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?

So the only point is the numbers not the effects of it either to take or how it is produced.

Like a lot of things it becomes less as you grow older have kids and get responsibilities- I can’t go out clubbing and stay out all night before pitching up at work feeling awful anymore I have children and pets and I am fairly certain the vast majority of the people I know are the same - I still have friends from those days but a lot now are school mum friends who I have only ever gone out with drinking!

You sound in your 20s oblivious to any dangers and personality changes because you are I assume on it at the same time. It’s real it happens.

I have a teenager all to aware about the drugs etc in the high school environment and how much much worse it was than when I was younger

You're not engaging with any of the ones discussing what the thread is about either though. Many of us have told you that it's just the circles you're in, it's common but nowhere near as common as you think.

You barely engaged either with the people who refuted your point about behaviour changes, you're calling other people naive, but it's not the people on the party scene the same thing as you who will notice behaviour changes when they start, it's generally their partners who start to notice the effects and suffer the consequences of them.

Indeed, a very sad post. Never in a million years would I touch something like that. Not worth the risk. These people taking the drug are the naive ones, not realising how dangerous cocaine use is. And I'm not even going to go deeper by mentioning how damaging the trade is for people who grow the coca plant. Drug cartels come to mind. If you use their product, you're complicit to some of the most brutal organisations on the planet, murdering and wrecking lives.

But it always amazes me how oblivious people are to how common it really is.

As far as I know, none of my family or closest friends take it - and yes, we have discussed it among ourselves. We don't go out very much and most of us won't see 60 again. Our drug of choice is alcohol in moderation. Yes, there are probably people in our local pub who take it, but I don't know them., and I haven't noticed any signs of people taking it either. It's just not part of my life.

I hate that on mumsnet posters say that everyone is taking it. No they aren't. Neither DH nor I do for a start, and I judge people who do.

No offence taken, I’m glad not a millennial either!

It’s a bit unclear what the OPs point is anyway 😂 Even if it is more common that we think what was the point of this thread other than patronising women who are understandably shocked when they find out their husband/daughter /friend is doing it ?

Are they saying it’s okay and not that harmful because “everyone else is doing it” or what?

And why do they think they know what’s going on in our social circles more than us?

It’s all a bit strange.

But I’m glad most posters have pointed out that cocaine is very much a harmful thing that shouldn’t be normalised. I agree it’s a shame she’s not engaging with the points people are making.

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

I’m a millennial and most of that sounds fun to me. Especially the theatre.

Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy the chaotic millennial clubbing from 17 to 27 😂but I wish I’d done more arts and culture “stuff” .

Although I didn’t drink or take drugs so I’d be the type to go clubbing then still be able to go to an art museum the next day on a clear head.

But yeah I wish I’d explored more activities and not sure how good the clubbing was for my overall mental health or self esteem. Where I lived things have changed now no doubt, but back then I feel there wasn’t as much to do aside from clubbing and shopping.

When I moved down to London in my mid 20s is when I joined creative writing groups, went to poetry and live music nights and street markets on weekends and started going to the theatre loads. I went clubbing only very occasionally.

But yeah this is another thing Op is missing, they’re claiming everyone is doing it in the bars (false) but even if that was the case not everyone hangs out at bars and clubs.

It’s bizarre that they can’t seem to grasp their experiences and way of socialising isn’t necessarily universal.

Forces would have hardly anyone left. Introduce drug testing and prepare for anarchy.😆

Nope straight up correct.

Who said anything was harmless? I just said that county lines isnt about cocaine. It is about crack and heroin. It is important to distinguish between powder cocaine and crack as these are drugs with very different clientele.

I think the OPs point is everyone does it so it must mean that there aren’t any effects of doing it because look most people manage to avoid having any side effects from it (addiction/personality changes) etc because otherwise everyone would be.

Anyone who thinks that it does make people more aggressive is naive because it doesn’t and how can it when everyone is doing so

in denial basically about the effects of taking drugs

They might have different clientele, but it'll be the same dealers, just like Waitrose will have people who go in for their weekly shop and people who go in for an occasional treat or party food.

No I think OP's point is that the behavioural changes arent so unique and specific that people understand that they are caused by drugs. People aren't leaving their jobs and homes and giving blowjobs for a fiver for cocaine.

I’ve never been convinced about the equation of drugs with alcohol. Alcohol is actually a naturally occurring substance, nor is it likely humans invented it. There was a story recently about chimps getting drunk gorging on naturally fermenting fruit. Its consumption has been part of society since forever and its effects are well known and understood. There are cultural issues at stake and it’s also well known that the British have more of a problem than the continent does on the whole.

Drugs by contrast are processed and, while the opium poppy has been used by the rich for centuries, most drugs are recent introductions. Use and effects, it would seem from this thread alone, are not well understood and do seem to be variable.

If drug use is strongly linked to Britain more than other countries perhaps what we should be asking is what it is in this country’s psyche, economic or cultural set up, that makes people so prone to admiring mindlessness and so desperate to achieve mindlessness.

It’s bloody scary that so many addicts have as much right, and probably more, to dictate the future of this country as intelligent reason does.

Intelligent mammals inlcuding the great apes have been poisoning themselves since the beginning of time. We seek out 'highs' and the brain experience they bring. We always have. It's going nowhere.

On the subject of drug testing by employers, where do you draw the line?

Single Mum smokes a joint at the weekend for insomnia and loses their job as a shop assistant, can no longer feed her family?
We'd have no society. The war on drugs has already been lost unfortunately.

And I'm speaking as someone who smoked weed now and again while younger but (unless we're including alcohol) has never done anything else.

No it really isnt. Mostly through practicality. Crack addicts need regular hits all day. They will also rob dealers. You DO NOT want to have a load of cocaine on you around crack heads. You barely want more crack than they want to buy.

This guy was the first dealer I knew who was killed by an addict.

These guys were doing county lines, before it was called that.

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/21986364.murder-victims-brother-admits-attack/

Anyone who takes it is reprehensible stupid and thick and as bad as the dealers themselves. Anyone who stays with their "D"H who does it is as bad (probably staying for the "six figures".) And kids involved. For Christ's sake.

I disagree I think she is trying to justify what she is doing by saying that everyone does and there are no effects of doing so at all

which just simply isn’t true on either point. I think most are aware that cocaine is the drug of choice for professionals because it does enable you to continue life. Doesn’t mean continually taking a drug that purpose is to effect the neurotransmitter in your brain isn’t going to have personality changes because it does

My husband had this on one of his projects. Colleague was The best employee, worked for hours on end, always super alert until suddenly he wasn´t and would disappear into the toilets and come back refreshed and full of energy. Their boss had him on a pedestal and told all that they had to aspire to his commitment! He did it all high on cocaine. Hubby said thanks, no thanks, I don´t aspire to be a junkie.

Drugs by contrast are processed and, while the opium poppy has been used by the rich for centuries, most drugs are recent introductions. Use and effects, it would seem from this thread alone, are not well understood and do seem to be variable.

Opium, cannabis, coca, mushroom are all natural. Yes, they are mostly consumed in processes forms these days, but is that very different from distilling vodka or gin or whisky?

It is in that licensed distilleries are highly regulated, so you know just what you're getting, but if drugs were regulated and produced in that way, you'd know then, too, and presumably would have a more predictable effect. So I think the issue is in the production being unregulated and drugs being cut with all sorts of other unknown stuff. (That doesn't mean I am arguing for all drugs to be legalised, I just see that side of the argument.)

Intelligent mammals inlcuding the great apes have been poisoning themselves since the beginning of time. We seek out 'highs' and the brain experience they bring. We always have. It's going nowhere.

Some do. Some don’t. Apes have to worry about actual survival, and distant-past human use of drugs was usually linked to specific times and places as ceremonies, it wasn’t taken as recreational use commonly. I do wonder, to answer my own question, about the huge separation of people in Britain from supply chains now, starting with enclosure right down to the shift away from manufacturing. Making things is generally an expensive hobby and is seen as useless here now.

No I really don't think she is saying that at all. I think that's what some people have read into it because they overreact when it is anything to do with drugs which of course is unhelpful.

I don’t think legalising drugs will help.

Too many British people don’t seem to recognise we are one country and have no control over the internal state of others, beyond whether we buy their products. We have the choice to stop buying drugs produced by violence now. We can’t regulate and stop drug cartels operating in South America or Asia. We haven’t been able to stop the Taliban. All we can do is clean up our own act, and too many people make up excuses and reasons to avoid doing that. Perhaps overpopulation doesn’t help, and being an island.

Concentrated drugs like crack cocaine and fentanyl are not readily obtainable, even accidentally obtainable, in the way fermented fruit is.

I’m against taking drugs but I do not think employers should be testing employees for drug use. Unless they are say driving for a living then yes, absolutely fine as is alcohol testing.