Cocaine mum friends

[Seymour45]

Need some advice. A good friend took cocaine in front of me at a party and now I feel I don't really want to hang out. Am I wrong and naive? Does this happen more often than not? It had me thinking - is cocaine any worse than getting pissed? Am confused...

I’d say out of the various friends, groups and colleagues I’ve associated with from my 20s to now in my 40s about 60-70% of people do coke, some might just have a line occasionally if offered it by someone else, some buy it regularly for nights out. I wouldn’t judge someone for doing it and don’t think it’s a reflection of their personality. It certainly wouldn’t stop me wanting to be friends with someone. It’s really none of my business whatever drug they choose to take. Why has it put you off them @Seymour45 ?

Also the whole alcohol is legal and drugs are illegal so one is bad and the other isn’t argument really annoys me. Alcohol has driven people to do horrendous things, it’s known to cause severe aggression in some people, women often end up putting themselves in extremely vulnerable situations due to alcohol. Whereas coke just makes you make a bit of a fool of yourself by chatting shit and thinking your the dogs bollocks. It also sobers you up and makes you much more aware of your surroundings, so it’s less risky than alcohol for women who may be in dangerous situations. Just cos one thing’s legal and the other’s illegal, doesn’t equal one being good and the other being bad.

Cocaine can cause serious health problems, addiction problems etc, anyone who thinks it’s okay is severely thick.

Office for National Statistics: In the UK, alcohol-specific causes result in approximately 9,800 deaths annually, whereas cocaine poisonings are directly implicated in roughly 1,200 to 1,300 deaths per year. This means alcohol kills about 7 to 8 times more people than fatal cocaine overdoses

if we’re looking at indirect impacts, both are horrendous. alcohol is also very directly linked to cancers, and not just of the liver.

15000 to 18000 murders across cocaine source countries and then there's the environmental damage,prostitution,cartels who will wipe out a family if they can't get the person that fucked up.
But hey you enjoy your Friday night occasional line.

My best friend’s 30 year old nephew was killed by coke that had been cut with fentanyl (several other people died using the same batch). Obviously his family were devastated.

I have certain colleagues who use coke, one lad is now taking it too far as he’s still very obviously coked up on a Monday after using all weekend. Not sure how long he will stay in his job. From being a nice person he’s becoming a complete knob tbh.

In my town coke use is very common as many people are quite affluent or aspiring to be.. it’s actually often people over 50 who use as well.

As well as my friend’s poor nephew, I’ve known people of various ages have heart attacks & strokes as a result of using, sometimes it really does just take one line. But if they survive and are ‘just’ disabled you don’t hear about that & not in the mortality statistics basically.

I am very anti coke use because of the crime that the supply chain causes here and abroad.
One of the ‘rumoured’ big suppliers in town is well known as an absolute nasty POS (also has trafficked women as prostitutes), I cannot express how unpleasant he is. He of course has everyone important in his back pocket, so he will never be successfully prosecuted for anything. I could go on.

If I had a new friend who used cocaine in front of me, I wouldn’t ditch them immediately, as anyone can be misguided; but I would be disappointed & do my best to convince them to stop using it again.

Absolutely not remotely as bad as an alcohol hangover / comedown.
It can make an alcohol hangover worse. But cocaine alone, you're generally fine the next day, maybe just a bit tired.

Alcohol causes much more widespread serious health and addiction problems than cocaine. Anyone who doesn’t know that is much thicker 😂

What are those numbers as a percentage of users? I suspect there will be fewer cocaine users, because it's illegal. Also, people may not admit to using it as readily, because it's illegal.

I have never knowingly known anyone who takes it. I am not naive enough to think that means no one I've ever known hasn't taken it at some point - I'm sure they have, I just don't know. The girls who were popping pills in my house-sharing days probably did coke too. A former colleague who died of a heart attack in his early 50s I suspect was a user. And certain other colleagues who had tendencies to be utter arseholes and known for big nights out, i am fairly sure they used. But I don't know for sure about anyone.

I'm not that keen on alcohol either, for many reasons, including having had an alcoholic mother. But it's legal, which means it's socially acceptable for most people.

I probably wouldn't choose to be close friends with someone I knew was a user, but as I say, I probably do have friends I just don't know about.

It's not compulsory to be friends with anyone. It might be difficult in some cases if you choose to drop someone, you might lose that whole social circle. But it's a choice you can make, and if it's a line you don't want to cross (or sniff), that's fine. You don't need others to decide for you.

My ds has admitted to occasionally taking it.

He lives on a very rough drug notorious estate (council) and he works full time, a lot of his friends take it recreationally on nights out.

I was quite shocked as he was so anti drugs in his early teens but he does have an addictive personality and mental health problems.

a couple of my friends also take it.

its more common than people think. no one’s going round with a sign above their heads saying I Take Cocaine. It’s the people I least expected that take it discreetly