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?

Really cause I worked in publishing and the stories of 1980/early 90s drug use in the toilets was legendary and then the long lunches. It was far more exciting back then

@Knockonw00d you are 20s right and then assume that you are the first generation to do all of this

you aren’t - it isn’t being naive about usage but it has changed and it is potentially more dangerous now with what it has been cut with

but it doesn’t change the fact it does alter your brain and whilst many will grow out of it and become the mumsnet members you are so disdainful of now and their partners some won’t quite be so lucky

I have Colombian family and have seen the other end. There are people I know in the UK (not close) who take cocaine and think it's cool, but who are also vegan and go on about the environment and how they care about animal welfare and poor children abroad, yet the environmental impact of cocaine and the human devastation the supply chain leads to in developing countries like Colombia is unimaginably extensive.

Damage your own health if you like, but if you're going to buy cocaine acknowledge that you are also buying into human trafficking, child slavery, corruption and environmental destruction.

I don't touch drugs and I'm sure I am naive to how many people do. I find it all very hypercritical and self absorbent.

I remember reading something about not taking cocaine when you've been drinking. Most people don't seem to know about this.

Im naive. Noone has ever tried to sell me drugs and I have never been out where I have witnessed someone take them, apart from weed.

I assume lots of people are taking them but I just dont know and cant tell.

It has always been common place to take cocaine. Not in my family or circle of friends. Most people take a drug every weekend when they consume alcohol.

Lol at a twenty something telling us more mature posters we're naive re drugs 😂
Have you heard of the rave generation OP? Acid house etc? Today's drug scene is comparatively mild. One thing hasn't changed though, coke turns people into boring twats and it is glaringly obvious when someone has had a line, I always preferred MDMA 🤷

I remember being on nights out with people taking it and they would just repeat themselves over and over without realising thinking they were hilarious. Completely put me off trying it. I’m sure I know a few people who use it now and again but equally know a lot of people who don’t use it.

It's interesting though, I have a friend who was at one time, as a young man, significantly involved in the drug trade, in particular cocaine. One of the things he has said to me is that he never did or would do coke, and when mid-level people like himself started to do it, they knew they'd lost the plot and wouldn't be around long. It seems like the people peddling it know the risks, just not the numb-nuts partying with it.

100% I bloody hate drugs and people take it thinking it won't affect them when it's graphically obvious to those around them that they are coked up or whatever.

The best DP I ever had was totally addicted and it killed him when he was a young man.

I've worked in a healthcare profession all my working life, in a lot of PAYE and freelance jobs and I have never worked in a place where no-one was taking drugs. It is pernicious and rife everywhere.

Those people driving in front of you, behind you and past you are likely to be on drugs. It's naive to think this is not the case.

The majority of people aren’t taking it at all! I agree with you the casual use for weekend warriors happens but it’s far from the majority.
And I’ll be honest my mates that do coke absolutely do my sodding head in on nights out!!!

I've lost the post that said it was a middle class drug. It used to be, even 25 years ago the friend I had who used it had money and it was used with his group of private school friends. The price has come down and there is so much if it. It is now cheap. No one in my social circle takes it but the few times a year when I do go out it's obvious when people are using it.

I think people are so removed as well
from the criminal element of cocaine. We’ve all watched narco’s or the wire or any of the drug related tv series and seen the pure misery it brings. The gangs, the fighting over turf, the intimidation and torture and violence involved in getting it delivered to middle class partygoers is just awful. If you take cocaine you have contributed to that.

Also, there is the health aspect. It seems to have become incredibly common in the last ten years- in ten years time are we going to see a rise in heart failure or related conditions? Maybe not but lots of people seem to take it regularly, not just for parties/festivals but a normal night down the pub. Did anyone see the new series of blue lights on BBC and the issues they raised?

I’m one of those naive people, I guess. I’ve never touched drugs and if any of my family and friends take cocaine then I’ve no idea about it. This might be a bit over the top for some, but I really wouldn’t want to be around people on any kind of drug, regardless of how socially acceptable it’s become 😬

Its rife and mixed with all kinds of shit.

My OH is a paramedic and has said the number of younger middle aged people he attends with cardiac arrest has shot up, the common factors with most is cocaine use, and they would have all claimed not to be addicts.

Then there is the social issues that go with it, in Merseyside people including women and children have been killed because of beef between drug gangs. Liverpool city centre is bloody grim after 10pm because of all the coked up clowns.

I am the same age and in the same situation as you and completely agree. I can tell when I’m interacting with someone who’s taken it too but think a lot of people don’t know how to tell and therefore think they don’t know anyone who does it but they do.

You have a sad life and mix with sad people. If you think that ‘doing coke’ does nothing to impact human behaviour, then you are the one naive.

Exactly. Everyone who takes drugs starts as a recreational user. Some become addicts. No one can be sure it won't happen to them
I'm sorry this happened to you EmeraldShamrock000. Your analogy sums it up perfectly. No one is immune to addiction. I hope you are doing alright now.

And to all of the people who use and think no one knows or can tell - of course we know yes we can tell and yes you are a shit actor and a massive knobhead

I grew up in a dysfunctional household, I watched my mother wreck herself on drugs. Started with cannabis and rapidly went downhill from there. I don’t know what she takes or does now as she’s not in my life.
I hate any recreational drugs, I rarely drink and am never drunk. I think it was both a blessing and a curse watching her, I could have so easily gone the other way the same as her.

Two close family members are big drinkers and both do cocaine on those nights, their wives too. I don’t ever socialise with them as being around drugs makes me so uncomfortable, I hate that their kids see this as normal and have/will go onto the same thing.

I know only of two people in my life that I could guarantee have never touched any drugs. Everyone else wouldn’t surprise me. It’s one of my biggest fears about my own children.

I had a very scary moment with a friend who believed people where chasing him down after too much cocaine.

When I arrived to check on him, he barricaded the door, filled the kettle to boil with sugar to throw over the imaginary people, then he asked if they had been in contact with me. I thought he was going to throw the kettle over me, I needed an ambulance but was terrified to reach for my phone, he's a professional drug counsellor now, mediation is his drug.
It took hours before I could ring another friend to call for help.

When I was sent to Hospital in an ambulance from home due to heart palpitations before stressy Xmas -I’m 60s , middle-class , mumsy dresser -practically the first thing the consultant asked was if I’d taken cocaine I was surprised That’s Hampstead for you!

It definitely is very common. I know nurses, teachers, social workers, firemen, etc that all dabble in social cocaine use. It’s so normalised in society! My DH and I have both taken cocaine in our younger years but would not consider it now. We have friends that still take it occasionally and others that have never touched it. But it is more common than many people think. I have had conversations with my parents (in their 50s & 60s) and they are completely oblivious to the commonality of it but most people my age (30s) are aware of it, even if they have never tried it before.

One thing though - I am in North America, and coke is a differernt proposition now because it is often cut with fentanyl here. My BIL works in addictions in a fairly rural town a few hours away, and last year for a time there was no real coke coming in to that area at all - people were dropping like flies.

I remember a few years ago a musician i really liked ODed. Apparently he bought coke, and dropped dead having barely touched it after he got back to the hotel. It's massively risky.

This started on the west coast and took a few years to reach the east coast, I would not be at all shocked to see it jump the pond to the UK. Which could change the stakes a lot.

It depends on your circles I guess. I'm from a WC deprived area, and it's hugely popular with the hands down the trackies, do a bit of this and that for a living types, of whom there are many. The young people I know well with 'good functional careers' are very into health and fitness and that, plus the ethical issues and the low rent reputation it has around mean they're not interested. There are a few old people I know who do it to feel they're not past it.

Cocaine is illegal. That means by buying it you are supporting criminals and adding to the widespread human misery both in the UK and in the countries where it is produced.