How many of you have tried coke?

[Lilllypad11]

I’ve never ever been into drugs. I won’t touch them. Mainly bc I have anxiety and ocd. But I’ve been out with my mates who love to do coke when we’re out, and I always say no, but last time I was genuinely tempted to just try a little bit.

If you’ve tried it what’s your experience. Worth it or nah?

when drugs are brought up on this forum, I find it really interesting how many MNers haven’t actually tried them and yet still have a very strong opinion on how they’ll make you feel / the effect they have

Are we not allowed an opinion if we haven't tried it, then? I mean, I don't drive but I've strong opinions about people who treat red lights as if they're optional. And there's plenty of evidence about the effect of drugs on people and society at large.

You’ve exactly missed my point. I said about how they make people feel without actually having experienced them

of course - the moral issue is absolutely right and everyone has and should have an opinion on that. But my whole point was people with an opinion on how they make you feel without actually trying it

I did a fair about in my younger days. Loved it and whilst I wasn't addicted physically I wanted it more and more to enjoy a night out. Haven't touched it since the day I decided to try for children. I had some great fun but the comedown with a child wouldn't be good or fair on the family.

No, I don't think I've missed anything. My reading is that you think "you haven't tried coke = you can't have an opinion on the effects." And saying you can have an opinion on the moral part but not how it makes people feel seems slightly contradictory. If I can have an opinion on one I can have an opinion on both. Or neither.

my post was specifically about how it makes an individual feel. If you haven’t tried it, you cannot know as you haven’t experienced it

to use your car analogy:
you don’t drive, so you cannot know how it feels to drive. You can have an opinion on cars, people driving them, how others act when they drive. But you have no personal experience of driving so cannot give a view on how being the driver feels.

My husband has ADHD and took it once when he was younger. He said he had a decent night out but the hangover from it mentally was awful and his thoughts were spiralling out of control and he’ll never do it again because if that. He also said he’d probably have had just a good night without it.

Never when I was younger, but had a wild phase post-divorce and tried it as everyone else I was with that night was doing it. Felt horrific the next day and, to be honest, pretty ashamed, as I know full well it's a exploitative, deadly trade that gets it here.

@YoghurtPotWashingMachine Whether or not posters own diamonds or mobile phones is unrelated to, and doesn't excuse or negate, the level of murder, crime and general suffering involved in the manufacture and distribution of cocaine.

I think it's morally vacuous for someone take the stance "Well, other things are bad too, so..." and use that as an excuse to pursue a pointless, destructive and ILLEGAL habit. Moreover there's a BIG difference between blithely, and with full knowledge of the horrors, turning a blind eye to the fact that people died for your unnecessary, unhealthy illegal habit, and being unaware of the some of the less ethical aspects involved in the production of a legal and arguably necessary everyday item such as a mobile phone.

I should answer the question? OK, yes, I own a mobile phone and for various reasons I couldn't do without one. A bit of googling this morning has revealed some concerning points, such as forced child labour in DRC to mine for some of the metals. It's awful. I'd encourage people to investigate and educate themselves on this. Armed with this info, I'd be careful about my next phone purchase (not imminent - will be when my current phone dies or is too obsolete to function) to ensure it's an ethical and sustainable product. I should hope others would too.

I don't own any diamonds and have no interest in precious stones or jewellery. The exploitation and unethical practices involved mean I'm also unlikely to.

I don't agree with factory farming so I'm pretty much vegan though I'm not morally against eating animals per se.
I do try to be an ethical consumer, so maybe I'm allowed just a little pop at the cokeheads for their indifference to the death and suffering their habit causes? Not to mention disregard for the law.

@ParanoidGynodroid I can't be bothered reading your full post because I didn't say owning a mobile phone or diamonds excused or negated cocaine manufacture.

This is one of those topics you can't discuss on MN, so many people hearing what they want to hear. It's tedious and you can't have a proper discussion.

Hmm. I am sure that is true in many cases but I am equally sure that the opposite is sometimes true too. So many people now do recreational drugs as easily as people of my generation (50's) might have got drunk or smoked cigarettes. Drugs are pretty ubiquitous now and relatively cheap, whereas when I was a teen and young woman I'd have had to work pretty hard to hunt out drugs. They weren't brazenly out in the open like they are now.

I think the normalisation of drug taking along with the binge drinking culture that has emerged in the last couple of decades has actually created an awful lot of the mental health and anxiety problems we see now, rather than been used to self medicate for them.

People who smoke weed habitually get depressed, paranoid and lack motivation. That obviously has a very negative impact on their ability to function in work and life in general. Coke will have its own very negative effects. People's sleep patterns become disrupted, they can't concentrate, they are jittery and always either high, or on a comedown. Not to mention you'll probably end up in terrible debt if you don't have a great job and you are prioritising drugs over your other financial commitments.

One of my adult DC will tell you that smoking weed all the time in his late teens and early 20s had very negative effects on his MH. When he eventually managed to give up he had the sweats and was moody and irritable and couldn't sleep for a while, but at least his anxiety and paranoia stopped. Yet some people still insist it's harmless and non-additive.

People will tell themselves they need to drink or get high to deal with MH problems on undiagnosed neurodivergency but I wonder if it's ever occurred to them that the drink and the drugs are actually causing the problems, not alleviating them? Of course it is easier and currently very fashionable to claim ADHD or undiagnosed autism, or Bipolar disorder, but I am pretty sure that habitual drug taking is as just as likely to give you bipolar disorder, or an inability to concentrate properly, or terrible anxiety as it is to mitigate any of those things.

Didn't say you did, @YoghurtPotWashingMachine , I was addressing the general "Other things are bad" argument which you said I ought to have responded to earlier, which is why I tagged you.

My post wasn't remotely angry or unreasonable. You certainly can't have a proper discussion on MN if you ignore others' responses.

On reflection @YoghurtPotWashingMachine I should have started my post with: "I didn't answer the question earlier because..." or suchlike. Sorry I wasn't clearer.

I've read you're other posts and know you werent promoting coke or making that argument.

I have ADHD too. Had coke several times in my 20s. It just made me want to tidy up my house though so I never understood why people liked it. If I was at someone else's house I would clean their kitchen for them. I hate cleaning at the best of times so just found it a really baffling drug and a complete waste of money!

"Cocaine is nature's way of telling you that you've got too much money "

I knew of a local girl from my school days who got hooked on it, after descending into what was effectively prostitution to fund her habit and stealing off friends and family she finally committed suicide.

I think it's probably best to stay away from it.

Never tried it, as I thought I’d probably like it too much. Did a lot of cannabis when young, then Es then speed. But never coke or H. They were a different ballgame to me and one I was scared of. Reading this thread I think I made a good choice.

That’s hilarious! 😆

No diamonds, no. I have a second-hand phone that is now 5 years old, because I can't do my job without it. Are you seriously equating the ethics of owning a mobile phone, a necessity in today's workplace, with taking coke?

I took it when I was younger but the thing that really hits home now is that you are creating the drug trade and all the problems that go with it. County lines / gangs / youngsters having lives ruined.... I couldn't be part of that now

I think this is the best advice for OP -find new friends who don't use any kind of drugs 👏
OP, isn't anxiety and ocd enough for you to deal with?

What awful story...
I agree with you, is best to stay away from any kind of drugs. You never know how you'll end up after "trying" only once.

@WiseKhakiGoose

"What awful story"

It was a drawn out process as well, over 10 to 12 years, going from a "glamorous " early 20s party girl with all the very wealthy "in crowd" where she was very popular (for all the wrong reasons) to a rather sad, lonely, haggard and final existence in her early 30s where she wanted a normal life but couldn't kick the habit and had to do increasingly grim things to fund it, associating with some very scary people who were definitely not "glamorous " (at this stage she may have been on other drugs as well).

Finally being torn between wanting a normal life and her truly horrific situation she decided suicide was the only way out.

Not once; I never needed anything this strong to have a good time, I talk enough, I had no trust in what was in it, and everyone on it was always behaving like an idiot/twat.
Also you'd spend the whole evening with people trying to get some more.
Not a single reason to say yes IMO.

Urgh the sanctimonious weed smokers are the worst 😆

My friends do it too just when they go out. They seem to love it but are disappearing all the time to the toilet which can be quite boring for me. Also they can have a nose bleed and end up hiding till it stops. I'd say if you really want to try it just do a tiny amount and see how you feel. It can irritate your nose for ages after and give you full on flu symptoms with nose constantly running

I don’t disagree with any of that. Yes of course recreational drugs cause/exacerbate MH problems.

The point I was trying to make is that some people see the issue as very black and white. ‘Just say no’. A person who already has MH issues/trauma/is neurodivergent may be more susceptible to trying drugs in the first place and therefore more vulnerable to becoming dependent on them.

For most of my life, I have sought dopamine in all sorts of ways. Started with cigarettes at 14. Soon after came alcohol and weed. Later there was speed, coke and pills (and since then various other things- some more harmful than others).

I have often felt like I wanted to climb out of my own skin. I think that’s a difficult thing to explain to people who might not have experienced it but it’s something about never being at peace with yourself. Never being able to just ‘be’. Seeking to get completely obliterated so you can forget about what a crap person you are. For many years, I couldn’t just have ‘a drink’. It had to be ‘drink until you vomit/pass out’. I have no off switch. My drug of choice is ‘more’. Like I said, difficult to explain, but definitely an experience I’ve had in common with others when it’s been discussed.

Becoming easily addicted to/fixated on things can be a sign of undiagnosed ADHD. Yes it is ‘fashionable’ to diagnose oneself with neurodiversities, but it might also be the case that a lot more people are ND than previously thought.