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?

What a bizarre thread OP!

To be very honest I have very mixed views on this..... Am certainly aware of far more people taking cocaine, and you are right many from professions where you may expect otherwise. Not really sure it is more socially acceptable. I do though think the media are largely to blame for it becoming less of a taboo:

insert celebrity with previously successful career_ red-top sting catches them out, they then do the obligatory 2 mins in rehab and shed a tear with Piers Morgan and it's all back to normal.

This I think sends out a dangerous message.

However, a few years ago when running various clubs and late-night venues I will tell you that there is no sadder sight than a group of shiny-faced, well-groomed and successful 20/30-somethings arriving for a night out to then leave hours later sweating, teeth chattering and eyes like a rabbit in headlights in the wee small hours-all in the name of a "top night out". Repeated every Thursday night in the city and weekend in the suburbs. I never witnessed violence as a result of this drug use, was just sometimes pitiful to see people reduced to quivering, overly-chatty wrecks in the name of fun.

However, I strongly agree with others on here (from first-hand experience in home and work situations) that alcohol most definitely brings out aggression and violence in people with shocking results. Our approach to alcohol in this country is very poor and the assumption that somebody drinking cider from a can in the street has more of a problem than the naice folks on their third Pinot Grigio by 7pm routinely is way off point.

Think that arguing use of Class A's has become socially acceptable is wrong OP. It may certainly be accessible and cheaper to obtain for many more these days, but really cannot see it as being viewed as acceptable. Because that would mean it carried no ramifications and it surely does.

In the nineties and noughties, cocaine and ecstasy use was quite common socially amongst my friends. We were all professionals with good jobs. It was just something we all did sometimes at parties, clubs, etc. It felt normal to us back then. Fast forward to now and the mummy friends I have made since having dc and I don't think it's that common. People certainly don't admit to it anyway. I remember telling a mum friend of mine that I had taken cocaine in the past and she looked pretty shocked. We are still friends though!

Most of my friends do drugs socially - not every weekend, just every now and again. Mainly coke or MD.

We are all childless though. I am not sure that it's the sort of thing you should do once you're a parent.

Also, with regard to previous posts, taking drugs recreationally does not mean "you don't do anything with your life".

I have friends with great careers and interesting hobbies - cyclists, photographers, runners, hikers, triathletes, historians, scientists.

There is HUGE difference to being off your face on drugs all the time, and every now and again.

I agree with Chrome100, I don't see how you could ever find the time to sleep off a hangover once you're a parent. Unless your kids have left home by which time your body won't be able to handle it anyway. That's apart from the issue of being reasonably in control of things when you have kids.

I would like to take drug users to the countries that produce their drug of choice. Maybe seeing 1st hand might give them some idea of just how the product gets to them.

Maybe the reason people slow down on their coke use when they have kids is that they because they become more sympathetic towards all the innocent victims of the drugs cartels.

If you have your own kids it's hard to think that your desire for some 'fun' is desecrating innocent families caught up in the drugs trade.

I used to associate with people who took cocaine 'socially' (ever friday/saturday night)

They were complete knobheads to be honest; pretentious, wannabe hipsters thinking they were really cool and 'open to the world and new experiences'... The kind of people that love the sound of their own voice and have a million conspiracy theories about the government and bang on about drugs being natural and good. They got even more annoying, gurn-y and generally twattish as soon as the coke came out.

I don't associate with them anymore, it isnt socially acceptable to me.

And you asked before if anybody died from 'social cocaine use'... Of course they do... Drugs are addictive.. They lead on to bigger and badder drugs. I know a lot of heroin addicts that started with cocaine.

I hate the 'drugs are cool' culture; it fucks me off because every single day I see lives ruined and wasted because of drugs and I don't not to drugs because I'm not cool or because I'm scared but because I don't want to, I choose not to.

Cote if your figure of 800,000 cocaine users is correct then that is a very small percentage of the population, which says to me that it is not socially acceptable. Legalisation to suit such a small percentage of the population makes no sense to me either.

Tbh I think the 'that line of coke you are taking has negative social responsibilities attached' is the least good way to stop someone taking it

Legalise it and the majority of the problems fade away
Sell it to over 25s
Spend the taxes on rehab programmes
Speak honestly about drugs, their addictive properties and the real risks inherent

Ronald I disagree that the legislation of cocaine would cause the problems surrounding it to 'fade away', the producers would merely set themselves up as legitimate businesses and continue to exploit the workers and tear down the rain forest and cause irrepairable damage, but with the cover of 'legality'. No doubt they would also register their businesses in a tax haven and cream off all the profit/tax and continue to fund their wealthy powerful lifestyle.

Also, if as Cote suggests such a small percentage of the population take it why is it necessary to legalise it? Why is it a good idea to encourage more people to take it because it is legal?

How do you know what would happen?
Hard to say certainly impossible to predict. The current system is bollocks that's for sure and hasn't improved anything at all for decades
Just say no....er?

If there is money to be made big business will get involved and it could improve the situation for many
I think the use and production of cocaine is pretty massive tbh and if legal they'd be all over it. Money would at least go into the areas where it is produced ( in typical Apple levels but better than the current regime )

Years ago cocaine was the drug of rich nobs. Now it is everywhere. From middle class dinner parties to scally's nights out. It has massively increased in visibility, usage and acceptability since the 80s

It is not socially acceptable in my ring of friends. I think it depends on who your friends are as to whether it is more socially acceptable.

Very curious to know if many ppl in the drugs counselling profession think that legal coke could be a fairtrade product with no human cost. I can see why ppl would like to attribute all the human cost to the illegality but I am sceptical.

Cote, I was really interested that you say I am definitely wrong that even a legal trade in coke would attract organised crime, as there is no mafia involvement in nicotine. The mafia are big in olive oil, FFs, surely they or some other organised crime would have activity in fags. Are you absolutely sure?

By the way, did you know that because of the security situation in Afghanistan there is a shortage of medical grade morphine, so apparently the fields around salisbury are groaning with opium poppies? Tis the new crop, much prettier than rapeseed and less likely to give you hayfever

this article sounds interesting...

ronald the current situation isn't great, I agree, but legalisation isn't the answer imo. If, as has been suggested, there are approx 800,000 users of cocaine in a population of 65 million why the need to legalise? Do you want more people to take it in order to maximise the tax revenue?

Just because some people choose to break the law doesn't follow that the law should be revoked.

If the current system of production and distribution makes multiple hardships worldwide
If the product is used by millions of people worldwide regardless of its legality
If our answer is say no and it will stop I think we aren't addressing the subject
If our answer is spend x more millions fighting a war against it for x more decades - it isn't working

Whilst it is a criminal production this will continue in this form. Better to accept as fact and regulate

If, as has been suggested, there are approx 800,000 users of cocaine in a population of 65 million

Good point emo I never picked up on the numbers.

I know I keep repeating the same thing but the idea that the revenue from legalized cocaine would go to pay for the health/addiction support is ludicrous. The revenue from alcohol does not pay for enough health/addiction support to meet the needs of those who have spiraled out of control so why would you assume it would for legalized drugs?

Surely less people using the drug is better than more.

Ronald - just because lots of people do it doesn't mean we should legalise it. Lots of people speed through residential streets - I don't know about you, but I don't want to see speeding legalised (or even speed limits raised). The fact is, most people don't take drugs - let's not normalise them.

The argument for legalizing recreational drugs is not the number of people already using them. It is:

1. Better control, better information, and setting an age limit around 25.

2. Eradicating criminal gangs and human misery that the illegal trade is creating

3. Respecting people's rights to make decisions concerning their own bodies

1. Wouldn't matter what the age limit was those under 25 would still do it just as those under 18 still drink alcohol.

2)There would still be an illegal trade as I doubt very much Mr D. Lord will want to give over a very large % of his takings. I also don't think he would take kindly to nice proffessional company starting up in his patch and taking all his customers. Plus it would drive the illegal trade of drugs further under ground and Mr D.Lord would be forced to sell his drugs cheaper that the companies meaning the workers would be in a worse position not better.

3. Drugs cause people to make stupid decisions that have a detrimental affect on not just the users life but the lives of those around them. I am sure a 7 yo girl will find comfort in the line "You have to respect your daddies choice to take drugs because it is his body" when she is crying at her daddies funeral. Millions are currently spent picking up the pieces caused by substance abuse. More money is spent on the rehab for a user than what the user spent on drugs.

Don't have a problem with it, but choose not to myself. I'm pretty sure I would be awful on coke.

No it is bloody not - not who I or DH mix with.

It is an illegal drug for a reason
It is addictive and it wreckes lives - what on earth is acceptable about it.

Jeez - Im waiting for sugar to be regulated never mind accepting cocaine use or weed.

What Flossy said.