Levels of Professionals who regularly take A-class drugs e.g. Heroin and Cocaine

[Tigerzmum]

I read it on one of the threads in Mumsnet, some months back, that drug taking like Heroin and Cocaine were prevalent amongst professionals; In fact, in conversation with 2 friends recently I was informed that I was not socially aware if this was new to me!

@taraRoo

It's everywhere. A give away is when someone over 25 says they were out drinking until 6am. You can't stay up that long ... good chance it's cocaine. My husband has lots of friends that do it regularly. I think it's hanging on to their youth or some attempt at being edgy. I think it's a bit sad. At 40 you should know better.

What on earth are you talking about? I'm the wrong side of 30 and I've stayed up all night before (although not on a night out).

You might be bloody tired come the morning but the fact someone is awake all night isn't an indication of drug use.

Coke use is very common. It's actually a lot cheaper now than it used to be - when I was a teen back in early to mid 80s it cost around £50-60 per gram, and it's not much more now, so relatively much cheaper.

I am a “professional” and have never met anyone that has taken or admitted to taking heroin. Cocaine, that’s a different story. It’s quite prevalent among the stay at home mum brigade in the local prep. The Friday afternoon play date that turns into more than a play date.

@fishonabicycle

Coke use is very common. It's actually a lot cheaper now than it used to be - when I was a teen back in early to mid 80s it cost around £50-60 per gram, and it's not much more now, so relatively much cheaper.

Hahaha maybe the cut stuff but the really decent stuff is £90/g these days

I have worked in various professions mentioned here my whole career and never heard of any class A drug being taken or hinted at beyond the age of 30.
Lots of heavy drinking though..
I suspect it's one of those urban myths.

Meh, I'm 39 and out of practice at drinking but wouldn't need coke to keep me up all night if I was in the mood.

In my experience loads of young professionals- under 35 take cocaine, as do plenty of non professionals as well- depends what you mean by professional but I see plenty of builders, hairdressers, call centre workers etc also arrested for possession of cocaine. Very few professional people use heroin, although some doctors will have an opioid addiction. Heroin is a dirty drug and all the nasty stuff associated with injection etc means it is less a recreational drug than cocaine which can be easily sniffed off a toilet cistern in a nightclub.

Yep. You are socially unaware. The old thread a few months ago told you so. And friends have now confirmed this.

I would have thought cocaine is more prevalent amongst professionals. Heroin is more of a "poor man's" drug.

I suspect that people who take drugs tend to hang out together and assume 'everyone' does it. It's probably concentrated in certain professions.

At work (pharmaceuticals) we have regular random drug testing, if you had a positive result you would lose your job so I doubt it's common, I've only heard of the odd job applicant failing a drugs test. And, being involved in the manufacture of medicines and knowing all the safety tests they have to have there is no way I'd want to buy some street drug that is cut with God knows what and is probably loaded with endotoxin.

its huge amongst professionals in the city. This is nothing new. Cocaine I mean. Im not sure heroin is

@taraRoo

It's everywhere. A give away is when someone over 25 says they were out drinking until 6am. You can't stay up that long ... good chance it's cocaine. My husband has lots of friends that do it regularly. I think it's hanging on to their youth or some attempt at being edgy. I think it's a bit sad. At 40 you should know better.

I can stay up that long and don’t take coke.

@taraRoo

It's everywhere. A give away is when someone over 25 says they were out drinking until 6am. You can't stay up that long ... good chance it's cocaine. My husband has lots of friends that do it regularly. I think it's hanging on to their youth or some attempt at being edgy. I think it's a bit sad. At 40 you should know better.

I regularly stayed out all night past the age of 25, I wasn’t doing cocaine (or other illegal drugs), I just paid for it on Sunday morning.

Never heard this with heroin. But with cocaine, and possibly other stimulants like MDMA, yeah. It's basically according to pay grade. A lot of doctors/lawyers etc. do coke, whereas many teachers and civil servants smoke weed. There are of course probably more who abstain from drugs completely, but certainty a noisy minority are fairly regular users and don't see themselves as the fantastic hypocrites they are

I worked in media/advertising and my boss would keep a few wraps of cocaine in his desk drawer for spontaneous work nights out. It was common knowledge that you could go and take one if you were going out with a client.

Cocaine is rife in media, banking, law, recruitment etc. As PPs have said, it's an expensive habit, so popular among high-earners.

At times, my job would have been impossible to do without the help of cocaine - work trips away, consecutive late nights, parties and meetings all day long. It was intense.

This was very common in my friendship group in our 20s, but dwindled away across the 30s as people started settling down and having kids. Now we are in our early 40s I genuinely can’t recall the past time I was around anyone who took drugs.. the thought of trying to parent the next day just makes my head boggle! Ugh!

“I suspect that people who take drugs tend to hang out together and assume 'everyone' does it. It's probably concentrated in certain professions.“

I assume so too. It certainly is not common (to the point where I have never seen it, even though I have had some fairly wild trips out downroute) whilst at work. Or outside of work for that matter. As night-workers we are expected to be awake and alert all night without illegal drugs, so it is certainly not impossible to be up all night till 6am without them.

Cocaine yes.
Heroin No.

I know loads of people in the City, in media, etc who use cocaine.

Never knowingly known anyone use heroin.

Though I had an employee who was on a regulated methadone dose.

I haven't come across drug use in my middle class professional circle at all, with the exception of booze. Maybe we are all too middle aged and boring (very possible). Or I'm just not invited to those parties

I know approx 50 lawyers - senior people in magic circle law firms, GCs etc, and literally not one of them does drugs. When I was working in private practice there were a few people who did coke on the weekend but not many. I think this is always exaggerated by people who want it to be a thing.

It seems I got the wrong end of the stick, I'm happy to learn; Things are not as bad as I was led to believe! Thank you for your many responses. I hope others have taken something positive away from this thread!

Cokes really cheap now. Used to be the case that you needed a high income for it, it's now the cost of a takeaway

I’m a lawyer and not aware that any of my other lawyer friends and colleagues do this stuff! I mean the ones who are mates from uni, law school, ones I have lived with and ones I have been out partying with etc. One or two might have experimented on holiday in Amsterdam. There definitely used to be a lot of hard drinking although now at 40 even this has died down a fair bit!

Also, I never have myself!

Cocaine yes, prevalent in my city and amongst friends. No one bats an eyelid. But heroin? No.