To ask: if you are an occasional cocaine user, are you aware how you appear to others?

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I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few weeks so am interested in views.

I don't take any drugs myself and drink very little but am not personally that judgemental about those who indulge more than I do. I have a few friends who smoke weed occasionally, and likewise a few who on a 'big night out' will have some coke. I'm often the least drunk person on a big night out and am fine with that: everyone makes different life choices.

But increasingly I find the cocaine use absolutely unbearable and it made me wonder... do people who occasionally use coke realise how boring, selfish, cold and weird it makes them appear to others? For me, it is a whole different ballgame to drunkenness or even other drug-taking: alcohol makes you slur your words a bit and be more emotional/giggly/free of inhibitions, weed makes you a bit dopey, but I just find coke does something absolutely horrific to people. Plus there is the whole 'sneaking off into the bathroom/shared private joke' thing that I just find incredibly rude and excluding to those who aren't involved. If it's so socially acceptable why not just do it off the dining room table, in the same way you'd happily enjoy a glass of wine alongside teetotallers?

I know that occasional coke use isn't uncommon so I'm just curious: if you either do it or once did it, did you realise it made you like this and just not care, or would you have thought I was the boring party pooper?

I am only around other coke users so this is not a concern. And even when not doing coke but around other coke users I never found them especially boring - no.

The deaths in Venezuela tonight had zero to do with drugs and everything to do with US colonialism and quest for cheap oil.

Yes but you're odd man out in that group because you don't take it! Why should they change to accommodate you?

Same. I also think it's funny that OP thinks that coke users are 'rude and self absorbed' yet expects others to change their habits to accommodate her. To me, that's the definition of 'rude and self absorbed'!

@UneAnneeSansLumiere Where did I say I expect others to change to accommodate me? I don't expect any such thing. I was just curious to know whether they were aware how they appear to others. And I'm not alone in my perception of this, judging by the rest of this thread. Your incredibly defensive response suggests that something I have said concerns you...

But I'm fully aware that if I don't like hanging out with them when they're like this, I need to distance myself. I certainly don't expect them to change for me!

Me too.

@Snowmaidenly are you unbothered by the trade behind cocaine? You make it sound so civilised and exclusive.

Yes @Dappy777; it's well known that no one right of centre takes any illegal drugs.

@Billyvoo2 Can assure you I'm not a journalist - if only. That would be much easier. I'm a genuine person trying to work out how to navigate a situation I occasionally find really difficult with this particular group of friends. I think the answer is just that I avoid being with them on big nights after about 9pm. Which is a shame in a way, but I can't see any way around it.

I've done very little coke in my time, though everyone around me did. I don't get on well with 'fast' drugs, and can talk endless bollocks without chemical assistance: even more so with a drink! I love booze.

It seems to me there are people who hate and/or are terrified of 'losing control', and people who really enjoy it. I'm in the latter group. All of human history has been characterised by wild, raucous gatherings where people could surrender to crowd euphoria, letting go of individual responsibility and propriety for a few joyous hours or days. They may have framed it with different trappings and rituals, but we now know they consumed a range of drugs and alcohol with their feasts and music.

For professionals, cocaine has the advantages of a stimulant - particularly attractive if you need to perform at work after an intense night. It speeds up your thought processes; your thoughts may be strangely random and unfocussed, but at least they're quick! It's not too hard to give up when you have to, according to my previously snow-nosed friends, so doesn't feel like too much of a risk.

My millennial/Z pals tell me they're doing more ketamine than coke these days. I have no idea how this works - the only time I tried it I got raped, which naturally put me off. I enjoy consciously losing control, not being zombified! Today's Young People may have some methods for using ket more safely, I dunno.

😂😂😂😂😂

Yes, dancing on coke is a weird one. Surprised so many people say it makes them want to dance. The few times I’ve tried it, it hasn’t had that effect at all.

You also make a good point about how there’s etiquette around drugs, as much as people like to think it’s all about reckless abandon. In my social circle, anyone who over-does it, on any drug (incl. alcohol) and makes people feel uncomfortable would be called out / faded out of future gatherings.

In my experience people who are already dickheads are more dickish on coke. Lots of people are fine, but on the whole people who use coke do it with other people using coke, so if they’re boring then they can bore each other. Mind you, being around people drink a lot when you’re sober can sometimes be tedious as is being around someone stoned when you’re not.

Snap it’s just gross.🤢🤮😂

Totally agree it is very hard to hang out with people on coke when sober! Its also pretty much always heavily cut with benzocaine in the uk…shoving loads of industrial strength anesthetic in your face adds to the weird effect it has on people. It is really moreish though.

Couldn't agree more. We can all argue about whether the various mind-altering substances humanity has discovered should be available legally or not, but putting that to one side for now, cocaine, heroin, weed etc are not currently available legally, and tobacco and alcohol smuggled in to avoid tax are also illegal. Anybody buying them is putting money into the hands of violent amoral criminals who have ruined millions of lives because their lust for money is more important to them than anybody else's happiness and safety. God only knows what else it's funding. Join the dots!

Having spent my teens and 20s deeply into the free party scenes in the regions I lived in, I can't countenance drug use now, for the reasons cited by @ExtraOnions . I roll my eyes so hard at people who think of occasional dabbling in recreational drugs as harmless. Sure, it might not impact the individual beyond the usual grim expected outcomes, but drugs leave a trail of violence, loss, displacement, coercion, threat, poverty, abuse and disease, and casual drug users make themselves complicit in this harm which touches the lives of men, women and children whom they've never met. So that's what I see when I become aware of acquaintances using recreational drugs; a massive empathy-fail. How can it be enjoyable when you know the use underpins so much human misery?

Well said.

I mean there are all kinds of people I find boring. Drug users don’t stand out especially.

I find drunks (when I am sober) far more annoying than drug users.

I have a couple of family members (a couple) who use cocaine recreationally and they are deeply twattish about it. They also drink a lot and validate their choices by suggesting anyone who doesn’t indulge like they do/think it’s really cool is in fact just boring and stuck up. For context, they are in their 60s now, and believe me when I say it is only them who consider their behaviour ‘cool’ in any way.

Can someone please tell a certain president that coke makes you look a bit of a twat?

I read about this seemingly common cocaine use on here and wonder if I live in a weird virtuous bubble as nobody I know would so much as touch the stuff! I've never seen or heard of it being taken, and my friends and family all like a good night and happily have a few drinks etc. But none would even consider drug use!

I think it’s lazy entertainment if used all the time

people on it think everything they are saying is a pearl of wisdom 🥱

I think most people who do coke know what people who do coke are like but they don’t care that much because they are having fun and (as you say) their night is quite focused on the drugs and other people doing the drugs.

I would say this is the only answer. The unfortunate truth is that they won’t care if you are there or not if they are on the gear.

@tobee I'll get slated for it, but honestly, I don't believe that my 1-3g per year is propping up the business any more than my 1-2 commercial flights per year are causing climate change. It's just not a meaningful contribution on the global scale.

The problems of the drug trade are systematic problems, largely caused by prohibition which puts it in the hands of criminals.
For drugs, we're still in the same mindset as Prohibition era America was on booze. That didn't work either, and had exactly the same effect. Humans have been taking mind altering substances as long as there have been humans.

Increasing global legalisation of weed has shown there are other ways of looking at controlling drug use and the harms that result from it. Increasing research is finding many ways that LSD, Ecstacy, psilocybin etc can be used to help mental health problems in appropriate settings. Ketamine, cocaine and heroin are used medically for anaesthesia and pain relief. Prescription opioid addiction is the fastest growing drug addiction. From what I recall of the research I've read, addiction rates are around 10% for the most addictive drugs like crystal meth and heroin. Google tells me that it's a similar percentage for socially acceptable alcohol.

Legalising and reverting to traditional, lower strength ways of consuming things such as coca leaf, opium and weed would take the strengths down and diminish the social harms, whilst allowing people to relax in ways they do choose anyway. It would also mean that it could be quality controlled, and there would be more open and well informed discussions about the actual risks, rather than the hyperbolic approach that's often seen currently in the debate.

Things I'm more concerned about currently: Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, energy and water use and pollution caused by AI and data centre growth, the as yet not fully known impacts of forever chemicals, UPF and environmental pollution on the endocrine systems, physical and mental health of humans, the systematic dopamine addiction being created by tech companies in all app users. And that's my top of head list.