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?

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

Lol, It sounds so simple

I don't think those 'naughty' drug cartels would be too compliant. 'C'mon Señor DrugBaron, now that you are busy filling out your tax forms you won't have time to do any murdering'.

We have to deal with the world as it exists. It is not realistic to legalise drugs. A bit of de decriminalisation might be possible but a world wide legal drug trade is impossible.

Iloveturnips - What do you think happened to the Mafia's involvement in alcohol trade once Prohibition ended?

When a substance is no longer illegal, legitimate corporations move in to make money out of it and the involvement of organised crime ends, simply because there is no more money to be made out of it. Consumers would rather buy from regulated establishments where they can trust the product and the era of backstreet deals with creepy dealers simply ends.

I dislike drugs. I hate that some users are too ignorant to know about the horrors that have taken place to get their drugs, i hate that normally principled people who use are too selfish in this instance, and i hate that there are some who just dont care full stop.

It is more acceptable to decline drugs at my age but when i was younger there was an immense pressure amongst peers. So much so that i just think people are sheep for doing it. I was disappointed to find that dp had been an occasional user before we met because to me, it meant he was weak and was not the person i thought he was. I dont see him this way now as it was so long ago but its how i feel about anyone who i believe to be a good person and takes drugs.

Flossy - You sound like a surgeon who spends all his time fixing damaged fanjos and so says women should never have vaginal births & opt for elective c-sections every time.

I understand that you see people with serious drug issues on a regular basis but those are a very small minority of the millions who take these substances recreationally.

Everything you can say about hard drugs can be said about alcohol, in worse terms in most cases. And yet alcohol is legal. We can decide when, where, and how much of it we will consume. Yes, it is addictive and a few people do get dependent on it, which wrecks their lives and causes a 7-year-old girl to cry at her daddy's funeral but that is not an argument to ban it for the rest of us.

I want all these substances to be controlled and regulated. That happens through legalisation and state control. Currently, what we have is a void that is filled by criminal gangs and a woeful lack of correct information.

Maybe people's right to take cocaine should be respected, their right to do what they want to their bodies etc

but

It is true that using drugs like cocaine can have a dramatic effect on your health immediately and through long term use, just like lots of things. It can also have an effect on your relationships and work life.

Many people do have a problem with their loved ones using cocaine, even occasionally, because even irregular use carries the risk of death. Just as the partner of a motorcyclist or someone who drives for a living might be worried about them when they go out to work, so might the partner of a cocaine user every time he/she uses Cocaine.

"It is true that using drugs like cocaine can have a dramatic effect on your health immediately and through long term use, just like lots of things. It can also have an effect on your relationships and work life."

All that is true about alcohol. So? We trust people to consume alcohol with moderation. The same can and should be done with other recreational substances.

"Many people do have a problem with their loved ones using cocaine, even occasionally, because even irregular use carries the risk of death."

Out of an estimated 813,000 cocaine users in the UK (2009 numbers), how many die prematurely and due to cocaine per year? That 'risk of death' is very close to zero and would be even lower when it is legalised, since there would be no more accidental overdose from an unusually pure batch.

"Just as the partner of a motorcyclist or someone who drives for a living might be worried about them when they go out to work..."

And yet motorcycling is legal. So is skiing, bungee jumping, paragliding and myriad other activities that are deemed 'risky' by many.

Cote. Prohibition ended in 1933 Things have changed a bit since then.

It is simply not realistic to legalise hard drugs. It won't happen and it can't happen. Comparing the perils of drug use with alcohol use is interesting but ultimately the current situation is that alcohol is legal and drugs are not.

People who use cocaine fund some of the most depraved and violent criminals in the world. That is the situation as it is today.

People are welcome to campaign for legalising drugs if they want but in the mean time they have to accept that they are funding the worst possible type of criminal. All the justification in the world won't change that simple fact.

Do you think I should stop worrying about my loved one dying from the cocaine he uses then Cote?

Maybe, if it were legal and socially acceptable, I could talk about it openly in front of his mother and my mother and that would stop me feeling so dreadfully anxious about him every single time he used it. maybe then I would not be the only one wishing he could get help to live a healthier life.

I guess my issue is that because it is a secret that i have to bear all the time I am unable to get support.

No, I hate being around people who are high. Taking drugs is not a "social" activity IMO. It's about the drug taker enjoying the sensation of being high and it makes them much worse company. Can't stand the smell of weed either, or cigarette smoke so I've probably self-selected friends who don't do these things.

The other thing that honestly annoys me about weed is that advocates bang on about how much less harmful it is than alcohol etc... and how it's impossible to get truly addicted blah, blah, blah. I actually know people who have had their marriage break up because the DH went from "socially" smoking to spending every second he wasn't working shut in the bedroom smoking. It totally changed his character, he became moody and angry and it killed his marriage. It might well be less harmful than alcohol but it can still be very harmful and I wish more people would acknowledge that.

I'm similar to you OP. I'd say about a third of my friends use coke regularly, a third (incl DP) do it on "special occasions" and the final third (incl me) don't touch it. My friends are 20s, 30s and 40s, range of professions.

In my workplace over half the people I work with use it regularly, many to excess. A few always in and out of rehab. I work in a "typical" industry for it tho.

I don't have strong feelings about it.

I know this is a zombie thread, but I must say I'm really surprised how judgemental some folks on MN are about drug use. There's a difference between use and abuse in all drugs, and if we are going to talk about which drugs are most likely to lead to abuse then as some posters have commented above, alcohol and nicotine are among the worst, although I will admit that cocaine is disconcertingly moreish.

It is a human impulse to experiment with altered states and drug use has been going on since pre-history. Coke has some advantages as a drug in the modern age - it keeps you awake after a busy week at work, it makes you feel more confident (sometimes obnoxiously so). Consumption doesn't lead to violence or blackouts in the same way too much booze can and I'd be very interested to know how many cocaine-related fatalities can be attributed to its illegal status and resulting impure quality.

The issue is not about what drugs you choose to take, it's about how you respond to those drugs and whether you can control your consumption of them. This will vary by individual, but most addicts are using drugs to self-medicate for some untreated mental illness. They shouldn't be criminalised, they should be helped (and incidentally the most damaging/damaged addicts I have come across are alcoholics). Equally we should be wary of concluding that most people are junkies as a result of occasional weekend experimentation. They are looking for a release in much the same way most of you are when you reach for another glass of wine on a Saturday evening.

Most of my social group take coke and MDMA socially. Not every weekend by any means, but semi regularly. I take it maybe a few times a year when in the mood.

We are in our twenties and thirties and are teachers, academics, designers, supermarket staff - all jobs really. Although admittedly not parents.

I think it's fine. It's not excessive and hurts no one.

I don't use. Tried it once, was underwhelmed and since then, have watched too many documentaries and read too many books about the drug industry and other crimes that the income from it helps fuel, to think that it harms no one.

Vicious circle including sex trafficking and illegal gun trade, not something I can put my head in the sand on.

Wow. I don't know anyone who does really. One who does weed and might and one who used to when younger. I can't imagine having a social circle where its common!

I wonder if we attract people like us or what it is. Certainly none of the teachers I know (a lot) do.

I think its totally unacceptable, I hate it.

I know people whose husbands do it on nights out and its just stupid IMO.

I'm the same with weed - don't have any time for it.

As someone who works with offenders, I beg to differ with the idea that cocaine doesn't lead to violence.

I've not read the whole thread, but my personal opinion on social cocaine use is that it's pathetic. That goes for other drugs too. It makes you a boring, tedious person to be around and just makes me think you have no personality.

I've done it in the past but would never do anything like that now I have a child. I've done my experimenting now. Good quality cocaine is really expensive though so many people can't actually afford it. It's a problem if they choose it over other things.

Well maybe I am a prude ( and 'middle aged') but if there is a law against it there is a reason why ... I do not approve and i wouldn't be comfortable being in the company of those that do partake. What they do to their bodies has nothing to do with me either !

My opinion is I would never do it.
I HATE being around people who have done it (it totally changes people's personalities and turns them into complete arses). No one in my close social circle does it.

But it is rife, especially amongst the young uns today. Each to their own I say. Just not for me.

I should add. I hear it's bloody expensive! I have far better things to spend my money on!

I despise it and I am someone who used it for several years before having my children

I know how it made me feel and I would never want to feel like that again, I also wouldn't want anyone with that don't care attitude around my DC

Hence their dad and I separated

Back in September last year, when this thread was new, the OP asked whether anyone knew anyone who had actually died from taking a few lines of cocaine on a recreational basis.

I can't say I do (then again I don't know for certain whether anyone I know has tried it). One thing I can be sure of, though, is that I don't and never will know of anyone who actually died from not taking cocaine.

Hurts no one? You clearly know fuck all about the production and supply of drugs Chrome

I've known plenty of people over the years who regularly took drugs of various kinds. They've all been phased out. It's not something I want any association with and wouldn't expose my family to. There's also the fact that coke heads and stoners are the most tedious people on the planet.

I know someone who very nearly died from taking cocaine. He had a stroke and it was definitely the coke that caused it.
He is now disabled in a wheelchair in his late 30s.

I think people who use drugs are scum. It seems like a lot of people on this thread will be offended by that and I don't care.