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!

My son-in-law was a cocaine dealer and two of the3 arresting police officers, one of the barristers and 5 prison officers were all his customers.

His biggest customer was his sons head mistress and he was regularly asked by her to deliver to the school - he always refused.

He definitely sold to GP's consultants, nurses etc.

The gang he was involved with were followed 24/7 for 6 months - the Police must have seen all these people buying drugs but the working class guys got long prison sentences and the professionals creating the demand all get to keep their well paid jobs without even an arrest to blemish their perfect lives.

@basecamp65
Is that what he told you? I just find it hard to believe that a cop would buy drugs from a dealer he was following for 6 months...
Your son in law wasn't a working class lad, he was a criminal

I am a corporate lawyer. Would imagine rare at my firm - never seen it on nights out. I know there are a couple of American firms that were very well known for wild antics, including drug taking, when I was a young lawyer a decade ago. At the time, my counterparts at American firms were getting £100k as a newly qualified lawyer (it is more now!) and property prices were not so high, so more leeway to stick it up your nose! Those of us with very decent but less enormous salaries were mostly quite keen to keep a job in the last recession and save for a deposit.

Would add that I have never heard about people using heroin recreationally for some weekend fun though!

@PigletJohn

I wouldn't call Gove a professional.

Huge difference between street heroin and cocaine! Not that either are a positive in anyone’s life but the type of people who tend to take coke is anyone ranging from fairly low to extremely high incomes and can range from being very recreational to extremely habitual. The quality of the Cole will differ enormously depending on area/income.

Heroin use tends to be much more common amongst people with multitudes of other issues, multiple addictions, homelessness, past trauma and abuse.

think people who dont have any experience with drugs have a knee jerk reaction of "OMFG!@!!! DRUGS!!!!!" without understanding that you can moderate.

It’s still wildly unethical though and ignoring the issues with the supply chain makes anyone who uses them a shitty person.

Here in Manchester cocaine usage is rampant and very visible...
Amongst the highly paid professionals, but also very common in younger people who are into partying and going out. Those still living at home have the disposable income and are splashing the cash when they can on everything - drink, drugs, outfits etc.
The current professionals still doing coke are these same people from 10/15 years ago who have the disposable income to continue doing it... There's plenty of them...

Plus I see it not just in 'professions' but in business owners, and well paid tradesmen that have grown successful and now employ others and are perceived as 'have made it'.

@TheFuckingDogs

Huge difference between street heroin and cocaine! Not that either are a positive in anyone’s life but the type of people who tend to take coke is anyone ranging from fairly low to extremely high incomes and can range from being very recreational to extremely habitual. The quality of the Cole will differ enormously depending on area/income.

Heroin use tends to be much more common amongst people with multitudes of other issues, multiple addictions, homelessness, past trauma and abuse.

No. That's just the visible heroin use. As pp have said people would be surprised at who's taken it (and who's suffered abuse, which of course knows no income or class divide). It's more hidden than cocaine use that's all. And the stereotyped homeless addict very often turns to heroin only after becoming homeless. Many people would choose oblivion in that situation.

Until the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, heroin addicts registered with a GP, received their safe daily dose, then got on with their lives. Most worked full-time, raised families, lived as 'respectable' members of the community. No-one would've known or guessed they had an addiction.

Advertising loads of coke but when I returned to Aus, it was a mix of coke (which is expensive here), E’s and sadly a shitload of Meth.

You can’t even group Heroin and Cocaine into the same sentence. Completely different type of person and drug use. Pretty much everyone knows someone who has taken coke but hardly anyone knows someone who’s tried heroin. Heroin is looked at as a dirty drug whereas coke is much more commonly used. Especially by young professionals! Heroin is associated with homelessness/down and outs etc whereas coke is perceived to have a bit of glam about it I guess. Based on all the celebs who seem to take it!

I love the way that cocaine users are so quick to disassociate themselves from heroin users.

“ Oh no, we are posh upper class peeps with university degrees and loadsa money, we get our drugs from little artisan dealers in Chelsea who make them organically in their own kitchen. It’s just a bit of fun, like champagne.”

“ Not like these nasty, smelly, dirty, homeless junkies sleeping the streets, who are fuelling the trade in child porn and human trafficking “.

Coke use is massive in some areas of sport because it passes through the body so fast. My late partner was a professional snooker player & at least 40% of players used coke at some time, we used to go to parties with a lot of other players & there nearly always was coke getting passed around, it was the same with players who had dropped out of the game as well, his area had loads of ex pros & lots of them used.

I agree with SheepandCow. The idea that heroin is a "poor man's drug" is down to its visible effects on poorer addicts. If you are wealthy and can afford it, heroin addiction is easily doable and has a longer history of use in the UK. Opium dens have historically been popular. Sherlock Holmes was written as one.

Never heard that her ion is but certainly cocaine

Easier to be a functioning addict or heavy user and sown might believe it enhances their work (may do for a short period of time)

the Police must have seen all these people buying drugs but the working class guys got long prison sentences and the professionals creating the demand all get to keep their well paid jobs without even an arrest to blemish their perfect lives

Your poor working class son in law being used and abused by all those professionals.

I work in finance and it's absolutely standard on nights out here. Nobody bats an eyelid and it's a case of when it comes out, not if it's happening.

I'm always surprised when someone says they work in finance and they have never seen or heard any hint of it, it's absolutely rife.

(Coke that is - absolutely not heroin!)

To those wondering how you can function the next day. Actually for a lot of people functioning after a night out on coke is easier than a night drinking. You can drink loads of booze finish up with a bit of coke and it completely erases the boozed feeling and also the hangover!
When I first started doing it I could easily work the next day I was just a bit tired. The effects on mental health/comedowns and low mood started later on and were awful but it isn't debilitating in the way a alcohol hangover is (headache feeling sick etc.)
Just to point out I stopped completely 5 years ago and think it is a disgusting drug and I wouldn't go back or advise anyway to start taking it as it has destroyed so many people's lives that I know of, but just answering the points about how people can function on it (very easily!) Which is one of the reasons I think it is so prevalent in industries.

I think it’s a reasonable question to ask And one that is thankfully being raised more why so many professionals get away with drug use (why are companies turning a blind eye) yet small time drug dealers get heavy sentences

many will moan how their city isn’t safe or they are worried for their children because of the drug related gang crimes but not think twice about stuffing a load of coke up their nose or getting stoned at the weekend. They are feeding the problem they are part of the problem but can easily disengage themselves as society allows them to

Yelyah22 are you in London? We're in law/finance in Edinburgh and unless I'm just being totally blind (it is possible!) it just isn't something that features at all, and never has during the last 15 years in those industries.

@CherryPavlova

Must be a regional thing. I know many doctors and HCPs, dentists, lawyers, teachers, armed forces officers, clergy, architects and engineers aged between about 28 and 65. I don’t know any that have taken unprescribed controlled drugs. Few have even taken dope.

Be fair, think of your job- how many HCPs are going to be lining up (ha, ha) to tell you what their recreational drug use really is?

It is naive to think that professionals who take cocaine, never smoke a bit of heroin on the comedown. Not as common sure, but it happens.