To think people are naive re cocaine

Exactly this.

I am aware of maybe one person that has done cocaine and they're more of a friend of a friend.

I recently found out at age 39 that all of my friends (group of 12) at uni did Cocaine throughout Uni and our 20s. They never did it with me, or in front of me, and I didn't know they were doing it. It was such a shock to hear. They said they never involved me or told me because they knew I would never have done it, and I would have judged them for it.

Of course I agree not every single individual of a given species has done it or will do it. And I appreciate that as society changes, 'acceptable' use changes. Snuff, cannabis, opium etc were all legal if we go back even to Edwardian times-if we say nobody used those things recreationally I'll eat my hat.

But my point still stands. Drugs is a part of life for many and assuming we can and will eradicate it seems ludicrous to me.

In my stripping 'career' if you can call it that I had it snorted off every inch of me by professionals, tradespeople and who knows who else.

It could be related to industry(or lack of) that's an interesting observation.

I tend to think it is more acceptable in many social circles nowadays. It's no longer a shock to figure out someone takes drugs-there's obviously a heirarchy-coke, acceptable. Heroin, 'loser drug' to be terrified of.

Alcohol becoming more expensive means a lot of young people choose 'uppers' rather than getting drunk nowadays.

I agree with your point around hypocrisy.

All of the recreational drug users I know are left-leaning, liberal type people, very into equality and workers rights - but seem never to turn their minds to where the drugs they buy are from, what’s the supply chain, who is supplying them.

Taking drugs in and of itself isn’t morally wrong - it’s no different to me having a few wines and a few cocktails. The big difference is that I know where the wine and the cocktail
ingredients come from (on the whole).

Cocaine use in your childfree twenties is very different and you are only seeing the fun edge of the sword right now.

You will find a lot of them will stop using it throughout their lives but some of those won’t.

Some can still do it ‘recreationally’ every now and then. I think every line is a risk of addiction and tipping over. Some will become addicts and will start to be badly affected, and I have seen it ruin some of my ‘coke fun’ friends lives and families. It is devastating for their partners and children.

A few snorts a week is very different to needing it to get out of bed in the morning or spending your child’s birthday money on it.

The behaviour people mention is a sign of addiction and abuse rather than just ‘using for shits and giggles’ and it grows subtly not suddenly, which is why a lot of partners miss it at first.

Also… 20’s and childfree - you do feel like shit on a Tuesday after a big weekend.. you just don’t have to deal with kids and family responsibilities aswell! So you don’t get as moody and it’s not as obvious.

And I have worked with coke fuelled bankers and they are wankers, and it is obvious, and lots of them lose their jobs when it goes too far.

Cocaine ruins peoples lives. Just very slowly and it’s rarely reversible.

I'm sure it's more common than I think it is, if only for the reason that most people presumably don't use it completely out in the open. But I'm pretty sure that most of my social circle don't use it. We're retired, don't go to clubs etc but probably drink more alcohol than those in their 20s and 30s. At that age, we were all rampant smokers - it was practically compulsory! Times change and new crazes and addictions always come along.

Just because illegal drug use has been normalized for you doesn't mean it is normal for most people. It may be more common than it was, but that's just market forces.

Taking a drug isn't just wrong because it's illegal. Never have I disliked someone more than the "ethical vegan" wearing Traidcraft jumpers who would happily buy coccaine whilst ignoring all the crime and human misery it took to get her that white powder.

Cranky by name, cranky by nature?

Now re-read what I wrote with a conversational tone and you'll see how to was actually written and intended.

I can't control how you perceive the written word. Tone doesn't translate well in flat text.

Then what is she saying.

I’m against taking drugs but I do not think employers should be testing employees for drug use. Unless they are say driving for a living then yes, absolutely fine as is alcohol testing.

I don’t think legalising drugs will help.

Too many British people don’t seem to recognise we are one country and have no control over the internal state of others, beyond whether we buy their products. We have the choice to stop buying drugs produced by violence now. We can’t regulate and stop drug cartels operating in South America or Asia. We haven’t been able to stop the Taliban. All we can do is clean up our own act, and too many people make up excuses and reasons to avoid doing that. Perhaps overpopulation doesn’t help, and being an island.

Concentrated drugs like crack cocaine and fentanyl are not readily obtainable, even accidentally obtainable, in the way fermented fruit is.

No I really don't think she is saying that at all. I think that's what some people have read into it because they overreact when it is anything to do with drugs which of course is unhelpful.

Intelligent mammals inlcuding the great apes have been poisoning themselves since the beginning of time. We seek out 'highs' and the brain experience they bring. We always have. It's going nowhere.

Some do. Some don’t. Apes have to worry about actual survival, and distant-past human use of drugs was usually linked to specific times and places as ceremonies, it wasn’t taken as recreational use commonly. I do wonder, to answer my own question, about the huge separation of people in Britain from supply chains now, starting with enclosure right down to the shift away from manufacturing. Making things is generally an expensive hobby and is seen as useless here now.

Drugs by contrast are processed and, while the opium poppy has been used by the rich for centuries, most drugs are recent introductions. Use and effects, it would seem from this thread alone, are not well understood and do seem to be variable.

Opium, cannabis, coca, mushroom are all natural. Yes, they are mostly consumed in processes forms these days, but is that very different from distilling vodka or gin or whisky?

It is in that licensed distilleries are highly regulated, so you know just what you're getting, but if drugs were regulated and produced in that way, you'd know then, too, and presumably would have a more predictable effect. So I think the issue is in the production being unregulated and drugs being cut with all sorts of other unknown stuff. (That doesn't mean I am arguing for all drugs to be legalised, I just see that side of the argument.)

My husband had this on one of his projects. Colleague was The best employee, worked for hours on end, always super alert until suddenly he wasn´t and would disappear into the toilets and come back refreshed and full of energy. Their boss had him on a pedestal and told all that they had to aspire to his commitment! He did it all high on cocaine. Hubby said thanks, no thanks, I don´t aspire to be a junkie.

I disagree I think she is trying to justify what she is doing by saying that everyone does and there are no effects of doing so at all

which just simply isn’t true on either point. I think most are aware that cocaine is the drug of choice for professionals because it does enable you to continue life. Doesn’t mean continually taking a drug that purpose is to effect the neurotransmitter in your brain isn’t going to have personality changes because it does

Anyone who takes it is reprehensible stupid and thick and as bad as the dealers themselves. Anyone who stays with their "D"H who does it is as bad (probably staying for the "six figures".) And kids involved. For Christ's sake.

No it really isnt. Mostly through practicality. Crack addicts need regular hits all day. They will also rob dealers. You DO NOT want to have a load of cocaine on you around crack heads. You barely want more crack than they want to buy.

This guy was the first dealer I knew who was killed by an addict.

These guys were doing county lines, before it was called that.

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/21986364.murder-victims-brother-admits-attack/

Intelligent mammals inlcuding the great apes have been poisoning themselves since the beginning of time. We seek out 'highs' and the brain experience they bring. We always have. It's going nowhere.

On the subject of drug testing by employers, where do you draw the line?

Single Mum smokes a joint at the weekend for insomnia and loses their job as a shop assistant, can no longer feed her family?
We'd have no society. The war on drugs has already been lost unfortunately.

And I'm speaking as someone who smoked weed now and again while younger but (unless we're including alcohol) has never done anything else.

I’ve never been convinced about the equation of drugs with alcohol. Alcohol is actually a naturally occurring substance, nor is it likely humans invented it. There was a story recently about chimps getting drunk gorging on naturally fermenting fruit. Its consumption has been part of society since forever and its effects are well known and understood. There are cultural issues at stake and it’s also well known that the British have more of a problem than the continent does on the whole.

Drugs by contrast are processed and, while the opium poppy has been used by the rich for centuries, most drugs are recent introductions. Use and effects, it would seem from this thread alone, are not well understood and do seem to be variable.

If drug use is strongly linked to Britain more than other countries perhaps what we should be asking is what it is in this country’s psyche, economic or cultural set up, that makes people so prone to admiring mindlessness and so desperate to achieve mindlessness.

It’s bloody scary that so many addicts have as much right, and probably more, to dictate the future of this country as intelligent reason does.

No I think OP's point is that the behavioural changes arent so unique and specific that people understand that they are caused by drugs. People aren't leaving their jobs and homes and giving blowjobs for a fiver for cocaine.

They might have different clientele, but it'll be the same dealers, just like Waitrose will have people who go in for their weekly shop and people who go in for an occasional treat or party food.

I think the OPs point is everyone does it so it must mean that there aren’t any effects of doing it because look most people manage to avoid having any side effects from it (addiction/personality changes) etc because otherwise everyone would be.

Anyone who thinks that it does make people more aggressive is naive because it doesn’t and how can it when everyone is doing so

in denial basically about the effects of taking drugs

Who said anything was harmless? I just said that county lines isnt about cocaine. It is about crack and heroin. It is important to distinguish between powder cocaine and crack as these are drugs with very different clientele.