“Drugs are just a normal part of the London lifestyle”

[Pollstrox]

DD is single, in her early 30s and has been living in various professional house shares in London for the last 10 years or so. She’s got a fantastic job and social life; in fact (outside of Lockdown!) she’s barely ever at home. She’s often out for drinks after work during the week and the weekend will almost always consist of trips to bars and restaurants with friends accompanied by nights of heavy drinking. DD and I are very close and she chooses to share a lot of information with me about her life, which I love.

Lately she mentioned her drug use which I now find out has been a regular occurrence throughout her time living in London. She tells me that her and her friends will spend a weekend at least monthly, staying up all night using cocaine and occasionally they will have a night in using MDMA. Having met DD’s friends and housemates, I’m absolutely shocked. They are all lovely, have very successful careers (mostly in creative industries) and have clearly been raised well. I would never ever think they’d spend most weekends using drugs without a thought for the consequences. In fact, ironically DD and a number of her friends very health conscious and most are vegan!

DD is completely blasé about her habits and tells me it’s a completely normal part of the London lifestyle for single professional people. In fact, according to DD, she doesn’t know anyone else who DOESN'T partake! AIBU in thinking that this cant be true?!

Also some of the neighbours who do partake are the first to whinge about gang crime 🙄

It's rife across all major cities. The income level dictates the drug of choice.

Suspect such young middle class people would (rightly) be saying "black lives matter" and not giving a shit that the distribution of drugs puts many young people, especially young black men, at the risk of exploitation and physical harm.

See the tragedy of boys like Corey Junior Davis if young think this is rubbish: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47406770

It's very common. A lot of doctors and people in finance.

@TheVanguardSix did you grow up in London? My DH did too & his friends didn't touch them either.

We are professionals eg teachers, solicitors, doctors, accountants etc but we are not all white & growing up avoiding drugs was the best way of avoiding trouble.

Simply this: people who use cocaine are complicit in the murder/torture/rape of many innocent people who are forced into the drugs trade.
If those who partake in cocaine use must take any other substance apart from alcohol & nicotine then I suggest they grow their own weed.
Then at least one knows the provenance & can say it's grown organically!

Londoners taking illegal drugs, particularly middle classes with their cocaine are feeding the violent crime of the drug trade which leads to rampant knife crime in the city.

They're effectively killing people.

I'm London born and bred and it's completely accurate. I don't take drugs anymore but loads of my friends (mainly in really good jobs) still do.

Growing up it was rare to not partake 🤷‍♀️

It’s rife in London and seen as completely normal.

YANBU to be shocked though- I was too when I first moved to London (at 21) at how open everyone was about it. I was quite wild in my teens but even then any drug use was fairly secretive and you’d only do it with people you knew well. In my first house share (all young professionals), I was offered a line the first night I moved in!

I've read that op before. Practically word for word.

and we are not poor having all got on the ladder in our 20s due to never having to rent/parental help etc however we know the realities of drugs.

Don't get me wrong we were not angels but lots of underage clubbing & fake ids meant nightbuses late so needed to have our wits about us & then by the time we were in our 20s we were kinda over it plus garage was on its way out!

Just being on this thread makes me realise how very deeply angry the subject of drugs- particularly the normalisation of cocaine among the middle class, privileged set- makes me. Sorry, OP. I'm not taking it out on you. I promise. You are rightly concerned. If your daughter were mine, I'd keep that dialogue open and raw with honesty. On a personal level, it's bad for her neurological system, cardiovascular system, it skyrockets her risk of cancer and her risk of developing a neurological disorder later on in life. I've lost friends under the age of 40 to cancer and I have often thought it's the drugs they kept taking and the booze they kept knocking back at an age when they needed to slow that shit down to a stop. Drugs break your immune system and push your body to keep working, keep going, keep partying when it should be resting. Drugs fuck with our physical chemistry and mental health.

Don't get me started on the global-scale exploitation of humans caught up in the drug trade. And on a much smaller scale, thank you cokeheads for the tap water.

[quote Rosehip10]Suspect such young middle class people would (rightly) be saying "black lives matter" and not giving a shit that the distribution of drugs puts many young people, especially young black men, at the risk of exploitation and physical harm.

See the tragedy of boys like Corey Junior Davis if young think this is rubbish: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47406770[/quote]
Yeah BLM except for when my demand for illegal drugs further fuels a demand which leads to violent street crime and death which disproportionately affects black men and families.

Or except for when I don't give a shit about social distancing even when Covid is disproportionately killing black people, i'll still break all the rules and don't care.

Virtue signalling wankers.

It’s common amongst people of a certain age ie over 30 and in some industries is need as dirty. Younger talent often views Chemical drug use really negatively, so this is something that will hopefully be phased out when the next generation comes in.

Wow I’m really shocked reading this! I live in a rural area and I don’t know anyone who has even tried drugs 🤷🏻‍♀️

Not just London either. It was rife in Manchester too, when I was younger. Mostly people with middle class jobs - cocaine, pills, weed and alcohol. People seem to grow out of it. Although I was offered a line at a wedding recently (I’m 40).

Yeah BLM except for when my demand for illegal drugs further fuels a demand which leads to violent street crime and death which disproportionately affects black men and families.

True dat!

I lived in London for 4 years when I was in my 20s. In a good professional job. My friends and I did not do drugs. This was 20 years ago. But we weren't in finance, law, creative industries or medicine. I think maybe if you're into it you notice it more.

It's disgusting and hugely hypocritical, especially among the otherwise virtue signalling, upper middle class users.

I recognise this story. Have you posted before OP? About your daughter not wanting to "settle down"?

It depends entirely on your circle. If you socialise with a certain set of people, then of course you're going to say "everyone I know uses drugs recreationally". I lived in London for all of my 20s and knew plenty of people like that. But in my actual friendship group, none of us did.

@HoneysuckIejasmine

It's disgusting and hugely hypocritical, especially among the otherwise virtue signalling, upper middle class users.

Their excuse is often that drugs should be legalised and regulated which has merits to get it mostly away from organised and violent crime.

There's different types of drug users though. There's the layabout stoner; there's those who take a drug like Heroin to try and cope with severe trauma (most Heroin addicts suffered child abuse); then there's the social drug taker who'll snort or pop pills at parties and bars etc.

Among the last demographic you've got a large section of the virtue signalling middle class city dwellers in professional jobs who were out protesting about BLM all weekend.

OP's (new username) "DD" has aged couple years in under a month - she was 28 on may this year.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3906844-In-thinking-that-DD-should-be-settling-down-by-now

I’m surprised at people saying it’s rife in medicine. My dh is a doctor and medical researcher and does not see this among the doctors he knows, at least. What he does see is a lot of patients in their 30s having messy heart attacks because of cocaine use.
I agree it’s vile, have they not seen all the stuff about children being caught up in county lines So much cruelty.

@BubbleBathandBook

Yep, see: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3906844-In-thinking-that-DD-should-be-settling-down-by-now?pg=1

Less than a month ago "DD" "would NEVER tell me about drugs" apparently