To think people are naive re cocaine

[Knockonw00d]

I see threads on here all the time where women find out their husband has been doing coke etc and are absolutely floored.
But it always amazes me how oblivious people are to how common it really is. I’m childfree and in my late 20s and i go on nights out almost every week so you get to know all of the other regulars in the bars. I do not know one person that I’ve met through going out that doesn’t do cocaine.

These people have professional jobs Monday - Friday. Some of them I know are teachers, nursery staff, work in the passport office. It is so common.

I also see a lot posters describing a change in behaviour and people suggest it could be drugs. But unless you’re doing things like heroin or spice, cocaine does not make you act in the ways people suggest.

Do people really not know how common casual use of cocaine is in this country?

Nothing new. 20 plus years ago when I worked as a lawyer in the city, colleagues were always using it. I never did. Still never have and I think less of people that do - even my kids that have. And it absolutely does affect personality in some people. The ones I know became utter assholes and incapable of managing/prioritising workloads or understanding that they weren’t managing. Like believing they were the dogs bollocks yet being useless

And what do you think crack is?

I think you get a distorted picture from your own bubble. Coke was never rife in my sector of my husband’s. I just didn’t see it in my early 20s at university or my graduate roles. First time I became more aware was at a friend’s hen do with one of her relatives who was using all weekend and then that wedding where said relative was completely high and basically neglecting her toddler. I did judge tbh as her need to get coked up at a wedding and nights out was clearly coming over and above her children. I then became more aware again where I was at a school fundraising ball and there was a chunk of parents snorting in the toilets and acting like twats. I mean who the fuck thinks it’s ok to snort coke in school toilets in their 40s?

Yep, might explain why my next door neighbours can stay up til 2am on Saturday entertaining friends all happy and laughing whilst raising 4 DC. Youngest being 4yo...I would rather have my sleep.

They don't get up until the afternoons....what a waste of a day. No idea how the kids stay quiet to allow them to "rest". Mine are always up 7am latest at weekends!

Crack is processed heroin but it is a very different drug in terms of how it influences lifestyle.

On the most recent collated govt figures (2023) just under 10% of 16-59 year olds used any prohibited drug at least once in a year, and of these users, around 1/5 used coke. So, if you see it "everywhere" it's because of your lifestyle.

And yes, cocaine changes behaviour - which is why people take it. Take too much of it too regularly and it becomes an addiction. Take up your dealer's suggestion that you try injecting it or smoking rocks for a better buzz and you have problems very quickly.

That's leaving aside that you don't actually know what you're snorting (about 40% or more of the coke is something else). The absolute decimation of communities and countries across Central and South America because people in the UK want to feel good. The significant criminality around supply in the UK, based often on drawing young, vulnerable people into illegal and dangerous behaviour.

It's not non-users who are being naive here about the consequences of the behaviour of a small minority wanting to party.

Crack is a smokable form of cocaine. Will be part of the same supply chain.

No, crack dealers usually deal heroin too. Cocaine is more for people who supply party drugs. Different market when it comes to the dealer and consumer.

These are people who answered a specific survey

It’s not quite the same as cocaine. Pharmacologically yes, but the way it’s prepared gives different results and as such they are classified differently. Think of it like drinking a nice glass of wine over the course of a few hours, or downing half a pint of cheap vodka.

Simpler ones are the mouth movements, almost like gurning or chewing their lips.

Yes to the sniffing but also touching their noses. Lots of people leave visible white marks on their faces when they are too blasé about it.

Their pupils will be like saucers (dilated), which is especially noticeable in a brighter room or sunlight.

The little baggies obv.

Speech will often change to be faster, louder, more aggressive after a trip to the loo or outside for a moment.

You'll often see a mood swing rapidly. I especially notice this in men who stand at the bar in my local - they walk in quiet, cheery, and order a pint before nipping to the loo and come back lairy, verbally aggressive and practically shouting everything they say for the next 20-30mins then it calms down a bit until they disappear once more and the cycle starts again.

It's a stimulant, so their movements will be different from when they are sober (and not on a come down).

What do you do for a living or where are you getting this idea? Because 90% of what you keep repeating is absolute bollocks.

Dealers currently quite happy to sell cocaine and heroin across different markets. Crack remains the less common of those three drugs.

I'm sorry but you can't possibly know everyone in "the general population", that's a ludicrous and lazy generalisation based on zero facts.

One of my best friends as a teenager was raised the most 'correctly' out of all of us who had had a wide range of adverse experiences in childhood from poverty to truancy to bullying to domestic abuse, and she was the one that ended up a heroin addict (thankfully now clean for a number of years). This is such a smug, self righteous take.

No it really isnt. You are talking about people who ship in cocaine to sell to people slightly further down the chain. This cocaine will be split between dealers who sell coke as a party drug, and people who process the cocaine to make crack and sell it as a street drug. The latter people also sell heroin because crackheads and heroin addicts tend to have a similar lifestyle in terms of dysfunction, unemployment and homelessness.

Seriously, those of you posting who say XYZ would NEVER use drugs are wrong.

You can NEVER know what people would or wouldn’t do.

I personally know a lot of drug users, I do not use drugs at all.

They have never told me they are a drug user, you would not know by looking at them they are a drug user.

Nothing surprises me anymore tbh. There should be mandatory drugs testing in all places of work on a Monday morning ? Would that help ? I genuinely don’t care if someone dies from an overdose. It’s sad for their families etc etc but I genuinely do not care. Darwin’s theory in action?

On the flip side, I’m mid 20s and no one I know does cocaine. In fact, a lot of my friends don’t even drink alcohol anymore - I sometimes feel awkward wanting a drink as I’ll be the only one. Not that I really like alcohol that much myself, I’ve had a drink like 3 times this entire year.

I guess it depends on you/your circle but I’m really into fitness and naturally so are the people I know and that feeds into what we choose to eat/drink and how we socialise. We don’t even go out to bars etc any more let alone visit one every week, especially the older we get. Maybe it just depends on where you live and what your area has to offer? When I see my friends we do things like fitness/art classes, theatre, games like VR or shooting clay, darts, golf, escape rooms, pretend jury trials etc. or we go travelling but largely do the same things.

There is a lot of naivety regarding just how rife cocaine use is, yes. It was a middle class drug, but it’s long since become common across all socioeconomic classes. I don’t personally use it, although I did occasionally in my 20s. I have friends and acquaintances this I know for a fact use it, and I have friends and acquaintances who may or may not. Given that I don’t even drink, I’m probably not someone that they’d think to offer it to, or be open about it with, if they did.

It’s a global multi billion dollar shadow economy (but don’t think that legitimate governments don’t profit from it or in some cases depend upon it) that’s only growing. If it does eventually fall in popularity it will be because it’s been replaced by something else, and that something else will undoubtedly be under the control of the same people.

The issue is that human being since time immemorial have enjoyed altered states of consciousness. Whether we should or shouldn’t is a philosophical debate that has no bearing on the reality that we, as a species, do.

Recognizing that it’s normalized is not the same as calling it a good thing.

“But it always amazes me how oblivious people are to how common it really is. I’m childfree and in my late 20s and i go on nights out almost every week so you get to know all of the other regulars in the bars. I do not know one person that I’ve met through going out that doesn’t do cocaine.”

Likewise, it amazes me that you can’t compute some people exist in different spheres to the one that you do. In my early to mid-20s, drugs were a common feature in my social circle, I worked in an office and dated an art school drop out, drugs were everywhere.

Then one day, it occurred to me that for those drugs to be available in the UK, people have been horribly exploited and mistreated. Not to mention, the drugs were probably cut with something like rat poison or talc. Through the work I do now, I see people who have had their lives destroyed by drug use. I want no part in any of it.

Now approaching my forties, I haven’t seen, nor been offered, a single drug for well over a decade. I can see how it’s easy to be oblivious to how common of a feature drug use might be in other people’s lives.

I agree that it's common. It's sensible though and one wonders what it is about our society that makes people do this to what appears to be a much greater extent and across all social groups and classes.

No, I'm clearly talking about street level dealers and county lines.

Yes and then you're definitely mistaken. It's a different market with different risks and demands.

My friend is a sports massage therapist and knows for a fact that many of her clients do coke....including a magistrate, a copper and a trauma surgeon. These guys are in their 40s and 50s. This is in a very affluent village in Cheshire.

I know people do it. It would floor me if my husband did it though because I believe him to be a decent human being. Taking illegal drugs is ethically indefensible and I wouldn't be with him any longer if he'd hidden that and I found out.

It's the ignorance of people, especially 'professionals' who take it that amazes me.