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?

I think it could be if drugs were legal and regulated. Right now no one really knows exactly what they are taking or how much it's been cut. Yes, they're addictive but so is alcohol. Legalising and regulating will make it safer for users and remove a lot of crime and exploitation that is a result of illegal drug trade.

This. Alcohol holds an important role in our society and has for thousands of years. If it had been discovered or developed 20 years ago it would very likely also be illegal.

whats legal or illegal doesn’t always have black and white logic behind it. Thats why the discussion needs to be more nuanced to have value.

Thank you-I have noticed the gurning in my friends who have used it. Someone took a photo of me and a male friend in my local recently, it was a celebration and everyone was happy-he made them delete it, said he hated it-I asked why and he told me that his ex would see if it it were posted anywhere online, and they were going through a court battle for their children and she'd see his pupils. I honestly wouldn't have thought about that.

I never saw any of this type of behaviours or changes to appearance in the woman I dated but I do remember once, we'd gone to an all day event. We were drinking, but just a cider every hour or so, both pacing ourselves and at the end of the event I was only very slightly tipsy. She all of a sudden got very upset and annoyed and stormed outside the venue we were in, saying she was mad with herself for 'getting too drunk' (she did not appear drunk, at all whatever) and saying she'd let me down and she hated herself and wanted to drive home. I Calmed her down and said 'you aren't drunk but you are definitely over the limit for driving home!' and she seemed to be okay then although she didn't haev another drink. I took her back to mine shortly afterwards but I did feel that that whole episode was weird. It was a very happy event and I saw no reason for her to 'turn' like that. I think now perhaps that was cocaine?

My social background is the same as yours, and I know/know of plenty highly ambitious and successful professionals that recreationally use cocaine. It’s no less common in white collar circles than it is in blue collar.

Actually, if anything it’s still more widely associated with white collar despite usage of it spanning the across the class spectrum.

Depends on the drug, but cocaine mixed with alcohol is a lethal mix and creates a stronger substance in the body and that's the main way people do coke, so even if they knew the coke wasn't mixed with anything they're then going and mixing it up with something themselves which makes it more dangerous.

Great to see you engaging with the really meaningful posts 😅

Yep your naivety shows

Clearly common with the type of people you hang around with… not everyone!

Really? You do know where crack comes from? County line 'kids' as you put it are very much coerced, abused and threatened into being a key part of the cocaine supply throughout England and further! Those 'harmless' lines of cocaine that are so commonly snorted in pub/ club bathrooms, may very well be from the same batch of cocaine that has been distributed by a scared child to a 'crack house' down the road, for them to 'cook up' into crack! Every person that does a 'odd line' on a Friday night is contributing to the abuse, and horror that those poor children are caught up in! People really need to open their eyes, or at least don't comment and minimise things you really don't know enough about!

Mine? Or the Ops?

Of course not everyone who has children is a good parent but typically most parents focus on their families. And if you had any doubts about the amount of people doing cocaine this thread should open your eyes

For those of you who thinks its harmless ought to read up on the side effects. There's also the fact that you can't overdose on cocaine. Not because you can't take too much but because you react differently every time you use it.

I daren't try it as I have an addictive personality, also not interested in any of the effects (or the awful come-down it supposedly has) but I can see why people do it I suppose. Life is incredibly dull and I don't blame anyone who needs something every week to get them through it.

There will be overlap between the two groups. There are a lot of dedicated and loving parents who will ’treat’ themselves to the occasional line on a rare night out.

Good parents and bad parents use it. Non parents use it. Teenage parents, working class parents, single parents, married parents, middle class parents, upper class parents…all the ‘types’ use it.

That's an absolutely pointless comparison.

Alcohol does not have a widespread black market in this day and age.

What people do when drunk or high isn't relevant to my point about the misery the entire illicit substances industry creates before anyone has bought themselves a little baggie or wrap.

In terms of the misery created after the drug or alcohol has been used, that's practically an existential question....

Cocaine + alcohol is turned into cocaethylene in the liver, this stays in the body far longer than the effect of cocaine is felt, cocaethylene is toxic to vital organs and can be fatal! ( No I'm not fun at parties before anyone asks!! ) Sorry to jump on this comment, but I saw on another comment that you cannot overdose on cocaine, cocaine speeds up the heart, anything that speeds up the heart can cause a heart attack, so yeah, while not a overdose exactly, still a pretty quick fatal reaction! Serotonin syndrome too, but I'll leave anyone interested in that to have a Google - also can be rapidly fatal!

OP sorry that you can glide through taking coke and no consequences

If it was regulated maybe we would be better educated on it. I didn't know cocaine and alcohol was a lethal mix. I do know that energy drinks shouldn't be mixed with alcohol and certain prescription meds shouldn't.

What is the obsession with people wanting to poison themselves?

That’s fair enough I know, personally I had kids so young (pregnant at 15 and born at 16) that I’ve never done drugs in my life because I’ve never had the time. Although you’d be right to point out there’s kids 14 and even younger doing drugs I suppose.
in all honesty I forgot what my original point was and had to scroll back, I guess I just wanted to say I’m someone who’s in their mid twenties whose never even tried cocaine seeing as the op is implying everyone is a regular user

This.

I think it is probably both over-assumed and under-assumed in equal measure.

I went out partying including all-night benders when I was in my twenties, blackout drunk a couple of times, out til 5am consecutive nights. I worked 60-80h weeks. I never touched drugs, I was just young. Some people will have assumed I was on drugs, but I never touched them.

And yeah, there will be no doubt people I know who take drugs, but not people that I know intimately. My genuine friends are happy drinkers, socially conscious and straight-laced. I don't particularly see what it adds to know that the guy who did my conveyancing has a habit, or my dentist or whatever, except to be sad that so many people are willing to finance misery.

Do you not care about the human and environmental damage the cocaine trade causes. I hope you aren't someone that pretends to care about the environment whilst happily taking cocaine.

Yep in some countries they are far less likely to mix it with alcohol so even though it's risky it's not as risky, but obviously the culture in the UK etc is predominantly to take it with alcohol.
I don't think it needs to be regulated, they could do a government campaign warning of the dangers of mixing it, but I really don't think that that would stop many people who currently do it. Perhaps it would have more of an impact on people who haven't yet started to take it though.

But I think everyone or almost everyone knows that energy drinks shouldn't be mixed with alcohol, but yet it's a very popular combo. And many ignore the advice about prescription meds too, even when they are told that warning face to face by doctors.

But of course it just stands to reason that use of cocaine will be much higher amongst the bar and club regulars on friday and saturday nights.

Most people live in a world which extends beyond that. Most people who use recreational drugs when they're young probably grow out of if when they have responsibilities and a little more worldliness.

I used to dabble when I was young. Haven't touched anything in many many years and nor would I. And amongst my close friends that's absolutely the norm.

As for it not changing personalities, I'm afraid it is you who is naive. Town centres are notably more aggressive than they were 30 years ago when everyone was taking ecstasy. Coke makes people easily agitated. It also turns people into intolerable boring bastards.

The ‘meaningful’ posts that are the ones arguing about addicts and addiction are not what the thread is about.