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?

For those saying the City of London and banking was awash in cocaine in the noughties, I think it depended on the circles. By then the digitisation wave meant most of the “barrow boys” who drank at lunch with brokers and took cocaine to get up were gone. The derivatives newcomers with their phDs were a different breed and not as into drugs (alcohol abuse was rife). I never attended any party where drug use was obvious during those years but of course heard of friends of friends taking it.

That said, a friend who was working in the West End (not banking) at the same time said it was awash with cocaine in her circles. She finds it hard to believe I never came across it.

Same city, different circles. And so it’ll always be.

I was pretty shocked to find a couple of my regulars who are pensioners that do it! Also women in their 50s trying to keep up with their 18-25 year old kids. Never touched it myself but the broad spectrum of people who do is flabbergasting. I did get called a square once for saying I had never touched it.

People who think they don’t know anyone who uses cocaine regularly are definitely naive. I 100% agree.

It’s not an insult. I wish I was naive and didn’t notice the saddos in their 30s, 40s and 50s passing things under the tables and running off to the toilets together (women) or coming out of the toilets wiping their noses (men).

I’ve never touched it in my life and because I never have, I’m not offered it and so wouldn’t really have it shoved in my face. It’s not like they taught us in PSE in school where our friends are going to be pressuring us to join in. I only notice it because, well, once you realise, you notice it everywhere.

i would say it’s definitely worse amongst the older people now (those who were partying in the 80s and 90s). The youngsters still partake, but a good number of them are into their fitness and health and go out to the trendy bars and clubs for photos on their socials. Then they go home and eat chicken and salad and have a protein shake. Okay obviously i am exaggerating but you know what I mean.

i know couples in their late 50s who do it at home on a Friday night when watching the telly and I can’t think of anything more sad.

i am a normal person with a normal job surrounded by mainly comfortable working class/ middle class people and this is all completely normal. I am the odd one out for not getting involved.

I know an addictions nurse who is a heavy heavy cocaine user…

It’s shocking to me. I am really thankful my kids don’t do it. But it was/is? rife in their cohort. We have always been very open , allowed house parties, alcohol at a sensible age. But it’s probably just luck that ours don’t wish to do it.

I’ve never been offered drugs and none of our friends do drugs either. But I’m aware it’s out there. I’m not even sure how the kids that do it even get hold of it ?

I think you're missing the point. I don't see this as saying "oh do a bit of Charlie, you won't develop a life shattering addiction". It's more like saying "most people who take cocaine do not develop life shattering addictions and this is partly why those around them are oblivious to their habit".

People mostly use it as a "straightener" when you're drinking. It feels like it sobers you up.

They are a heart attack or stroke waiting to happen.

I know how common it is, but you’re right, so many people are very naive about it, which is very concerning when they are parents. Even reading this thread, there’s a strong “not in my area”, “not my friends”, “not my social group”, “not the people I know” … and I can tell you, categorically that “yes”, it IS in your area, it is in your social group, your friendship group, and unless you acknowledge and address this it will also be your children.
Your 13 year old son will be playing football with his friends at the park, and they will be approached and spoken to on a semi regular basis to build a “friendship”offered a free vape, free cigarettes, bit of weed, …. coke ….. ecstasy ….. all free at first, then at a very low cost, “pay me next week”
and before they realise it, they’re in debt to some very nasty people. Who will let them off, if they sell it to their friends.
A line of coke will set them back less than a can of Coca Cola, in the beginning.
Be watchful of your children. Keep communication open with them. Ask about their day. Let them know that you are a safe space, someone they can confide in. Be alert for behavioural changes. Educate yourselves about drugs. Know what they look like. Know the signs. Know their street names.

Not remotely common or indeed ever witnessed in my mid-40s/Oxbridge/London/professional circles. A couple of people have said they tried it once or twice in their 20s (not me) but it’s just not a thing. We like cocktails, beers and single malt (not me these days now I have a baby). A lot of people have cut down drinking too for health reasons. My drug of choice is tea 😆

I’d judge someone who said they were a coke user due to the harm it causes and the funding of organised crime. Would never touch it myself!

Yeah I drink 10 pints at the weekend, that doesn’t affect me or my long term health either 😏. (That was sarcasm in case the drugs have addled your brain).
Just shows how dim a lot of the British public are.

MN alerted me to how widely used it is as I've never seen or known a user.

And of course watching or reading about the huge volume of drugs entering the country, highlights that many a nostril and elsewhere is being powdered. Supply and demand.

What sickens me is not the naivety though, but the sheer hypocrisy surrounding using. The same fuckers using, will be the ones bleating about all the crime a trade they support casually breeds.
They also be among those demanding the police is tough on crime, when the criminals are feeding their filthy appetites.
And of course, we all know the exploitation involved in this awful trade these respectable professionals support.

Er, I never said anyone who touches coke will be "robbing grannies" or prostituting themselves. I SAID that coke affects your brain in highly negative and damaging ways, which it does.

Just because you dont want to believe it doesnt make it untrue.

It can also cause heart issues/strokes if your habit is chronic and long enough, even if you are functional and holding down a job.

I think people who say "not in my circle of friends" are just oblivious. There may not be a lot of people who do it regularly and for whom it became a serious issue, but A LOT of people who go out on weekend do it - "normal" people, in my case teachers, for example. No one thinks twice about it, its like drinking to them. Even to the point one of people I know got very surprised when he got arrested for possession - he was not even thinking he is doing anything wrong.

I dont do anything as I dont go out and have health issues, but I'm not blind/ deaf.

If there has been a 12% increase each year for 5 year of cocaine related deaths, imagine in the next decade.
That's not counting the violent deaths influenced by cocaine.

I admit I was/am very naive about how many people use it. I met a whole group of people via my best friend (bf is very good friends with them) and it was a normal Friday night for them. I was shocked. I don’t want to be around people on coke so I stay home which is a bit dull but I can’t bear it.

Believe me many steal, beg and borrow for their cocaine habit including from their granny, as for prostitution, drug dealers are never short in offers for sexual favours.
When the debt rises, you need to find cash.

Nobody is disbelieving anything. Those of us who are more educated about the drug are trying to explain that the usual "druggie" behavioural stereotypes arent typically relevant to cocaine, and that is why people have no idea that their husbands and daughters indulge.

I think there are a lot of people who genuinely don’t go out on the weekends, especially in the Mumsnet demographic. I am 42 and haven’t been clubbing for a long time. If I go out it’s with my close friends and none of us do coke. My friends who are school parents don’t go out, some don’t even go for lunch with old friends as they don’t travel outside of the local area.

I agree that loads of people do coke, but there are also loads of people who don’t. When my daughter did Young Voices at the NEC there were parents worried about driving there because of the ‘gun problem’ in Birmingham. Some people have very small lives.

It's so widespread. Nights out in my 20s, waiting for a toilet cubicle, you'd get 4 people squeeze out of one sniffing and wiping noses. I think most of the people I worked with did coke at the weekends. Someone I used to work with was a raging coke head and he's now a Lib Dem councillor with a squeaky clean persona.

Well you seem to think that it only impacts professional so no need for extreme measures to make money.
I don't think you're very well informed.

Yes, so many people use drugs and not just youngsters at nightclubs. Most aim to use 'sensibly' and feel they can handle occasional use but for some it backfires and becomes a full addiction with all the social consequences along with it. I've known people from both groups.

Nobody said that either. What was said is that crack affects your lifestyle in a very different way to cocaine. I really think you don't have any experience of this at all, do you?

Oh come on. There's a bit between the extremes you"re suggesting.

Just to add, local sports clubs are also rife with cocaine use. As are the schools. In my sons year, it was estimated that at age 15, 70% of the year group had tried “soft drugs” like weed. 50% were smoking weed regularly and 30% had tried harder drugs like cocaine and ecstasy, with around 20% using them regularly. This is in a high performing school, in a lovely suburban town, with a extremely low reported crime rate. In 25 years of living here, I literally know of 1 unprovoked attack, and very few “fights”, no gangs, I don’t even lock my house doors, and wouldn’t hesitate to walk home alone at 3am.