Professional people and drug use

[Beebee6]

I work in banking and moved to London a year ago for a career opportunity. I’m in my early 30s and have never thought of myself as particularly naive but I’m genuinely shocked by how many of my colleagues regularly use drugs. By drugs, I'm mostly referring to cocaine. They all talk about this very openly as if it’s a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to do at the weekend, after work or when they have spare time without the kids. On the rare occasions when I have been along to social events after work, it’s always offered around and I appear to be the only one not partaking. None of these people are particularly ‘young’ either (most 30s-40s) and are all very successful professional people, who in my (perhaps judgemental) opinion, aren’t the typical drug using types. Some are single but many have families. I mentioned this to a friend of mine who seemed to think that this is now commonplace amongst many working professionals, particularly in the city. I’m curious as to whether this sort of thing really has become more normal and accepted now?

Coke though? or a bit of home grown weed ? there's a huge difference

Why do you minimise the impact of weed? Weed arguably is a much more dangerous drug regarding impact on mental health.

I'd know a fair few doctors who'd be big fans of mdma or Coke when they feel the occasion calls for it (festival, stags)

Given how open they are about it at those events I'm guessing they're lax which about it at other times

As i said up thread a few shifts in A &E would put most people off.in my (admittedly limited ) experience. Add to that the certain professional death if the trust got wind of it. I knew a few who experiemented at medical school, but practicing doctors ? No

I work for a medium sized software company. Coke is so common with the fee earners (sales team mainly) that its not unheard of to find residue on toilet cisterns in the middle of the day

I know (and I mean very personally know) bankers and barristers who take cocaine regularly - it's so accepted it's scary. I also know (again personally) people with cant afford their dirty habit - people who sniff their weekly earnings every Friday.

I'm no angel drink way too much but cocaine ruins people.

Yes it's very common nowadays.

Which doesnt make it okay. We lost a male family member last month who was a cocaine addict.

What irritates me among my "professional" group who use coke is that they also are worried about the use of plastic, buy fair trade tea/coffee and organic food.

The hypocrisy of this makes me chortle (in a sad way).

And to those who are saying it doesn't cause damage. No maybe not to the person taking it (maybe), but read about County Lines FFS.

Those of us working with the most vulnerable people and children in society can safely say it DOES cause harm.

You have got to be kidding blueskies. Sustained use of cocaine or MDMA will disturb the dopamine and serotonin levels , if your lucky you will recover when you stop taking it. Apart from which coke is nearly always taken with alcohol, which is similarly destructive to brain chemistry. Natural marijuana (not the high THC skunk) has nothing like such a dramatic effect.

I’m a lawyer - 2 out of 5 lawyers in my department are regular and semi open cocaine users.

Live in a nice area - I would say half of my street do it (witnessed at neighbourhood gatherings).

My poorest cousin is also a regular user. I doubt it’s a class thing.

It’s very common, it seems.

Sorry disturb the dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain. So life the rest of the time seems flat and boring.

fiddlesticks you say If society was going to disintegrate because people get high then it would have disintegrated a very long time ago. Look around you. The drugs trade destroys many lives through exploitation and turf wars. Society would be much better without it.

Lots of people who make ethical choices over their free range and organic eggs think nothing of mucking up some kids life to get their fix.

@JamesBlonde1- this didn't happen for me. The other party juts had to promise they did it on their own time and not with the child- and that was accepted as good enough.

Which will make you a reasonably crap parent and an appalling health care professional. IMO

hopefulhalf

Career death if professional body finds out? Well yeah same for most professions. Also, you know, the criminal aspect! Funnily enough that doesn’t seem to deter people too much though.

I think we’ll have to agree to disagree about the impact of cannabis. Personally I think it is foolish to market cannabis as totally harmless whilst maintaining an ‘all other drugs are bad m’kay and lead to instant death’ paradox.

Sorry disturb the dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain. So life the rest of the time seems flat and boring

At what levels of drug use are you talking about here?

I don’t think all the weekend warriors of old are going round in a permanently flat state. I mean, I know they aren’t.

We don't call it "skunk" or anything like that here, but where I am, you can get very good, vaporizable marijuana concentrates for about $10 per gram, which is enough to last for nearly a week week of daily, fairly frequent consumption. The concentrates are over 80% THC. It's also extremely low-odor and discreet to use them. I also smoke cannabis on the weekends. Used to smoke daily but it started hurting my throat and I don't like the smell.

I (and many people I know) use it regularly and no, people don't notice. I'm a very buttoned-up professional type with a family and extremely "Type A," and most people are surprised to discover I use cannabis at all, and would never guess I'm a daily user. I have quite conservative Christian friends who bring their kids around to my home and play happily, none the wiser about the wicked drugs I keep around the house (locked away from kids, of course).

Even my "stoner" friends have been surprised to learn I used at all. It's really a very old-fashioned idea that you can tell who's been using cannabis. Most daily users are quite comfortable with the effects and perfectly capable of conversation that doesn't even slightly involve "what if the color green YOU see isn't the same as the color green I see?!"

I work in the City in the Insurance industry and I have never seen any evidence of this.

I don’t know anyone at work who does this although I hate drugs so not sure anyone would tell me.

This is just mad to me. And I was addicted to cannabis and used it all day every day for 7 years.. people are so relaxed about what I call Serious Drugs, but I've always been scared of anything other then weed. People actually die from that shit. I've been told stories about top surgeons and consultants being bang on the cocaine because of the long hours and stress of their jobs and it just blows my mind! I scared myself with how much I prioritised weed, it bled me dry, made me skinny and gaunt, so anxious and detached from everything and put my own kids wellbeing as second to that - and cannabis isn't even supposed to be "addictive" (although I seriously disagree!) Hearing about this crap makes me feel like a strong person to be honest, I'm just grateful I was too chicken or wary to get into anything else, because it's a fucking slippery slope!

Some of the A&E doctors at my local hospital have a dealer who supplies 'marching powder' for them during night shifts.

dangerus level of shit in it due to being carried up arses

I’m not personally a cocaine user so don’t particularly have any skin in the game, but I think we need to face facts that a lot people like doing drugs, and it shouldn’t be the role of government to police what adults put in their bodies. The vast majority of social problems and harm caused by drug use is linked to criminalisation, and ultimately if people could buy it from a licensed premises then it would take the trade out of the hands of the criminals which means Jerome on the estate wouldn’t be getting knifed in disputes over drug dealing territory and the poor South American countries where cocaine is grown would be able to benefit from their greatest cash crop. It’s a win win situation, and I’d argue that anyone who opposes legislation has got as much blood on their hands as the folk that enjoy a Cheeky nose bag of a weekend.

The drugs trade destroys many lives through exploitation and turf wars. Society would be much better without it.
Hi Bagpuss,

I agree with you, but perhaps my post wasn't clear enough. I implied that society wasn't going to be significantly damaged by the direct effects of drugs on their users. The damaging consequences which you describe flow from the legal status of certain drugs, and the US-led war on drugs. And the truth (widely acknowledged by just about everyone involved) is that that policy approach has failed.

My post suggested a limited number of state-regulated drugs with different effects which might largely displace the current market in drugs, and at a stroke decimate the illegality around it, at the same time providing drug users with something to consume. Carrying on as we are and hoping to stop the harm by appealing to people not to buy drugs on ethical grounds is, to be polite, very optimistic.

Plus what sovereign said!

My son has just had to suspend d his studies due to drugs. He went to a bog standard high school and then moved to a very prestigious sixth form where he mixed with the kids of some seriously wealthy people (think footballers, barristers, actors). Then a big gang of them all went to the same uni. Drug taking was a major part of their lives by then of course ... cocaine, acid, ketamine, skunk you name it. He’s now having therapy and suffering from anxiety, depression, paranoia and thinks his life is over. Our city is awash with drugs and the middle classes are prodigious drug takers. And yes it is the same people who will lecture others about plastic bags and eating organic. Awful bunch of fucking hypocrites, the lot of them.

It’s scary how many functioning cocaine addicts there are. Hoping my dc, who has just entered a city profession, doesn’t get caught up in this. He’s managed to avoid all the drugs at school, so here’s hoping.