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?

My reading comprehension is fine. I still think your assertion that you are entirely and absolutely always in control and that it is fine because everyone else does it is frankly naive

I know people who have taken cocaine - most of whom no longer do so and have long since stopped a couple who still do recreationally and some for whom it has negatively impacted their lives.

so yes I absolutely guarantee you know people from whom this will effect them and that your assertion taking cocaine has no effect is wrong.
because you take it for the effects no? Otherwise what is the point

But still the percentage taking cocaine is at its highest 10% which while a lot isn’t everyone

…in their 20’s…

people are using it recreationally and still functioning…in their 20’s…

this is using, not really abusing. And it will catch up with them. So yes. It’s normal and prevalent in your social circle. It will lessen in time.

The reason is age and problems of compounded use of drugs.

20’s ‘Coke fun’
30’s ‘Coke problematic’
40’s ‘Coke addled’
50’s ‘Coke (and other substances) disappeared from normal life or dead’

And if you have 50 year olds in your group hanging out with the 20’s ‘and they seem fine’…They are not fine.
That’s why they are hanging out with 20 year olds.

I stopped doing cocaine (only party recreationally) when I had an accident. I would not have done that thing, or realised the danger of it, if I had not been high. I did not realise until it had worn off that I had seriously hurt myself and had broken bones. I am still ‘injured’ really - it still hurts from time to time, and it has affected my ability to do some things.

I was in my 30’s. It had become problematic. I stopped.

Also… by your 40’s you can tell regular Coke users as they look like shit. It wrecks your skin, ages you so badly, bloats your face and makes you like an idiot.

Oh and the teeth and gums… dentists know and it will cost you money to fix.

I did respond to that post.
Coke use in clubs didn't shock me and never has.
But coke use generally no longer shocks me as a result of various jobs I have had. It's everywhere. I am trying to learn the signs (this thread has been helpful) as I am single and would like to start looking, but I really do not want to inadvertently date someone who does it. I have done this once before (with coke)} and once with other drugs.

My latest one who did coke was an area supervisor for a retirement home company.

Because nobody is going to be dishonest on a survey about coke use...

https://www.priorygroup.com/addiction-treatment/cocaine-addiction/cocaine-use-statistics

Actually my 10% seems high but I assume it just seems high to those who move around those circles

But let’s face it it isn’t new Opiates were around in the 19th Century the whole point of Sherlock Holmes is he takes cocaine/morphine/tobacco and becomes addicted and looks the negative sides of addiction and how it affected him

It’s interesting though isn’t it that by the time it was modernised it became heroin (Elementary) and painkillers (House) because some how cocaine was no longer thought of as a drug you could get addicted to and have negative impacts

At a university reunion this year, a third of my peers (all professional/city females in their 50s) were taking it. This is particularly shocking to me as we've only recently lost my ex (50s, male, banker) to a coke related death. It is rife and accepted by the wider circles the users move in as "no more dangerous than alcohol".

But isn’t that an issue as well of how much we downplay alcohol as well

That a lot of people on here would have no idea if someone close to them was a regular cocaine user.

When I did cocaine in the past, I always had control over my actions. In fact, it heightened my alertness to situations. I’ve never assaulted or hurt anyone in my entire life.

When I drank alcohol, (I never drink much nowadays) I could get so drunk I’d fall over, throw up, be clumsy, slurred speech. On cocaine - none of that.

depends on close. but yes cocaine does alter how you are so if you just see the on coke or off coke version (Such as teachers I have no idea who if any do because I never see them on coke)

but if you are around them enough to see both versions of course you can

we seem to stick with the teenage version that somehow we can home drunk and our parents didn’t notice. Rather than they did and didn’t say anything which gives us this (incorrect notion) that we can drink or take cocaine and no one notices - and the only time we ask is when we are around people on the same substances.

because if it didn’t do anything why would people take it

heightened alertness is mentioned (and the reason Sherlock Holmes took it) and that is noticeable if you have a baseline

If I have learnt anything it is that DD (16) could definitely benefit from me gently pointing out I can tell rather than letting the farce go on that people can’t tell!

I think people who use cocaine are sad, pathetic and disgusting. Nothing else to say.

I probably do know people who indulge in cocaine, but they are people I don't know well, and therefore wouldn't recognise the signs or be in a position to discuss it with them.

None of my close friends and family do. We are way beyond the age of clubbing and living the high life. Most of us are of pensionable age and the drugs they are on are prescription drugs.

I agree. It’s the booze together with cocaine that makes people aggressive and violent.

But if you are an obnoxious twat then cocaine makes you a very obnoxious twat.

And coke on its own does change your personality and what you think you can do. You feel more alert and great but… you aren’t. It is an opiate. Your normal brain is not in control.

Why would you do cocaine?

Did it in my 20’s. Some friends at uni did it. I tried it with them. I enjoyed the feeling. I was able to stay out much longer, as when just having alcohol it made me feel really sleepy and I would always have stomach ache and nausea with alcohol. Cocaine made me feel more alive, I didn’t have any bad experiences on it and I enjoyed the nights out more.

When I was was in my 20s cocaine was prohibitively expensive so we just didn't do it. Peers smoked weed or took the occasional tablet of LSD. I think that may be why most people my age never got into the cocaine habit (I'm 66), and why I genuinely don't know anyone in my circle who has indulged. I'm not being naive, but my closest people really haven't.

I agree that if you mix with people who do you tend to think that everyone does. They don't.

And coke on its own does change your personality and what you think you can do. You feel more alert and great but… you aren’t. It is an opiate. Your normal brain is not in control.

Most of this is true, but cocaine isn't an opiate. It's from an entirely different plant.

Former cop here.

You have no idea.

'County lines' kids are groomed into carrying gear, of whatever type and that includes coke, by financial and sexual abuse and coercion to create the 'relationship' between the child and the CL dealing structure. The dealers know exactly what they're doing and why.

Cocaine is a huge issue across society, and those teen stabbings and shootings? Often predicated on turf wars or the setting of scores, to supply the professional middle class having their weekend meets with 'Charlie', and other settings and ages.

A direct line from cosy socialising to kids bleeding out on our streets while society turns a very willing blind eye to the damage being done. When you've seen your team covered in blood up their elbows, and seen paramedics trying to revive a very obviously dead kid, it tends to stay with you

Including, apparently, by some on here.

Your naivety is staggering and, in reality, a symptom of a wider problem. You're not alone in that.

You've been watching too many 'gangster' films.

I think I just move in very different circles. I have never seen anyone take cocaine or even discuss that they use it. But that might be I'm at an age where people don't tend to drink coffee after 6pm so that it doesn't impact their sleep - the last thing they would want would be something to keep them awake all night.

And all these upright citizens are funding a trade that exploits people right across the world, and us responsible for fueling the gang, guns and knife crime in our streets. They are disgusting.

If it was legalised would this violence all stop? What's the reason behind banning it in the first space? I don't smoke, but it's still legal. Same with alcohol.

I think that poster was replying to me.
I don't disagree that there's a correlation, but my point was the professions and backgrounds of people who do cocaine (in clubs and outside of them) is not what people think it looks like. It's not an 'us and them' thing. People from all classes backgrounds and walks of life do it.

FWIW, no strip club 'allows' cocaine, no matter what or where it is sniffed from. It is illegal, but it does happen in clubs and customers will pay more to do it from certain places.

Legalising it would end a lot of the issues IMO. Legal drugs don't have trafficked women and children, 'turf wars', deaths, fights etc in their creation (as a rule). I suspect, at least for a time, people would still create it illegally however.