cocaine. I think it’s an age thing. Most people into their late 30s or older or with families grow out of this sort of lifestyle.

They grow out of it or they're forced to because they got in so much debt or almost lost their family or had health scares or know people who did or who even died from it.

No actually, no use is okay.

You're joking me.
I am an active member of NA/cocaine recovery. I have helped sponsor 100's of people going through recovery from cocaine and suppored their families. We have had a huge increase in family members seeking advice for their aggressive addicted loved ones, the mounting debt, the disassociation.
Maybe you should put away the books and have a look at the RL damage.

Occasional use of- okay. Parents who are doing it regularly (there was a thread yesterday about one) is absolutely a problem!
I’d do it on a night out occasionally when I was backpacking and did find I’d handle myself a lot better mixing small amounts of coke and alcohol than when I just got really drunk. But now I’m home and a parent I have absolutely zero desire to do coke again.

We..... smoke weed.

DH works in City finance - did he skip the mandatory training on anti-money laundering and proceeds of crime?

You and he are as much a part of the problem as the "massive twats" you're sneering at.

They never would in this country because drug use is so rife among all demographics. Surely the first people to be tested should be surgeons when in fact, it is typically relatively low paid jobs where you operate machinery where you can be drug tested.

I vote for companies to bring in regular drug testing.

I don't think it was very recent or relevant because she speaks with very little understanding of how it works.

On a side note, another thing that has changed is that in my youth, if you did anything other than smoke weed, you were labelled a crack head. Even if you just took ecstacy at a rave. Among my peer group, other drugs were really looked down upon. Even the "clean" ones like cocaine.

That has changed massively in my kid's generation. Even though they operate in a very similar peer group to me in terms of background and we live in the same area, they are more okay with "party drugs" than we were.

I think it must vary greatly between social circles. It certainly isn't used by anyone I socialize with. We drink and some smoke weed.
DH works in City finance, and it's supposedly everywhere there. But again, must depend who you hang around.
I don't doubt that it's more common than it used to be, but it's certainly not everywhere.
Anyone I've ever known who does use coke has been a massive twat. Correlation or causation?

Unbelievable.
It often shocks me how educated people can be really daft too.

Crikey OP. I am not aware of anyone in my social circle who takes it, although I would guess a few ppl I used to work with did. One in particular (and I heard from more than one person he used) had a vicious temper.

I’ll be honest, the husbands of my quiet friends are more boring than their wives but I do currently live somewhere small and very dull but without too many very rich people.

my husbands uni friends do a shed load of coke and are arseholes, cheat on their wives etc. We haven’t seen them for years but he still watches the group chats.

1 in 10 users will become addicted. No particular type, from a park bench to Park avenue.
"A small bag" there is the minimising of the situation.
Here's a thought, if the lad delivering your weekly bag gets caught or loses his stash, he cannot pay his dealer, and gets slashed or his family home burnt, is that okay?

Thats totally beside the point. Nobody is arguing to encourage cocaine use

I agree recreational use is a lot more common than people think. The problem is over time, it can escalate from a going out at the weekend habit to a more dependent habit and cause financial/relationship/employment problems in the long term. In my experience, people on coke are boring arseholes so I tend not to socialise with cokeheads!

It's hugely common these days. People care far more about how they look now and cocaine doesn't affect one's figure the way booze does.
When I was a teenager/ early 20s it was all about alcohol but I've heard it's all about cocaine now from many sources.

I agree. I'm in a city in a high earning profession where according to some posters it's common place. I remember conversations about it, non judgemental, no reason to lie, just curious if anyone had used it. No one, didn't even know where you'd buy it.