To ask what are your opinions on social cocaine use?

[sshroom]

I am finding that it is becoming more acceptable to use cocaine socially.

Friends and people that I know take it at weekends, at parties, bars or clubs and sometimes on a night in with friends and a bottle of wine.

These people are teachers, sahms, childcare workers, administrators, financial advisors and social workers so a real mix.

Is it becoming more socially acceptable? Would you have a problem if your friend did it occasionally?

RedTooth - I would also like to know what "natural highs" people are referring to on this thread.

I've used cocaine socially. When I was at a naice co-ed private school I'd sniff it with the boys, when I was at uni I'd do it every other weekend and when I moved to London to work in hedge funds I did it twice a week. It was everywhere. I haven't used it for seven years,a only because I got married and TTC, then had two DDs. I prefer wine these days but if I were offered a line on a night out I'd probably take it. I feel bad about the cocaine trail but that's it . I definitely think it's more acceptable than ever.

Drugs are for fannies!

I would assume those who have purchased iphones haven't thought that hard about the slave labour conditions in the Chinese factories where the suicide rate is sky high, nor those that shop in Primark thought about those children working in sweatshops in Bangladesh

That is a spurious argument - drugs destroy far more communities than Primark, and support crime to a magnitude that cheap labour doesn't. There is also an alternative - but as far as I'm aware there isn't a Fair Trade drug option.

I'm really surprised that using a drug like cocaine is such a big thing with people who should really know better.

I thought everyone grew out of that shit at university?

It doesn't really other me what other people do tbh but I do wish that if people have got to take drugs they would take drugs which make people animated and nice (MDMA) as opposed to self obsessed, paranoid and aggressive (cocaine & cannabis)

Drugs use IS the norm in many circles. Of my friends I'd estimate 40% take recreational drug now and 90% have in the past. I don't take drugs now but omg I did when I was younger. We've all got decent jobs and normal lives.

And conversely, it's NOT the norm in many, many circles.....

I don't think any drugs, cocaine-included, are okay to use. The one exception is cannabis, I don't mind people using it, but recreational drugs are completely unnecessary, in my mind.

Agree SirChenjin - I don't know anyone in my (fairly wide) circle, who takes 'recreational drugs' . I am not naive enough to think that there may be a few who do so discreetly but I have never, ever heard of it.

Numanoid - Why do you feel cannabis is OK to use but other recreational drugs are not?

I used to have a couple of lines most weekends, socially, it was fun. We were intense, doubtless tedious, we laughed a lot, we all kept fit, worked hard at responsible jobs in schools, charities, public sector.

No wild incidents, no ruined lives etc

Then I read an article in the Guardian about female drug mules and that was that. Never touched another Controlled Substance unless I knew it was home grown

And now. I just don't.

Drug use is for losers as far as I'm concerned. It benefits no one except for criminals.

I've never really been into drugs, I tried coke and speed once or twice but was a bit unimpressed. I do like a puff on a joint once in a while though.

I know a fair amount of people who do drugs at the weekend, as far as I can tell it doesn't negatively on their lives. Of course there are a few exceptions to this. Excessive coke use turns people into loudmouthed wankers. On the flip side I know someone who is a much nicer person to be around as he smokes a bit of weed at the weekends. His natural tendency is to be quite tense and hot headed, this takes the edge off that.

It'd always been acceptable in certain circles. I arfed at a dinner party where the host lamented about fair trade and how tat was all she'd buy then banged out a line of Columbia's finest. Oh the irony.

Well it clearly doesn't benefit the user, other user otherwise they wouldn't use it.

Enhancing enjoyment of life by taking a substance doesn't make a person a loser.

What makes people a loser is calling people names.

Nicotine is a drug

Caffeine is a drugs

Alcohol is a drug and the one which has ruined far more people than any of the rest put together.

My ex took coke whilst at Uni, she used it socially. She ended up with drug induced schizophrenia and killed herself at 26.

So no, the use if cocaine is abhorrent to me.

My from the end of first sentence appears to have got fucked and gone home.

I think drugs are disgusting and I think less of people who take them.

I was pretty sure that I mainly knew no one who took them or had taken them in the past but a conversation among friends revealed different. Nearly everyone had and most of them were intelligent and sensible people. Not that you have to be thick and stupid to take drugs but personally I think the people that take them are stupid. I want no part in it and I wouldn't be around those that did. I certainly would struggle greatly too support anyone who made such stupid choices. And yes it is a choice.

Numanoid - Why do you feel cannabis is OK to use but other recreational drugs are not?

Because from what I see, cannabis doesn't have the same dangerous effects as other drugs. I know the scare stories of psychosis and extreme paranoia, but I've yet to meet anyone who has experienced that. I know it happens, but it isn't very common. It would be hard, if not impossible, to die from cannabis use - the main risk is the tobacco if you're smoking it.

Other recreational drugs have risks which really concern me. Cocaine is highly addictive, MDMA can kill you the first, third, or hundredth time you take it depending on whether you take a dodgy pill or not, and LSD-induced hallucinations can cause you to, albeit accidentally, seriously harm or kill yourself.

Most people I know who have taken anything stronger than cannabis has said it's not worth it.

It's no more socially acceptable than it was 15 years ago, it's just cheaper aka cut with loads of shit which perhaps makes it more available to a bigger audience.

I've done it on occasion in the past, I stopped after I ended up in hospital thinking I was dying.

You get a great feeling like you're the bees knees, for about three seconds, and it allows you to drink loads, however in the process you become a tedious, pompous, paranoid twat with the worst ever hangovers/comedowns.

The worst thing about being friends with coke takers is that many find it hard to have a "straight" night out. They'll often be the first to leave or they'll find someone with some coke and bugger off. It's also very cliquey.

It's a nasty drug with a nasty industry behind it.

I know some very high up professionals who do it, including my usually lovely 40 something ex boss, pretty much every Tuesday she would become a psycho and be irrationally horrible to her employees.

Oh and some of the biggest nights out I had were in rural Devon funnily enough.

As someone who used to socially 'enjoy' a line or joint I would never now do either, I have kids now, I have responsibilities and anything that jeopardises my family isn't worth it. If I went to Amsterdam I would probably enjoy the cafés tho as obviously it's not illegal over there for starters.

I do think it's more socially accepted. Ten years ago if I where in the toilets and heard someone sniffing and blowing their nose I'd think they had a cold, having been there, I know that chances are it's someone doing coke in the toilet cubicle now.

It's talked about so much more openly now I know several people who smoke weed or use coke recreationally and I don't judge it's their lives. If it effected their home lives or if they had kids I would try and deter them.

I think it depends on your social circle OP. Mines poison of choice is alcohol, no one does coke or any other drugs. The few I know who do are relatives to friends, two I couldn't care less about- they are adults who do it at home, their body and choice. I don't like it but that's why I don't do it. The third is irresponsible, my friend, his Dcousin shopped him to the police because he drove while on it. That's socially, morally and legally unacceptable.

I suppose one problem with coke as well is it could actually be anything or cut with anything. It's not a medicine and like anything unregulated could contain anything from talc to rat poison.

I know too many people who ended up on heroine to even contemplate using coke.

I like my nose.

IMHO you are an idiot to even think about take ng it.

Numanoid two of my four flatmates at uni got cannabis related psychological disorders. Do you know anyone that died taking MDMA or is being treated for coke addiction?

The worst thing about cannabis though is the general malaise, demotivation, anti-social behaviour it can cause through regular use. I smoked a lot for a while and regret it so much more than any of my other "harder" drug use.