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?

Watching the film Maria Full of Grace has made it forever impossible for me to engage in or condone illegal drug use. The human cost is vast and horrific. Use of illegal drugs, on any level, is participating in and perpetuating that violence that destroys people's lives.

honsetly I think that adults who use drugs are very immature

this thread has made me realise i don't think i have ever had a boss without a coke problem :/ fools

It's interesting (to me anyway) that this thread has a mixture of opinions with quite a lot of people saying cocaine is OK in moderation. Whereas the thread on the use of porn was very much swayed towards it being wrong and the suffering of those involved in the industry was horrendous. The affects of drug use is horrendous - from the suppliers to the end user there is abuse and violence and manipulation and intimidation, same shit different product.

I believe the objection to porn on humanitarian grounds is based on the view that all (female) participants are unwilling and so it is akin to rape.

On the other hand, most drugs are produced more or less locally, in Europe if not in the UK. The comparison doesn't hold water beyond the singular example of cocaine.

Anyway, the Colombian cartel atrocities etc are all because of criminalization of these substances. Back when they were legal, there was no such human cost.

I'm of the opinion any adult can do what they like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.

It is possible to grow your own cannabis and not harm anyone. It is not possible to obtain cocaine where someone has not been harmed in the process.

I'm not sure about that, cote. Controlling a huge industry based on an addictive product will attract organised crime, I would think. Being illegal obviously makes it worse, but I would be unhappy about legal coke too. I think the parallel with porn is a good one, but I expect it will make many female coke users quite uneasy.

I do like the picture you draw of innocent cottage industries producing drugs du terroir, sort of appellation controlle

It is also possible to cook many of your own chemicals in your own kitchen (ketamine is particularly easy, I'm told) but not many here would try any of them even if there were no "human cost", anyway.

How naive!

As if legalizing cocaine in the UK would stop the crime cartels elsewhere! They WANT it to be illegal, they control the police and government in certain areas, if it was in their interest for it to be legalized then they could make it happen, but it serves their purposes for it to remain against the law. If it was legal it would be controlled, supply would be controlled, standards would be controlled and the profits could not be used to shore up corrupt practises throughout the world. It isnt just the Columbians that rely on drug money to keep their cartels going you know.

The only way to stop the horrendous treatment of those involved at the bottom end of the drug "food chain" is for middle class pillocks to stop assuaging their guilt with faux politicizing and to just not buy it. If no one used it there would be no market and therefore the cartels couldnt make money from it. It really is that simple.

"I'm not sure about that, cote. Controlling a huge industry based on an addictive product will attract organised crime, I would think."

Nicotine is definitely more addictive than cocaine and there is no mafia in the cigarette industry. You are demonstrably wrong on that one, I'm afraid.

"I do like the picture you draw of innocent cottage industries producing drugs du terroir, sort of appellation controlle"

Have you ever been to Amsterdam? There are indeed menus where you choose you brand of weed, and get advice on which to buy depending on the high you are looking to achieve - something energetic to make you laugh and dance, something that will make you pensive and bring you deep to better enjoy a concert the Van Gogh museum etc.

I haven't read the entire thread, but I've known cocaine addicts and they are frightening.

I also live in Mexico and hate all the death and destruction resulting in part from the government's supposed war against drugs but also because cocaine users seem to get unbelievably violent.

What is truly naive is expecting that millions of consumers around the world will join hands, sing kumbaya, and stop buying something that they find pleasurable. As if the sort of collaboration has happened anywhere in the world before.

We can't even all agree to reduce CO2 production to limit global warming, which is in everybody's interest. You think there is a chance that millions of people around the world will suddenly stop buying a substance that is useful/pleasurable to them for the benefit of some strangers on the other side of the world? Oh the irony of you calling others "naive"

I think grown ups who take cocaine are twats. I wouldn't want to spend time with them. The organised crime thing is a big problem for me. Also the attitude that the laws of the land should and can be broken for trivial self gratification is something I don't agree with.

I am middle aged, provincial and proud.

No argument/pov/research/political stance will ever convince me to change my mind about drugs. I see the affects on a daily basis and that is enough for me to hate them and detest anyone involved in drugs.

What is truly naive is expecting that millions of consumers around the world will join hands, sing kumbaya, and stop buying something that they find pleasurable. As if the sort of collaboration has happened anywhere in the world before.

I didnt say I expected it to happen, I said it would be the only way to stop the cartels. What I find disgusting is people who will only buy organic, free range, ethically sound food and clothes etc will happily stuff the single most unethical product in the world up their nose and then attempt assuage their guilt by saying it shouldnt be illegal because no one would get hurt! I wonder how many Nestlé boycotters use cocaine "socially" and fail to see the irony of their actions.

If you want to take it then take it but dont try and justify it any other way than "I want to and I dont really care about the supply chaing that gets it to me and who gets hurt along the way. I dont think about that when I am getting a buzz", because thats the truth.

All the hand wringing and self justification in the world wont change the fact that many people know how shit it is and do it anyway.

It's not more socially acceptable. It's as socially acceptable as it ever was. I.e. 'very' in certain circles, and 'not at all' in other circles.

I remember when I arrived in London in the late 90s, 16 years ago. Everyone was at it then (in certain circles), and I imagine they had been for a while. It wasn't new.

A friend of mine went back to Sydney for a holiday and reported her sister wheeling out a gram when she came round for dinner. She thought that just went to show how prevalent and socially acceptable it had become. And this was 15-odd years ago.

As I say, it's no more or less prevalent than it ever was, in certain circles.

I used to partake most weekends for a short while, but it's been years since I did. I know too much about the drug trade now to be able to take cocaine with a clear conscience.

I don't use cocaine, as I have said before.

Your anger is misplaced. If you understand that destroying drug cartels by getting millions of users around the world to quit simultaneously is impossible, you should be demanding legalization. That will quickly end the reign of drug cartels and their brutal rule, just like the mafia was out if the alcohol business once it was legal.

Legalize it, tax it, and control its supply. That is the way to go with all recreational chemicals. People are already using them and even producing them, since production/cultivation knowledge is so readily available on the internet. "War against drugs " is an ineffective joke and I would much rather see legalization and a strictly enforced age limit of 25.

Drugs are for fannies. Vote Yes!

We also need an honest and realistic policy on drugs based on reality rather than scaremongering.

Kids hear "Cocaine is terribly addictive. Don't try it or you'll be hooked" but they see people using it from time to time over long periods without being addicted, so they don't believe any other warning they might hear.

Same with MDMA (ecstasy). They hear how it can kill, but see loads of people having a brilliant time dancing all night on a single pill without so much as a hangover the next day, so they just stop listening.

We need people like David Nutt who know what they are talking about and are not afraid to talk honestly about the facts without worrying about political posturing. Only then can we hope to control the consumption of these substances.

So Cote with things how they are now, ie coke is illegal and is a product of huge and violent drug cartels, do you think it's ok for people to use coke or not?

Kids hear "Cocaine is terribly addictive. Don't try it or you'll be hooked" but they see people using it from time to time over long periods without being addicted, so they don't believe any other warning they might hear

Really Cote? ^That is rubbish. My kids now this about drugs. Drugs kill people. Drugs ruin lives. Mum picks up the pieces everyday.

If kids are exposed to people using drugs from time to time over long periods then there are serious safe guarding concerns and if you know of children that are exposed to cocaine users as the above sentence implies then you need to call SS.

That is a personal decision. I can't tell anyone what their choice must be.

Laws are made and often changed by men. When they don't make sense (like outlawing weed but freely selling tobacco products) or infringe on people's liberties (like what to put in their own bodies or whether to carry a fetus to term), people can and often do disobey those laws.

Cote

I agreed wholeheartedly with your last post
DAvid Nutt was excellent but went against govt policy of useless scaremongering

I am interested by the number of people happy to bang a drum about illegal drugs but not about alcohol or cigarettes
If these govt policies were really written to keeps society safe from itself then those two drugs would have been banned, in their entirety, many years ago

flossy

lots of people I know use cocaine occasionally/recreationally and are excellent parents

Should I inform SS? What would I say?

Cote firstly not you you but you them, whoever.

Secondly, it will never be legalized so its a moot point about what may happen if it was. Leaving aside the fact that the Columbian cartels who supply most of the worlds cocaine dont want it legalized, if you legalize cocaine you would have to legalize every other currently illegal "high" on the same basis of "safe supply" and I cant see any government okaying Heroin, can you? Incidentally, it is illegal in Columbia and until that changes the abuses of those caught up in the drugs trade either directly or indirectly will not change.

Your point about prohibition doesnt stand either, are you saying that there is no trade in fake/bootleg booze and fags? Of course there is, despite both being legal in most countries throughout the world. In the last 3 months there have been raids that uncovered massive amounts of both in my (small) town alone. The mafia didnt disappear when prohibition ended, they just changed tack and I see no reason to believe that the drug cartels would be any different, they would still use and abuse anyone in order to make their money and keep their power. So I stand by what I said that assuming legislation would take away the problem is naive.

As long as there is a market for anything there will be those who seek to circumvent the rules in whatever way they can. That wont stop if you suddenly legalize the production and supply of cocaine.