Saw evidence of drug taking

[Sheknowsyouknowaye]

I've name changed for this, but I'm a regular poster and have been on here for years.

Last night at a Christmas do I saw evidence of drug taking, or rather supply by one person to a couple of people who each then promptly went to the loo. I'm not naive about the reach of drugs in society, but I was shocked to see this in this setting with these people. These are people with young families who I've known for a few years. I'm now wondering what the hell to do. One of those involved is probably a dealer who ostensibly has a professional job.

Alcohol pickles your liver and contributes to many cancers. Sugar the drug of choice for many and has a serious negative impact. Then of course there is smoking. All legal.

It wouldn't bother me personally but you clearly have a huge issue with it that will be clearly evident if you meet them again at this hobby. I would bow out gracefully and say nothing. You have no evidence and even if you did the Police would not care.

It really depends on the context. I don’t really want to be friends with drug takers so I wouldn’t hang out with them socially. If this was the leader of the hobby I’d probably find another group. If it wasn’t and I felt like the leader didn’t know and might care, I might tell them about it if I thought a group member was dealing rather than just giving drugs to their friends. I probably wouldn’t report to the police because I doubt they’d do anything

We spend literal billions - globally it’s over 100 billion, every single year on the war on drugs, that no government is winning - not in the UK, not anywhere in the world. And this war will be never be one. The illegal drugs trade is horrific and insidious, but legalising at least some drugs, if not all, and taxing legal drug manufacturers and usage will ultimately be of more effective benefit than anything else. Alcohol usage and addiction kills more people, in this country, than any other drug, and it is a drug. And yet it’s an acceptable addiction and mind altering substance, simply because the government has made it legal.

The illegal drug trade is awful, and addiction is horrendous, for sure. But alcohol is the biggest killer in this country, and causes more addiction, and any subsequent fall out from that addiction, than any other drug out there. And yet the only true difference between illicit drugs and alcohol is that the latter is legal.

Would you work with functioning alcoholics? Even regular drinkers, Those are people who also support a way of making money for big corporations (albeit 'legally') and causing untold misery to alcoholics and their family/colleagues etc.
In london it's quite common to see suited and booted types having a spliff on the way to work in the morning

Happens at a lot of Christmas parties in my industry.

Not my bag but I don't get involved.

Considering that every second thread seems to be about risk/safeguarding/exploitation/grooming/abuse/county lines concerns (often where there isnt), and yet on every thread about drug taking people are just shrugging their shoulders, its ok apparently, its about the same as driving a diesel car or taking foreign holidays!

And no, legalisation wouldnt solve the problems of addiction or misuse because if its regulated and you cant get it legally because you're being monitored over your usage, well guess what, you'll get it illegally and all the crime that comes with that, you'll get harder and harder strains that you cant get legally, and just like alcohol, cigarettes and one might argue sugar, people will get ill from over consumption, just like they do now.

Every time someone says 'its because its illegal' - no its because people are breaking the law. Why not legalise murder and abuse then? As long as its regulated and taxes taken, its ok isnt it?

What a bizarre world MN land is.

A glass of wine every evening means you are a raging alcoholic, yet it is totally fine and very normal to do class A drugs

Thank you for the work you do @Alwaysoneoddsock

Welcome to the real world where a hell of a lot of people do drugs. Mothers, fathers, lawyers, bankers, doctors, police, teachers, your neighbours etc etc

So that makes it OK then @Hyperion100?

Luckily, not everyone is as "cool" as you or thinks that by normalising an illegal practice that has negative implications is OK.

All this whataboutery either is not relevant IMO.

So many "cool" mumsnetters posting today

Can you please explain this post?

I'm going to find another group and have already taken steps to do so. I've been in the current one for over five years. The leader is involved from what I saw last night. I'm disappointed to say the least.

I do find MN a bit upside down at times.

Here we all seem to be advocating turning a blind eye to drug taking yet if the OP had accidently not paid for something at the supermarket or had something delivered twice and not returned one of the items, she'd have been shot down.

I find the moral stance on MN bizarre sometimes

FWIW I wouldn't be reporting the incident the OP mentions and nor would I be going out of my way to return something Amazon delivered to be in error. I'm morally defunct 😂

OP I wouldn't report it but I would distance myself from the people. I feel like people who do a lot of coke lose empathy because of it and those aren't my kind of people anyway. Sadly it's much more common than you would think.

I find the moral stance on MN bizarre sometimes

👋

I find it difficult to imagine the police would have much interest in a report - presumably with no evidence - of someone doing a line of coke at a party either.

Only if you snort it and snort a lot of it. Alcohol killed about 2.6 million people worldwide in 2019. More than 7 million people die each year as a result of tobacco use. Caffeine addiction is rife! What's the difference?

I never understand the “let’s legalise drugs” argument, as a way of reducing crime. Yes, of course it would reduce crime. Why not make murder legal too, that would reduce the crime figures. And let’s make it legal to break into someone’s house and take their stuff. The convictions for burglary would plummet it is was legalised!

Also, saying alcohol is worse - well so what? We already have alcohol, that particular Pandora’s box is already open. But do we really want to have more legal drugs around that people that take when they’re driving, flying a plane, teaching kids, performing heart surgery? Since cannabis was decriminalised the smell of weed is almost constant it town centres, and it goes without saying that there are more people wandering around not thinking clearly than there used to be. How will our lives be improved by everyone walking around high on coke?!

@FjordPrefect just a few differences
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/stimulants/cocaine/risks-effects-dangers

You're right, the list of long term effects of alcohol misuse are much more extensive Alcohol misuse - Risks - NHS