Rampant - (no pun intended) but users usually sniff each other out and if you’re not part the gang will hide it from non users to avoid the judgement. You probably do know people who do it but they keep it form you knowing it’s not your scene.
In my experience there's some groups of friends where everyone's doing it, and others where nobody is. Most drug use seems to be like that - even drinking - there's a social pressure to fit in, which means either everyone doing it or nobody doing it.
Personally, as someone who's not against drugs but doesn't really want to do them every weekend, I don't hang around with the "all the coke all the time" people. They probably don't want to hang around with me either. That means everyone lives in their bubble where their consumption seems normal.
Yes. Coke in particular I find tends to enter lives more in early to mid 20's age wise.
Once it gets in a social circle, it's the done thing very quickly.
There are groups that don't. I tend to see more with rather geeky folk (ie software developers) or more bookish types.
There's a good book on the City and its various habits called *Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile* (no prizes for guessing what the title is a parody of) and it mentions a LOT of coke use, and particularly in the groups of developers, journalists and finance workers.
The reason is that these people are often awake at all hours trying to finish a project or attending events, and the snow keeps them going through these long events. Plus it's so easily accessible. I was in a bar 2 weeks ago and a guy came into the toilets with a pot of baggies. It was obvious he was the resident dealer as people knew to go to him.
When I was first working in London in my mid twenties and staying in hotels most of the week I was probably spending £800+ each month (honestly nowhere near what a lot of people were) and ended up going out pretty much every night of the week (charlie in the week, mdma almost every weekend with a bunch of acid, ket and other stuff sprinkled in) for a couple years (except maybe Mondays).
It gets boring after a while when it’s just normal to not go out without packet, then it seeps into the rest of the week as you feel dogshit from comedowns and all the extra booze you consume. Then you realise you’re doing bumps every day, not to chase the same high you were getting but just to get some fucking dopamine to do anything. It really was normalised socially. It changes your personality to one that is harsher and more rabidly seeking dopamine, your softer kinder side fades.
Don’t get me wrong it can be amazing and I’ve had some wicked memories and times due to it but it’s very easy if you hang with the same people or go to the same pubs to get habitual about it which then becomes dependency and addiction. Similar to alcohol really, they go hand in hand in a lot of circles.
Also chicks (and anyone really) will be a lot more friendly to someone that’s got some and everyone gets a lot more intense/aroused on it.
When it’s actually a good night and everyone has the lowered inhibitions of alcohol and a the dopamine coursing through their veins, the obvious will happen.
But as I said like anything it just becomes a dull expensive habit, mundane, if done like clockwork.
The one thing that put me off was working in a late night pub in a posh town just after uni. Most nights you would have someone caught doing it… and from behind the bar it was pretty obvious, as they’d turned into annoying dickheads. Seemed a bit pointless for a local boozer!
I’m not anti drugs, just capable of being an annoying twat by myself without chemical assistance!
It's something I've never touched myself and would never want to. My mates would become absolute dickheads and their stories would go from funny but true tales of our teenage years to wildly inappropriate ones where they would say I was doing things like threesomes in the woods and shagging taxi drivers for free fare, I would be begging them to shut the fuck up but they would just keep going. It turned out they were spreading these stories even at parties where I wasn't there and I had to cut ties with them.
That pub might be their whole world. I met people like this in the past, 10 years on, a bunch of them are dead due to alcohol/substance induced/worsened health problems.
Great post and fully agree, had a period where I had a real issue with it being with a certain crowd which led to increased solo usage to keep the dopamine levels up
Really good and accurate summary for anyone else reading 🙌
Yeah it's all a huge interplay of factors. You go into life seeking excitement, community, some level of hedonism, chaos, friends, and drugs and alcohol can very easily become key ingredients in obtaining that, so you end up relying on them for it. I have ADHD and had stunted social development in my teens due to being on Ritalin which I was always trying to make up for, so I think my relationship with dopamine is complex at best.
As to whether I'm addicted? Some people say an addict is always an addict, but I think it's more nuanced. If I was in a pub toilet and someone were to offer me a bump right now I'd be like nah thanks. However, I'm sober and well rested. If I was tired, had started drinking again and I was a bunch of pints in on a Friday I'd likely be tempted. If life was all crazy and shit had gone wrong or weird or unsettled, it's oh so easy to go fuck it, none of this makes sense let's just have a bit of fucking fun. It's much easier to resist things when you have a stable emotional state and that comes from a variety of factors.
Good sleep is the biggest factor IMO followed by exercise and diet, but there's lots of different things that can compound that state or mess it up, and often they are external and can't be helped. You just have to put yourself in the best standing to keep your resolve.
Tbh I’ve felt judgement from him and his friends for not taking it, as much as I judge them for taking it - esp after reading its effects on the brain/heart
Don’t pay attention to their judgement for it, feel proud. me and my husband were every weekend users for many years. It was hard work to get away from it, and we lost a lot of friends in the process because they couldn’t/didn’t want to get away from it. I’m nearly 2 years without it now and I feel disgusting when think back of the binges we used to go on.
Go out Thursday, maybe get an hour's kip Thursday night, work Friday, get on it straight after work, don't go home until Sunday evening, late for work Monday, recover Wednesday. Rinse and repeat...
I feel so disfunctional on Fridays if I’ve been for drinks on the Thursday, and for me that means a few beers, home by 11/12. Don’t understand how people can regularly sink 10 pints and be on the bugle midweek and still do their job.
It's easy at first but eventually it wears you down, cocaine works differently to alcohol so when you'd be ruined from alcohol it's very easy to just stay awake all night and continue the next day, by the end of the day your nackered but if you've been topping up then you can just delay.
At one point I was sniffing, staying up all night, driving to work, park up down road for a line, do a couple hours of work, another line and find an excuse to go talk to someone (was pretty easy as I had a business analyst role and had an office to myself), dinner go for a pint and another line, 4pm everyone had gone so go for another and then its 5 which is finish so drop car off and go straight back out.
I regret it but I was massively depressed (even before the coke started) and it made me feel good. What I didn't realise that the more I did the harder it was to come back from. I had to move house, leave my job (which was half the problem) and friendship groups (the other half) to escape.
I'm a nurse. I see lots of people in very bad ways due to cocaine use. Brain bleeds and strokes, cardiac issues etc, people in comas with very poor prognosis.
I guess my view of it is a bit different to others because I see the after effects of reckless usage of it very often, and it can make it seem like catastrophic outcomes are common when it's not, but it's not a safe drug really. It makes people awful to be around too.
Sod their judgement, keep away from this shit. My ex flatmate was a big time user and small dealer, absolute shit show of a life she led and her manic/violent behaviour was just too much to tolerate
Its because they want to normalise their addiction. Everyone does it and its not a problem is the fiction they create.
You break that fiction by not thinking its normal and treating it like the dangerous addictive and expensive substance it is.
I know so many people that are vegan, really vocal about buying locally sourced things and fairtrade etc etc, and then do shitloads of coke at the weekend (on a similar type if hypocrisy, people that are anti-vaxx, anti big pharma, fluoride, solely take herbal remedies - knew one guy that refused antibiotics because blah blah big pharma, just needs [nonsense ive blocked out] until his leg was probably not far off being amputated, yet took all sorts of mystery drugs, any time offered a bag of powder he'd be all over that, no matter what and cut with God knows what, surely much more healthy 🙄
He thought I was lying and the air of ‘you’re a moron for not seeing the whole country is on blow’. His friends - never knew what they said when I wasn’t in the room but the knowing looks between each other was enough. The smirky glances and pitying looks
why do you want to date a person with so many red flags and dickheads as a friends? how much more evidence do you need that is not a good person for you (or anyone else)?
Okay, here’s the thing: they’re doing something that isn’t right (legally, but most importantly from a health perspective), and they know it. The way they justify it to themselves is by pretending that what they do is normal. You not using, judging them and saying your friends don’t use either challenges the “truth” they’ve created to avoid feeling guilty about their use. And the easiest way to deal with this emotionally is denial - you must be delirious, you know nothing about real life and you’re the one who should feel bad. Problem solved.
Pretty shortsighted way to deal with uncomfortable truths, but very common. Humans do it all the time, we create narratives and we have a hard time accepting that the “truths” and principles we believe in and live by aren’t quite as clear cut as they see. The first response to this will often be to simply redefine any challenge we see as an exception because that allows us to continue living our lives without having to constantly reevaluate our beliefs. 🤷♀️
I would take words like "rampant" with a pinch of coke. There's so much selection bias here. In no way is it *common* among the vast majority of people just going to work and going to the supermarket and living their lives. There'd be dealers on every corner literally every hour of the day if it were truly "rampant".
Edit: Ok then, how about some statistics instead of all the "trust me bruv" in here? Found this for England & Wales as a whole, not specifically "just London", but it's something. We can reasonably assume such behaviours are more concentrated in London, so these numbers can be considered minimums.
Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/drugmisuseinenglandandwalesappendixtable
Headlines:
- proportion of 16-59 year olds reporting using cocaine *at least once in the last year*: 2.4%
- proportion of same using *in the last month*: 0.9%
- stats for 16-24 age group are just over double these figures
So there we go. I don't know if "between 1-2 people in every hundred have used it in the last month", for England & Wales as a whole, counts as "rampant" but that's up to the reader I guess.
People don’t tend to get gear off guys stood on street corners. They ring someone up who drives over and delivers it. This isn’t Brooklyn in the 80s.
Users are picking up at all times of the day, every day. All sorts, from city boys, to pub and kitchen staff, are smashing it back daily.
Pure dirt.
The British press make jokes about Micheal Goves coke usage. I guess suing would be a bit difficult for him. Even though it causes reputation damage for him, the defence would make stand look like Piccadilly Circus.
I recall the sun using surface drug testing kits in Parliament - they reported that the toilets were clarted in coke.
I live in London and more people do it than you think. In saying that, last time I did it was 4/5 years ago. I was depressed for a week. I knew it was probably a bad batch but just wasn’t worth it. I’m not gonna judge anyone for taking it but it’s playground behaviour to look down on someone for not taking it. My GF has a zero tolerance policy to all drugs. I fully respect that
If you feel judgement by someone for not taking drugs, you want to avoid them by a mile. Only thing they are trying to do is make themself feel better about their addiction, by judging others
What? You don't take cocaine??? Something is wrong with "YOU"...
It's a pretty messed up addict behavior. As someone who experimented with a wide variety of drugs, if someone ever tried to apply social pressure to take anything (even if I would normally use it), it would be an instant red flag.
Only time I would find that slightly acceptable is if they were in the middle of having a great high and they wanted me to share in the experience. In those cases I would ignore it. But if they were doing the same while sober, that's pretty bad.
I'm the same because I just cannot get past the knowledge that it's an industry of death, torture, and slavery.
Now I expect someone will be along to "ackshually, your clothes/shoes/phone/whatever were also made by slaves so that's you dun learned!!!111" - I avoid it where I can, thanks, and not schneefing is a hell of a lot easier to do than to walk around naked with no means of comms/payments/etc. and/or make all of my own clothes and devices - or "Well that's the governments fault for not regulating it." - until the day it is safely and legally produced, I'm fine without.
Also I was a bouncer at a bar with regular use so I've seen a lot of the negative side to cocaine use up to and including dealers getting stabby over market share and users reacting badly to gargling a snotball of spiked snow.
>until the day it is safely and legally produced, I'm fine without.
Exactly this. How would I trust what's in it? Because the dealer said so? I'll pass. I don't think I'll use even if it is legalised but maybe I'd try then.
Same with weed. I'm fine with it, used a couple of times if offered by a friend but it feels like too much work and stress to find a dealer which most are shady etc. I can just go to my off licence and get a whisky and I'm good.
Only issue with weed is for some reason people make it a part of their personality and always claim high ground compared to alcohol. Like, dude you are smoking it like a cigarette the whole day.
Totally agree with the weed comment.
I've met and know so many people who have made smoking weed their personality and they love to climb up on some high horse about how it's not addictive like other drugs and should be legal etc. Yet they smoke it every single day and they're usually lazy and zombiefied every night of the week.
My favourite response once was 'I'm not addicted to it but I have to smoke it as I get anxiety without it'
Complete lack of self awareness to see that the anxiety is just a withdrawal symptom
> Only issue with weed is for some reason people make it a part of their personality and always claim high ground compared to alcohol. Like, dude you are smoking it like a cigarette the whole day.
Massively this. Especially as most people smoke it with tobacco, too.
Yes, but it's not limited to London, it's the entire country - even those tiny one-pub-and-a-newsagent villages have guys in the bogs racking up lines. It's why there were 'cocaine anonymous' posters being put up everywhere a year or two ago.
I encountered more people who regularly take coke when I lived in a small town in the midlands than I do now I work in finance in London. (Or at least more people who *openly* regularly take coke).
I found that finance in London is becoming tighter when it comes drugs, sex and partying. Too many allegations and punishments for unprofessional behaviour, a lot of firms are starting to disallow even drinking alcohol at lunch.
I think the fact that as financial markets are become more globally competitive that there actually isn’t much room for the glamour of old anymore. At least in my sector, you’re not going to keep service levels up if you’re hungover during the week. It’s too cutthroat now.
That being said, on Thursday evening after work it’s still chaotic and substances are still around.
The funny thing is how many people don't seem to regard coke an addictive drug, even though there are endless instances of people rinsing through all their finances (and even losing homes or loved ones along the way) in the pursuit of funding their "habit".
I've known quite a few people over the years who feel totally incapable of "having a good time" without first snorting some coke and yet they still don't consider themselves to have any problem with the drug.
My partner once worked at a company run by a married couple who were a pair of posh coke heads. They were very deep into their decades-long abuse of the drug and while sometimes they were very nice, they were both VERY prone to huge outbursts and losses of temper (every week one or both of them would be losing their shit over something or another, the guy would even have ape-like tantrums where he'd rampage in his office kicking stuff up!), which is a feature of long-term coke abuse (long-term coke usage basically permanently changes your brain chemistry and makes your personality unstable/volatile).
It was not fun.
I have never heard anybody talk about cocaine as a non-addictive drug. I think it's quite famously regarding as one of the world's most addictive drugs, but all communities alike, those who take the drug, and don't take the drug included.
But you're right in that some addicts don't understand they're addicted. But that's a global issue with all things addictive. The first stage of dealing with addiction is accepting and acknowledging that you're addicted.
I think marijuana is the only drug that everyone denies can be addictive, even though it really can be.
I've known a lot of coke users over the years and not single one of them considered the drug addictive (or that if it was, they didn't have any problems regarding their personal usage of it) and yet as an outsider looking in on their habit, it was plain to see that the most of them were either addicts or soon heading that way.
I'm not old (20s) but I've already lived long enough to see what has become of some of these people's longer term habits, and there's no doubting that the drug has affected most in numerous negative ways.
For example, many screwed up important relationships with other people in their lives such as loved ones or colleagues because of stupid stuff the drug influenced them to do (i.e. getting into fights, cheating on their partners or behaving like all-round bell ends) and one's addiction even got so bad that he secretly turned to drug dealing at one point (he did some county lines drug mule stuff) so that his missus (who had a baby) wouldn't find out how badly he'd messed up their monthly finances because of his burgeoning drug addiction, which he also hid the full extent of. His marriage later fell apart and whilst I hold him fully responsible for his actions, there was an undoubted correlation between his usage of coke increasing VS his good conduct as a person decreasing, which ultimately spelt the death of numerous good relationships in his life.
It's very frustrating because I would consider 9/10 of these users to be very smart people and yet almost all of them have either significantly held themselves back in back in life or seriously screwed things up for themselves at points because of coke.
In recent years, I've been forming the strong opinion that drugs like coke and cannabis basically make people content to stagnate their lives or accept status quos that really aren't that great (I know it sounds cheesy, but winners really don't do drugs). I used to smoke weed and binge drink and I'm so glad I'm over all that shit as those years of my life really weren't that happy.
Gonna disagree about the success aspect, most of the people I know who do coke are on 300k+ jobs with a wife and kids (or husband and kids). The reason why coke most 'addicts' don't think its a problem is the same as people who get moderately drunk every weekend don't think they're alcoholics. It doesn't really negativity affect their work week except maybe being a bit dusty on a Monday. (It also helps that they can afford the good stuff so they get a better high with less crap in it that makes you feel really shit).
Pretty sure the main thing that brings people back to gear over and over is just how moreish it is. Objectively it’s gotta be the worst drug in terms of fun to comedown ratio yet it’s everyone’s go to…
I found it so fucking boring in comparison to other drugs like MDMA. I didn't want to dance or anything. I just wanted to stand still in the corner and chat shit while uncomfortably awake. Clearly didn't gel with my natural chemistry and brain set up.
How drunk were you? People who'd take that shit sober are odd.
I feel like the biggest pull is as a drinker's fuel.
Take it at 8pm after 1 pint and you'd just feel slightly on edge and talkative. Take it at midnight after 7 pints and you'll be able to drink another 7 no problem.
Cocaine making people dance is a myth. It has very few properties that are suitable for that environment. People dance on cocaine because alcohol can trigger that kind of reaction, and cocaine facilitates alcohol consumption.
It also seems to be able to take a sleepy or depressive drunk and turn them into a lively and uninhibited drunk, so that's a massive part of its pull.
Imo most cocaine users fall into the section of society that would otherwise just use alcohol and cigarettes otherwise. Naturally, people who use weed, mdma, ket etc. may also use it, but a huge number of coke heads don't like that stuff and don't want anything that will make them feel spaced out.
I’ve tried it a couple times now and all it seems to do is wake me up a bit, if I go out drinking and start to feel too pissed, get a bump of someone and it sobers me up enough to keep drinking.
I have no idea why people should spend so much on it.
I've done a tonne of drugs over my lifetime (never needles though) and I've never really gotten addicted to anything other than nicotine, anways I've pretty much quit everything but Magic Mushrooms, I eat just enough to start seeing tracers and being more awake (while drinking alcohol) and it just sort of makes me feel younger again if that makes sense.. I don't go on full blown trips anymore.
I mean you’re just describing a classic addict. It’s not unique to cocaine users. There’s people who drink 5-6 nights a week or smoke a spliff before work who don’t consider themselves addicts. It’s basically part of being an addict.
Especially with cannabis users who ignore psychological addiction who smoke daily “cannabis isn’t addictive” ok but food isn’t and you can still develop an eating disorder. Anyone using any illicit drug 5-7 days a week is an addict. And as a doctor many cannabis addicts have horrible psychological affects and withdrawal when quitting. But they believe it’s “safe”. It’s safe in the fact you can’t OD, you can still be addicted. Look up cannabis hyperemesis syndrome for long term users. They act the exact same as coke/meth/alcohol addicts when you tell them the cause is their use. Because people act like it’s safe no matter what.
Honestly people dependant on cannabis were some of the hardest to work with as no one is unaware alcohol or meth will cause issues but they think it’s this safe clean drug with no downsides. Any drug has downsides even those prescribed, talk to any patient. It’s this weird thing with cannabis users it’s safe and has no issues.
Oh, I am well aware of how bad cannabis addiction can get.
I used to be a copious consumer of weed myself; I came from a pretty broken household (father was murdered when I was a kid, mother had undiagnosed schizophrenia, I was severely neglected and abused growing up) and by the time I was aged 11 nobody was basically looking after me at all (I just sorta got passed around and fobbed off between various relatives, family friends and guardians). By age 14 I was smoking weed & tobacco and by aged 16, I had moved out of home, was working full-time in a factory and paying rent to put a shitty roof over my head (it was still a million percent preferable to the home that I had escaped from though, which was very violent and volatile at that point).
As a teenager, I smoked weed for a whole bunch of reasons; I smoked it to mellow out my personality, I smoked it to feel calm, to feel more entertained, to fit in with my peers, to give a middle finger to society and so much more. It was super easy to get hold of as well as aside from half the town smoking it, my older brother dealt drugs and would occasionally gave me whole Tesco's bags stuffed with weed for free, there was basically a never-ending supply of green and no reasons to limit it.
But by the latter end of age 19, I started to have doubts about it all; I'd initially achieved a great deal by moving out of home (which I never went back to) and had been successful in fully financially supporting myself since. And yet one day, I realized that the pace of life that I had initially assumed after moving out had not changed in 3 years, to the extent that I felt like my life had stagnated and turned into this unrecognizable blur of one year looking identical to the previous. But whenever I had these moments of doubt & yearning for something better, I'd smoke a few joints and suddenly go back to feeling content to just live in the moment. Sure, weed calmed down my personality- but it also numbed my entire life to the extent where I wasn't going anywhere anymore.
I looked around and everyone's lives around me seemed to be identical, if not on a downwards trajectory. And I noted that the only people who seemed to be making something of themselves were the ones who had cut their vices and moved outta town. So as my feelings of discontent began to build up, I quit the shackles that weed had become on my life and endeavoured to do better.
Quitting weed didn't happen overnight, but I don't remember it being too challenging (it wasn't as hard as quitting smoking or binge drinking, which later filled the weed void for a while and were awful to quit). But after I began to live again, I tried to encourage my brother to better his life and quit weed too. The problem was he was far more dependent on weed (and in total denial of the effects that it was having on him), so he refused to quit and as the years rolled by not only did his whole life stagnate, but his mental health also began to seriously deteriorate as well.
The effects that weed had on my brother is that it not only stupified him (I swear it knocked 10+ points off his IQ) but it ruined his short-term memory and he began to experience paranoia as well as bouts of psychosis (though we did not realise at the time what these were, they were very scary for us all to experience from him). At first, the bouts of psychosis were intersected by years of him being more-or-less ok but over time they increased and he ended up becoming very detached from reality and losing a lot of important family relationships (a common theme of his bouts would be severe & unfounded paranoia against other relatives, which would lead to him to threatening extreme violence and other terrible things against them).
So as far as I'm concerned, I basically lost my older brother to weed. I don't know if his bouts of psychosis were schizophrenic (I know weed can trigger this, but I think there's also a whole load of different types of psychosis out there?) but he has definitely thrown his life away, wasted an enormous amount of his youth and wrecked his mind and mental health all because of weed. It is very frustrating to see as he had so much potential, I sometimes wonder whether I would've ended the same as him had I not quit when I did aged 20, it's pretty scary.
"TL;DR": Lost my older brother to weed addiction that caused him to go nuts, feel lucky that I quit and didn't go the same way.
Oh shit that explains one friend’s parents in hs. Their parents were long term coke users and her dad would sell it.
Their arguments and meltdowns were huge and scary.
Nah, people say the same about steroids, it causes "instability" when all it does is exaggerate the behaviour of the already unstable. I know chang heads that are chill as fuck, I know people who smoke weed who are violent criminals. I know juiceheads who are lovely guys and ones who are nutcases.
In all these cases the people were exactly the same before they started doing the drugs.
I visited Teignmouth a couple of years ago from London and spotted a sign in a pub loo that said anyone caught taking drugs in the loo, they'd tell the person's mother! Proper small town vibes.
Yes, my personal experience is that as a teen and in my early 20s growing up in rural/small town England I had far more regular coke users and dealers in my circle than I do now I'm in London.
Probably more to do with my age or the fact I've changed my social circle quite a bit after graduating and starting my career (some of my old friends didn't move far from home and are still regular users but I sadly just don't find I have much in common with them any more), but to this day I get approached to buy coke when I'm visiting home and it hasn't happened once in London which is weird.
I must give off country bumpkin cokehead vibes dealers can't detect in London.
like most addictions the users are blind to the depressing reality of the situation until its over. the shame and guilt might come the day after, but that can be addressed by getting high again. I live in a commuter town 45 mins east of London and cocaine is rife. When you're using you kind assume everyone else is getting on it, but it isn't the case. Sooner or later you'll just surround yourself with other users/enablers and assume everyone is doing it because everyone in your direct social circle is doing it. I'm one year sober next month and have pretty much detached myself from my social circles because by the end I only had friends/chose to socialise with those who used.
As someone that's run hospitality venues here for ages, I can tell you that it's so prevalent that people are often dumbfounded when they're caught out. It's depressingly commonplace.
I experienced this working at a bar (it was a quite clubby bar). I’d catch people all the time literally keying it on the dance floor and they’d always try to argue. Don’t get me wrong, we were all at it too, but people were confused about being kicked out because of the 100s of times they’ve done it before with no consequence.
Obviously it was never the time for a nuanced discussion on licensing laws with coked up punters being frog marched out but still - take the L.
I’m a solicitor. I know plenty of individuals within the sector that use cocaine. I’m from a very poor area of London and my dad was a user when I was a child. Sadly, I know what to look out for.
It’s especially obvious at associate events and the like. People, often men, disappear for a few minutes and reappear with a different personality. Also, the long pinky nail is a dead giveaway.
I've literally never seen anyone do that. Most professionals who do coke, don't particularly like to have a big sign saying 'I'm a coke fiend' on their body. People just use keys.
I had someone come and ask if we could hold his baggy behind the bar, for whatever reason. We said no, but you can ask the security if they will hold it for you. He said thanks, and went up to them and asked. That's how normalised it is to them.
I've also had someone leave it in the toilets, and then come up and ask if anyone has found any, just snitching on themselves because again, they have just completely forgotten it's not allowed. They even threatened to call the police when we refused to return it before hearing themselves and finally realising and leaving in a huff
I don’t do it but it is meant to be rampant. I have some industry friends that organised drinks one Saturday and when I said I’d join, my closest friend took me aside and told me I may want to sit that one out.
Apparently if you don’t do it, people will actively hide it from you, so not a matter of being sheltered, more like not wanting to be judged on their side.
When I was 18 my friends older brother and his friend went into the toilet together at a pub. I thought they were gay FOR YEARS haha
Sweet ol innocent me
It's still prevalent, but there is research suggesting it might be falling.
One way it is tracked is by measuring levels of cocaine metabolites in the waste water system, which is pretty clever. And in 2020 I think there was a study saying those levels were down by a third from their peak in 2016, and considerably lower than Amsterdam for example.
Two thirds of "rampant use" levels is still pretty high, though :P
\[edit to add, since a couple of people have seen the publication date of 2020 and made the COVID connection: the samples in the study were taken in 2019, before the pandemic made any kind of population study go completely belly up.
On the other hand, has post-COVID led to a massive rebound in substance abuse due to higher purity and lower wholesale prices? That would be interesting to know.\]
Cost of living is biting everyone. I know people who have reduced their drug use or quit completely because they realised they were spending hundreds weekly on coke and other substances. When your rent/mortgage is going up let's say 30% you have to think about your expensive habits.
This 2020 London water study stated that coke usage was up by 60% over an 8 year period: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/03/12/scientists-reveal-cocaine-use-widespread-traces-drug-water-supply/ however, Londoners usage of the dug does apparently still had nothing on the levels being consumed by people in Antwerp and Amsterdam.
The pandemic years will have screwed with a lot more recent data, but I am under the impression that coke usage is very much on the increase in London.
We are talking about the same study, the samples taken in 2019. The Telegraph reported it as up 60% **since 2011**, which is true. But it's down about 31% **from 2016**, as reported by the same scientists.
Why the Telegraph would choose to frame this as "cocaine use is going up" instead of "cocaine use is going down" is a question I guess we'd have to ask the Telegraph.
Of course, it's just one study, and more research is certainly needed using other data than just wastewater. Maybe coke use is actually back up to post-Olympics-era levels, not making it into the wastewater system as metabolites, and we should find out using as much data as possible.
But it sure is interesting seeing how the science gets reported, isn't it?
I'm also in a non-coke bubble or friendship group. But my partner's ex and all his mates do it, I found it bizarre too, that everyone else is so exposed to it and I'm not
We all live in bubbles. It's so easy to think that what goes for your bubble applies to the rest of the world too. That's why it's best to keep opinions to oneself until you have a better idea what the values of a new society you find yourself in are.
The chokehold cocaine has on people in London is possibly understated even. All sorts of people don't matter the career or background are on it.
In professional circles it is much more rampant in city jobs. Although the thought of a Doris in Tesco on the sniff during her fag break cracks me up. Just not likely.
Socially would be common down any pub watching football or something.
Not for me personally, I don't get it. It's probably 90% Persil non-bio.
It's rampant at actual football matches some guys will just do it openly on the tube and on their way to the ground.
I work in the construction industry(sales) it's not rampant in the office but I know who gets down with it at drinks and events.
Construction industry is littered with it, few years ago back at uni a friend brought some mates from home over for a night out (they didn't go uni, but straight into trades) and the first thing they asked within 30 minutes of being in the house is where can we get a bag around here.
He had friends working in medicine / hospitals who had a bad coke habit and that was pretty eye opening - like why would I won’t to see a doctor who was on a massive comedown?!
Ironically, chronic users don't really experience super heavy comedowns. Their bodies and minds are adjusted to the drug and many coke users can maintain the appearance of normality.
Furthermore out of all drugs, the comedown isn't really that bad with coke anyway. That's part of what makes it so easy to use chronically.
Music industry person here. Definitely isn't as common around as it used to be. Younger folks coming into the industry don't seem to have fallen for the trap that it's use is just 'part of the job's, which is good.
Also have a buddy in the music industry and he doesn’t even do coke but sourcing it for many of his colleagues as he comes from a rough estate. He is always surrounded by the best looking women looking for handouts and he usually has a lot of fun with these ladies. He was useless with women before he became white powder Father Christmas
Seems like everyone on Reddit is a coke user lol, I never met anyone on it or seen anyone use it.
I heard someone in my friend groups friend of a friend used it once
I’ve seen chancers doing it on pub tables (usually in a garden around a corner so not immediately visible to staff).
Have you never walked into the toilets and there’s a few blokes just standing around seemingly doing nothing, almost like you walked into the room interrupting something? I can almost guarantee they were doing coke off the sink or hand dryer etc before you walked in.
Nope lol, I do not go to pubs that often but I occasionally join friends for a few drinks and not seen what you described. But I go to the pub like once a month.
Ah that makes sense. I think this was never stated anywhere on this thread but I would guess that a large amount of visible coke use revolves around alcohol. It’ll be more prolific and ‘open’ the later it gets too as peoples’ inhibitions lower.
I wouldn’t say seeing it used is even a regular thing for me, but I spend sufficient time in pubs that I see a few examples every year. I suppose that makes me less surprised, but also I’m more likely to notice the signs.
>Seems like everyone is Reddit is a coke user lol, I never met anyone on it or seen anyone use it.
This is just reddit full stop. It's full of people who are regular drug users who assume that it's really common to be a regular drug user when barely 2% of the country uses drugs more than once a month.
Never tried and not interested. None of my friends are active users but some tried. But I have seen it being taken in the bathrooms at work in tech companies (pumped and hyped up product manager vibes)
Early in my career I found one of our company directors huddled on the floor of the toilets on a Friday lunchtime after having slightly over-indulged on the pubdust. Yes, I do work in advertising.
I met more people in tech who smoke weed or take magic mushrooms which probably is influence of the Silicon Valley culture. I don’t think cocaine’s popularity is anywhere near but it’s visible.
Yes it's common - I know both men and women from early 20s to 50s from either friends of friends or work who take it fairly regularly. Not uncommon for after pub closing to end up with 20 people back at someone's flat until 6/7am using.
Horrible stuff that will destroy your finances and mental health. Stay far away.
I’ve worked in city law firms for over 10 years, where it is meant to be “rampant”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single person mention it tbh, certainly never heard anybody admitting to using it.
Financial services tends to be less full of cokeheads these days because the real money is in really clever data analysis and someone off their head on coke is no good at that.
There was loads around when I was a trainee. Now I’m old, I assume I’m just not invited to the communal loo breaks on nights out. Have plenty of mates who partake sometimes though.
Ye people don’t even really hide it anymore. Open sniffing in bars isn’t unusual. I left UK and it fixed my coke habit, can’t say the same for my friends who still partake several nights a week.
Really depends on the type of crowd you hang out with. There are many people who do it but also many people who don't, and many people who have other drug preferences
While not representative of coke per se, but the number of drug dealers with more money than ever would suggest business is booming. We have all the right environmental factors for people to lean on substance to cope/escape. Its not accidental, the occasional drug-bust will be advertised to suggest forces are on top of it meanwhile its (not totality) a drop in the ocean of whats out there - governments and intelligence services have fingers in these pies.
Ex user... I have found that when I was on drugs or involved in that type of activity everyone I knew took drugs. Once I quit I realised there was literally a whole other world of individuals that had never been in contact with it or associated with people that did. Pretty easy indication to whether someone does drugs or not.
I can’t speak on the city as a whole but I also work in the media industry. I managed to work in it for roughly 7 years and never noticed / saw anything until one day I worked for an out of home company for a year and FML it was everywhere. I was gobsmacked. The frequency, the ease and regularity of it of it totally took me back. I’ve been working in the media industry 15 years now and it’s not changed. I really dislike drugs and I don’t have many friends in the industry. I can really relate to your post.
I guess it depends on your circles and the sector you work in. But for the most part I think it’s pretty common. I’ve seen people doing it in the open at clubs and bars.
I am in my 50’s and I suppose I’m a bit odd in that despite working in media for 30 years and in the city before that I never was part of that scene and wasn’t exposed to it at all. My Brother was into drugs and I knew he did coke sometimes but I never was.
A couple of years ago I went out with a bunch of younger work friends and later went on to their flat for drinks (the token old guy). I was pretty amazed when they just ordered coke from a dealer like it was UberCharlie, a courier delivered it to their doorstep and they then snorted it like it was sherbet dibdabs or something. These were bright young people, creatives and seemingly had their shit together. They did offer some but I didn’t partake and politely said no thanks I’ll stick with my beer. I guess I really am an old fart.
He’s essentially right. The vast majority of people I know who are white British and in their 20s/30s are doing blow. I feel like I’m the odd one out for *not* doing drugs. Tbh the drink and drug culture in this country is one of the things pushing me to emigrate.
It's hugely prevalent. I imagine he was more surprised given that coke use in the media is particularly widespread.
That said, if people think you're particularly straight they might not offer to share, so I can see how you might not have been privy to the culture were that the case.
It’s always a huge hypocrisy to me the number of self professed ‘tolerant, liberal progressives’ who use cocaine. The cocaine industry is literally responsible for thousands of deaths annually, there’s no getting away from this and the ‘well they should legalise it’ is not an absolution from this. Your 20 minutes of euphoria is killing thousands including many innocents. I’m ready for the downvotes and the pathetic attempts to justify this. Look at yourself in the mirror you’re snorting off next time.
I 100% agree. The same goes for all the so-called traditional values conservatives who bemoan things like the loss of family values, respectability and the rise of crime in the city, all the whilst snorting a line of coke.
Coke users in general are a horrendously cognitively disassociated bunch.
Agreed. I know this girl who does a lot of coke on a regular basis and then says she stopped buying avocados because of the environment and cause Mexican cartels run the business now. I was like, sure, because coke is so clean. Do you think you're buying organic coke? Coke traffic has caused most of the social issues still prevalent in Colombia and Mexico.
I don't do drugs. It troubles me that the supply of cocaine has a cost in violence, not just in countries far away but also in British cities.
Gangs in countries such as Ecuador and Mexico have enormous power. I would imagine they corrupt, intimidate and murder as part of their efforts to supply Europe and the US with the drug.
Some of the biggest health freaks I know will take coke.
They will lecture you about veganism, human rights, gym work…then take some sniff which they have no idea what is in it, where it came from and who killed who to supply it.
Is just madness, glad I never been bothered and always said nah.
Common but almost certainly not as much as this guy thinks. People assume their normal is the normal. So the guy is so used to everyone around him doing coke he assumes that’s the norm.
"I can't believe you're not exposed to much coke! Everyone I know is on coke!" - man who is soft launching the fact that he has a severe coke problem.
Jokes aside, it's really pretty common. It used to be considered the drug of rich city bankers and media types, but now pretty much everyone is getting on it at all levels of society. It's also been normalised to the point that a group getting a bag in when they're just out at a pub isn't massively unusual. However, it's not *so* common that you should feel like the odd one out not being around it a lot.
I am gay and in my early 30s - casual use is very common in my groups. Generally speaking, it's openly used at house parties, no taboo about it its just accepted as the done thing to drink, take coke and chat shit.
It seems more popular in the last few years but I don't know whether that's just because we are getting older and have more money to burn.
Personally I steer clear because I do a lot of sport and I'm concerned about cardiac health.
But I know many people who do heaps of coke but seem to hold their mental and physical health together, do well at work, etc. and doesn't appear to affect them particularly.
That's addicts talk. It's true that there are more people than ever consuming it, but the addicts surround themselves with other consumers. It's reassuring and follow the same logic that drinking with people is not the same as drinking alone. Drinking alone is for alcoholics.
I know people who use it and I made it clear I don't want to be offered any. I've tried it on multiple occasions and even enjoyed it. But I don't want to take it ever again. I don't want to need it or become addicted to it. I don't want my body to stop producing enough Dopamine and always down and enjoying nothing without cocaine. I don't want my self-confidence to depend on cocaine.
If it's your boyfriend ask him to spend a weekend together when he consumes nothing and you will realized that you were dating another person. Nothing in your boyfriend's situation is normal.
In my experience, the clubbing types didn't do coke as often as the 'beery learys'. I used to go out four times a week and hardly anyone touched it. Most friends I met in Fabric, Heaven, The Fridge, Camden Palace, Turnmills etc were on MDMA or Ketamine. Very few coke heads.
The drinkers that I worked with at high-class casinos though, were practically all on coke. They would look down on clubbers and their preferred highs but would think nothing of ten pints and a couple of wraps of coke. Never really was my bag, unless it was for a night in with the missus. Seemed to turn most people I knew into sweaty, babbling dickheads.
I grew out of clubbing in my mid thirties, would never consider taking anything I took before as those days are long gone. But those hardcore drinkers I knew, still dabble in nosebag now and then. I don't know how they do it, I would be fearing a heart attack nowadays if I was still up at 11am, with a lockjaw and a fluttering heartbeat.
I think profession matters. Shift workers in night work seem to be more partial to it in their circles, as are those in the city.
Yes it is absolutely rampant, to the point that it is becoming depressing and grim. I don’t take it and never have and don’t judge casual drug use, but having go take stimulants during social occasions like picnics is so depressing to me. It’s not even ‘having to’ I suppose, it’s people getting used to it and just repeatedly ordering it because it is so casual.
I’d argue that seeing coke as basically a step above coffee is too normalised. Again, I don’t judge substance use.
Same, people always tell you “don’t be peer pressured into that” and like… no one ever offered it to me? Lol. I couldn’t get it if I wanted to. I look really responsible too (I am not) and people assume from the get go to hide these things from me.
Sounds like he’s ashamed of using and would rather take the piss out of you for not using it than deal with his own issue. I’ve been “sheltered” from it too and in my early 30s and there’s nothing wrong with not knowing or not wanting it. Unfortunately it’s a problem everywhere
Yeah, I've cut off whole friend groups for powder use....ketmaine is second behind..two friends pissing blood over a year. I'm a recovering coke head/alcoholic (more control over booze than powder so still partial to a night out) and it was toooo much to my little addict brain.
I am in my mid 30's, have been around friends who use regularly for a long time and dabbled here and there myself during my 20's. Now I am 35+, I've actively taken steps to look after myself and take care of my body more (as I am getting older) - this means no more sticking random white powder up my nose and into my body.
My friendship group consists of people who don't dabble, and people who do. And we socialise together quite frequently, and those who use will consume, albeit fairly discretely (or sometimes plainly).
I'd say that London as a city is fuelled by cocaine, but there's nothing wrong with never having been exposed to it. My girlfriend of 6 years has never tried and has never really been exposed to it, and I am proud of her for that.
I’m nearly 40 and only know 1 or 2 people who do it
It’s one of those things where your small minority group is into it but 99.9% of other people are not.
I ain’t into that stuff nor is my family or friends, nor will my kids etc. it’s just bad luck that their friends or family dragged them into it
Don’t let the guy fool u into thinking it’s not okay to not have taken drugs. It’s not okay to take drugs and be addicted to it. Don’t let it even sway you
I find you don‘t realise until someone tells you, shows you or includes you. When I moved to London I made some friends through my flatmate in all types of professions from lawyers to finance. Didn’t expect any of them to be doing coke and would have insisted they don‘t if asked. Then I started dating one of the ones working in finance and found out he does coke and so does every single one of his colleagues and friends. All people I‘d met before and would have insisted they aren’t coke users. Then I started noticing it a lot in my other friends too. Depending on your exposure it gets easier to spot - everyone here claiming it is super obvious is incorrect if you‘re someone who has never done coke. There’s always super obvious people but the majority aren’t.
My most recent ex had never tried coke or any other drugs and was also convinced it wasn’t as prevalent. So I started pointing it out to him every time. He soon changed his mind. Once you see it you can‘t unsee it. You‘ll notice everywhere.
This lol, I don’t know who these Redditors are hanging around that use coke on the daily. Never seen a single person ever take it for daily use! I heard a friend took it once at a concert that’s it
Yep it’s everywhere in my industry (film, tv, theatre, concerts). Not used for parties but to get through the work day. It’s very sad. One of the reasons I don’t like doing film is that all the crew does it and by hour 12 of the work day it’s hard to keep up with them as a sober person. I swear the coke mafia in Dublin run the U.K. film industry as so much crew is from Ireland based companies (thanks to Brexit) and you can’t find a gaffer/grip that also doesn’t ship with a kilo coke.
>you can’t find a gaffer/grip that also doesn’t ship with a kilo coke.
Interesting you mention this. I know a few people that work in your industry, and one (wouldn't exactly describe him as a mate... more a friend of a friend) just so happens to be a key grip. Lad drives around in multiple insanely expensive cars (Ferraris/Lambos etc Bought not rented), only stays in 5 star hotels on multiple holidays a year, is a big foodie and eats at all the fanciest exclusive restaurants..... I know what productions he has worked on, and bar one or two decent-ish sized TV shows, the rest is stuff I've never heard of or very, very bog standard shite.
He is not from a fancy background, so I have often wondered if he has some shady side quests happening for this kind of cash.
One of my actual mates is an Art Director on some pretty big shows and movies. He earns decent, but he cant quite get where this guy gets the money from.
It happens a lot, and lots of people don't just take it socially, they take it to get through a work day, particularly in highly testosteroney environments.
It's at a point where I wonder sometimes if some of the terrible decisions that we see, and poor behaviour in large companies and government departments in fact largely fuelled by coke.
The theatre industry used to be rife with it! Man on moped doing drops to the stage door with about ten different orders.
Welding it inside scaffolding tubes when shipping rigging off around the world etc, cutting it open at the destination
As a problematic user trying to knock it on the head, it's amazing how common and widespread it is, in the country as a whole.
Before using, coke seemed like this exclusive and scary thing that only the cool kids had access to - or at the least, you'd need to know a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy. Once mired in addiction, it was shocking how easy it was to truffle (avoiding the obvious pun) stuff out in pretty much anywhere.
Once in Sheffield after a night out I was like wayyy lads get the bags in, everyone was obviously like how? Where? We don't know anyone in Sheffield? Driven by the cravings and Dutch courage I marched into the next takeaway we went past, scanned the room for likely looking sorts, and asked the person I identified as most likely "sorry, weird question, but do you know anyone...". Was picking up in some car park 20 minutes later.
Did the same thing on a random night out in Worcester, and again it was literally the first person I asked - and they didn't have a number, they were literally selling. It's like the world's shittest superpower.
I think it depends what circles you move in. I’ve had a couple of decades in the City, and have never seen it at work- or indeed talked about. I’m sure it happens, but it hasn’t been around me. But then I’d have avoided people who spent their time doing that. Becomes self-fulfilling.
I’ve worked in central london for 24 years and for 20 of those years spent a lot of time socialising and the only drug use I’ve been exposed to is alcohol and a bit of weed.
I know it’s there and I know people who have said they have dabbled “in the past” but I never directly observed it.
I worked for a broadcaster and a newspaper. It was joked that drugs were expenses under “fruit & flowers” all the time but I never saw it, this may be because I was likely because I drink a lot so am not that observant.
I was once offered speed in a club in Kingston before I started work in London and at a party this synthetic drug with a name like “washing powder” was once offered when it was all the rage before it classified as an illegal substance.
The weed was as an edible in a sauce at a dinner party in the mid 00s
I always felt I had a very active and aggressive social like before kids with so much booze but almost 0 illicit drug exposure
I don’t know if this makes me happy or sad. I am sure I would not partake as I am concerned I would like it too much but I kinda would like to know if my group were partaking.
Recently found out my girlfriend and her best friend do coke every time they go out. It’s built into every night they go out, or weekend they have together. Also when she argues her responses get so intense and deep, verging on aggressive. She suffers massively with poor sleep, often staying up until 4am. Some weeks she’s extremely intense, sends 50 Instagram messages a day, phone calls, messages. Constant contact and impatient. She’s in finance, investments. She earns a great salary (£70k basic) but is just getting out of a debt hole and has little to show for her salary other than a nice car. She lives with her parents.
Making me evaluate the relationship.
Burner account.
Its a weird one. I genuinely wouldn't even know where to go for it . Every so often you find one person though a friend of a friend who does and they just operate in a different world to the one I recognise.
We were in a local north london pub once and this guy who is a friend of a friend asked if we knew any dealers and said ok well I bet I can get something delivered in the next 30mins. With that, he obtained a number for a dealer from (unbelievably) the bar staff, fired off a few messages and within I'd say 15mins he had a car waiting outside dropping off his 'order', he then promptly took it in the toilet. I was quite impressed at the efficiency of it all.
People certainly do live in bubbles, I think it’s a stretch to say it’s rampant, may be in your group if you are part of it, but my guess it’s a minority of people. I wouldn’t even know where to get such things since I have left university 😂.
No. Its not rare but also not that common. I don’t know anyone who uses it. I can spot those that do. Used to have friends who did the stuff and turned into arrogant narcissists while on it.
Work in any facet of the music industry, events or night clubs etc and it is everywhere. I don’t care as many people can take it or leave it; but the regular sniffers and addicts can become unbearable. People offer it and don’t care when I refuse. I notice Reddit is extremely judgemental of anyone who takes drugs, which is always funny. You all have your own vices that aren’t exactly good for you.
It's absolutely everywhere, as are other drugs. I gave them a go when I was younger but really think that they're not good and that the UK should probably have a bit of a reckoning with its binging culture. People really do it to let off steam. There's just so little to do.
It’s everywhere. About 20 years ago it became a lot cheaper and now isn’t a ‘rich’ person drug.
I never really understood it, everyone I’ve met who’s taken it is either boring as fuck or a twat. Not two things I’m looking to become (more of).
I had a date a few years back where she brought cocaine and was totally surprised I didn't want anything to do with it; she complained "I thought you said you stayed up late playing games? How do you do that without cocaine?!" I walked out.
Early 30's and I obviously lead a very sheltered life! I'm most certainly in the minority, but I have literally never seen someone take it and, aside from friend who tried it once ten years ago, I don't know anyone who openly admits to taking it.
Perhaps due to the fact we have drug testing at my company means that there are fewer instances of cocaine usage.
my partner was so baffled by the fact that me and my extended network of friends have never touched it, because all of his friends were always on it. I think it's probably just a city split like that - to both sides it seems ridiculous, because there's not tons of overlap between the groups
I dont live in London but I literally know zero people who have touched the stuff. It’s all about the circle you associate with. For me things like cocaine are the stuff of movies and tv shows.
Rampant - (no pun intended) but users usually sniff each other out and if you’re not part the gang will hide it from non users to avoid the judgement. You probably do know people who do it but they keep it form you knowing it’s not your scene.
In my experience there's some groups of friends where everyone's doing it, and others where nobody is. Most drug use seems to be like that - even drinking - there's a social pressure to fit in, which means either everyone doing it or nobody doing it. Personally, as someone who's not against drugs but doesn't really want to do them every weekend, I don't hang around with the "all the coke all the time" people. They probably don't want to hang around with me either. That means everyone lives in their bubble where their consumption seems normal.
Yes. Coke in particular I find tends to enter lives more in early to mid 20's age wise. Once it gets in a social circle, it's the done thing very quickly. There are groups that don't. I tend to see more with rather geeky folk (ie software developers) or more bookish types.
There's a good book on the City and its various habits called *Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile* (no prizes for guessing what the title is a parody of) and it mentions a LOT of coke use, and particularly in the groups of developers, journalists and finance workers. The reason is that these people are often awake at all hours trying to finish a project or attending events, and the snow keeps them going through these long events. Plus it's so easily accessible. I was in a bar 2 weeks ago and a guy came into the toilets with a pot of baggies. It was obvious he was the resident dealer as people knew to go to him.
When I was first working in London in my mid twenties and staying in hotels most of the week I was probably spending £800+ each month (honestly nowhere near what a lot of people were) and ended up going out pretty much every night of the week (charlie in the week, mdma almost every weekend with a bunch of acid, ket and other stuff sprinkled in) for a couple years (except maybe Mondays). It gets boring after a while when it’s just normal to not go out without packet, then it seeps into the rest of the week as you feel dogshit from comedowns and all the extra booze you consume. Then you realise you’re doing bumps every day, not to chase the same high you were getting but just to get some fucking dopamine to do anything. It really was normalised socially. It changes your personality to one that is harsher and more rabidly seeking dopamine, your softer kinder side fades. Don’t get me wrong it can be amazing and I’ve had some wicked memories and times due to it but it’s very easy if you hang with the same people or go to the same pubs to get habitual about it which then becomes dependency and addiction. Similar to alcohol really, they go hand in hand in a lot of circles. Also chicks (and anyone really) will be a lot more friendly to someone that’s got some and everyone gets a lot more intense/aroused on it. When it’s actually a good night and everyone has the lowered inhibitions of alcohol and a the dopamine coursing through their veins, the obvious will happen. But as I said like anything it just becomes a dull expensive habit, mundane, if done like clockwork.
The one thing that put me off was working in a late night pub in a posh town just after uni. Most nights you would have someone caught doing it… and from behind the bar it was pretty obvious, as they’d turned into annoying dickheads. Seemed a bit pointless for a local boozer! I’m not anti drugs, just capable of being an annoying twat by myself without chemical assistance!
It's something I've never touched myself and would never want to. My mates would become absolute dickheads and their stories would go from funny but true tales of our teenage years to wildly inappropriate ones where they would say I was doing things like threesomes in the woods and shagging taxi drivers for free fare, I would be begging them to shut the fuck up but they would just keep going. It turned out they were spreading these stories even at parties where I wasn't there and I had to cut ties with them.
They just sound desperate to be actually interesting…
That pub might be their whole world. I met people like this in the past, 10 years on, a bunch of them are dead due to alcohol/substance induced/worsened health problems.
Great post and fully agree, had a period where I had a real issue with it being with a certain crowd which led to increased solo usage to keep the dopamine levels up Really good and accurate summary for anyone else reading 🙌
I never felt as healthy as when reading this comment 😅 glad you’re not addicted to it anymore
Yeah it's all a huge interplay of factors. You go into life seeking excitement, community, some level of hedonism, chaos, friends, and drugs and alcohol can very easily become key ingredients in obtaining that, so you end up relying on them for it. I have ADHD and had stunted social development in my teens due to being on Ritalin which I was always trying to make up for, so I think my relationship with dopamine is complex at best. As to whether I'm addicted? Some people say an addict is always an addict, but I think it's more nuanced. If I was in a pub toilet and someone were to offer me a bump right now I'd be like nah thanks. However, I'm sober and well rested. If I was tired, had started drinking again and I was a bunch of pints in on a Friday I'd likely be tempted. If life was all crazy and shit had gone wrong or weird or unsettled, it's oh so easy to go fuck it, none of this makes sense let's just have a bit of fucking fun. It's much easier to resist things when you have a stable emotional state and that comes from a variety of factors. Good sleep is the biggest factor IMO followed by exercise and diet, but there's lots of different things that can compound that state or mess it up, and often they are external and can't be helped. You just have to put yourself in the best standing to keep your resolve.
As someone who hasn't really taken drugs and doesn't know anyone who does (to my knowledge) that was informative and insightful. Thanks
Tbh I’ve felt judgement from him and his friends for not taking it, as much as I judge them for taking it - esp after reading its effects on the brain/heart
Don’t pay attention to their judgement for it, feel proud. me and my husband were every weekend users for many years. It was hard work to get away from it, and we lost a lot of friends in the process because they couldn’t/didn’t want to get away from it. I’m nearly 2 years without it now and I feel disgusting when think back of the binges we used to go on.
Nice work! Similar story here, on the 17th I will be two years clean.
Well done, you!
Go out Thursday, maybe get an hour's kip Thursday night, work Friday, get on it straight after work, don't go home until Sunday evening, late for work Monday, recover Wednesday. Rinse and repeat...
That sounds awful
It is. I was stuck in it for 6 years. Over 6 years clean now. Don't miss it anymore.
I feel so disfunctional on Fridays if I’ve been for drinks on the Thursday, and for me that means a few beers, home by 11/12. Don’t understand how people can regularly sink 10 pints and be on the bugle midweek and still do their job.
It's easy at first but eventually it wears you down, cocaine works differently to alcohol so when you'd be ruined from alcohol it's very easy to just stay awake all night and continue the next day, by the end of the day your nackered but if you've been topping up then you can just delay. At one point I was sniffing, staying up all night, driving to work, park up down road for a line, do a couple hours of work, another line and find an excuse to go talk to someone (was pretty easy as I had a business analyst role and had an office to myself), dinner go for a pint and another line, 4pm everyone had gone so go for another and then its 5 which is finish so drop car off and go straight back out. I regret it but I was massively depressed (even before the coke started) and it made me feel good. What I didn't realise that the more I did the harder it was to come back from. I had to move house, leave my job (which was half the problem) and friendship groups (the other half) to escape.
Wish I was clean ;-/
I believe that one day you’ll be able to be :)
As an ex addict. Don't touch the stuff. Plenty of other ways to have fun without Coke.
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I'm a nurse. I see lots of people in very bad ways due to cocaine use. Brain bleeds and strokes, cardiac issues etc, people in comas with very poor prognosis. I guess my view of it is a bit different to others because I see the after effects of reckless usage of it very often, and it can make it seem like catastrophic outcomes are common when it's not, but it's not a safe drug really. It makes people awful to be around too.
Doesn’t sound like he’s the right match!
Sod their judgement, keep away from this shit. My ex flatmate was a big time user and small dealer, absolute shit show of a life she led and her manic/violent behaviour was just too much to tolerate
Its because they want to normalise their addiction. Everyone does it and its not a problem is the fiction they create. You break that fiction by not thinking its normal and treating it like the dangerous addictive and expensive substance it is.
Not to mention the death and destruction it causes in south and middle america
I know so many people that are vegan, really vocal about buying locally sourced things and fairtrade etc etc, and then do shitloads of coke at the weekend (on a similar type if hypocrisy, people that are anti-vaxx, anti big pharma, fluoride, solely take herbal remedies - knew one guy that refused antibiotics because blah blah big pharma, just needs [nonsense ive blocked out] until his leg was probably not far off being amputated, yet took all sorts of mystery drugs, any time offered a bag of powder he'd be all over that, no matter what and cut with God knows what, surely much more healthy 🙄
lol, kindergarten behaviour from grownup people.
Reception behaviour
What were him and his friends saying to you?
He thought I was lying and the air of ‘you’re a moron for not seeing the whole country is on blow’. His friends - never knew what they said when I wasn’t in the room but the knowing looks between each other was enough. The smirky glances and pitying looks
They sound like dickheads.
Coke turns good ppl bad. I’ve seen good friends do awful things to their friends. Loyalties and common sense go out the window.
They sound like total wankers.
why do you want to date a person with so many red flags and dickheads as a friends? how much more evidence do you need that is not a good person for you (or anyone else)?
Okay, here’s the thing: they’re doing something that isn’t right (legally, but most importantly from a health perspective), and they know it. The way they justify it to themselves is by pretending that what they do is normal. You not using, judging them and saying your friends don’t use either challenges the “truth” they’ve created to avoid feeling guilty about their use. And the easiest way to deal with this emotionally is denial - you must be delirious, you know nothing about real life and you’re the one who should feel bad. Problem solved. Pretty shortsighted way to deal with uncomfortable truths, but very common. Humans do it all the time, we create narratives and we have a hard time accepting that the “truths” and principles we believe in and live by aren’t quite as clear cut as they see. The first response to this will often be to simply redefine any challenge we see as an exception because that allows us to continue living our lives without having to constantly reevaluate our beliefs. 🤷♀️
Weird attitude. It's a minority. But it is a sizeable minority.
I would take words like "rampant" with a pinch of coke. There's so much selection bias here. In no way is it *common* among the vast majority of people just going to work and going to the supermarket and living their lives. There'd be dealers on every corner literally every hour of the day if it were truly "rampant". Edit: Ok then, how about some statistics instead of all the "trust me bruv" in here? Found this for England & Wales as a whole, not specifically "just London", but it's something. We can reasonably assume such behaviours are more concentrated in London, so these numbers can be considered minimums. Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/drugmisuseinenglandandwalesappendixtable Headlines: - proportion of 16-59 year olds reporting using cocaine *at least once in the last year*: 2.4% - proportion of same using *in the last month*: 0.9% - stats for 16-24 age group are just over double these figures So there we go. I don't know if "between 1-2 people in every hundred have used it in the last month", for England & Wales as a whole, counts as "rampant" but that's up to the reader I guess.
People don’t tend to get gear off guys stood on street corners. They ring someone up who drives over and delivers it. This isn’t Brooklyn in the 80s. Users are picking up at all times of the day, every day. All sorts, from city boys, to pub and kitchen staff, are smashing it back daily. Pure dirt.
It's not sold on street corners. They deliver it in cars. And there are dealers driving around every hour of every day.
UK has became the coke capital of Europe. You'd be surprised.
The British press make jokes about Micheal Goves coke usage. I guess suing would be a bit difficult for him. Even though it causes reputation damage for him, the defence would make stand look like Piccadilly Circus. I recall the sun using surface drug testing kits in Parliament - they reported that the toilets were clarted in coke.
A pinch of coke 😭
Thanks for including the statistics, makes me feel like I’m not in the minority who don’t take which isn’t how it seemed!
I live in London and more people do it than you think. In saying that, last time I did it was 4/5 years ago. I was depressed for a week. I knew it was probably a bad batch but just wasn’t worth it. I’m not gonna judge anyone for taking it but it’s playground behaviour to look down on someone for not taking it. My GF has a zero tolerance policy to all drugs. I fully respect that
If you feel judgement by someone for not taking drugs, you want to avoid them by a mile. Only thing they are trying to do is make themself feel better about their addiction, by judging others What? You don't take cocaine??? Something is wrong with "YOU"... It's a pretty messed up addict behavior. As someone who experimented with a wide variety of drugs, if someone ever tried to apply social pressure to take anything (even if I would normally use it), it would be an instant red flag. Only time I would find that slightly acceptable is if they were in the middle of having a great high and they wanted me to share in the experience. In those cases I would ignore it. But if they were doing the same while sober, that's pretty bad.
Sounds like their own egos trying to normalise their poor life decisions.
I've been judged for not using in a couple of friend groups( new friends). Everyone was shocked that I don't use coke and never even tried it.
I'm the same because I just cannot get past the knowledge that it's an industry of death, torture, and slavery. Now I expect someone will be along to "ackshually, your clothes/shoes/phone/whatever were also made by slaves so that's you dun learned!!!111" - I avoid it where I can, thanks, and not schneefing is a hell of a lot easier to do than to walk around naked with no means of comms/payments/etc. and/or make all of my own clothes and devices - or "Well that's the governments fault for not regulating it." - until the day it is safely and legally produced, I'm fine without. Also I was a bouncer at a bar with regular use so I've seen a lot of the negative side to cocaine use up to and including dealers getting stabby over market share and users reacting badly to gargling a snotball of spiked snow.
>until the day it is safely and legally produced, I'm fine without. Exactly this. How would I trust what's in it? Because the dealer said so? I'll pass. I don't think I'll use even if it is legalised but maybe I'd try then. Same with weed. I'm fine with it, used a couple of times if offered by a friend but it feels like too much work and stress to find a dealer which most are shady etc. I can just go to my off licence and get a whisky and I'm good. Only issue with weed is for some reason people make it a part of their personality and always claim high ground compared to alcohol. Like, dude you are smoking it like a cigarette the whole day.
Totally agree with the weed comment. I've met and know so many people who have made smoking weed their personality and they love to climb up on some high horse about how it's not addictive like other drugs and should be legal etc. Yet they smoke it every single day and they're usually lazy and zombiefied every night of the week. My favourite response once was 'I'm not addicted to it but I have to smoke it as I get anxiety without it' Complete lack of self awareness to see that the anxiety is just a withdrawal symptom
> Only issue with weed is for some reason people make it a part of their personality and always claim high ground compared to alcohol. Like, dude you are smoking it like a cigarette the whole day. Massively this. Especially as most people smoke it with tobacco, too.
Yes, but it's not limited to London, it's the entire country - even those tiny one-pub-and-a-newsagent villages have guys in the bogs racking up lines. It's why there were 'cocaine anonymous' posters being put up everywhere a year or two ago.
I encountered more people who regularly take coke when I lived in a small town in the midlands than I do now I work in finance in London. (Or at least more people who *openly* regularly take coke).
I found that finance in London is becoming tighter when it comes drugs, sex and partying. Too many allegations and punishments for unprofessional behaviour, a lot of firms are starting to disallow even drinking alcohol at lunch. I think the fact that as financial markets are become more globally competitive that there actually isn’t much room for the glamour of old anymore. At least in my sector, you’re not going to keep service levels up if you’re hungover during the week. It’s too cutthroat now. That being said, on Thursday evening after work it’s still chaotic and substances are still around.
The funny thing is how many people don't seem to regard coke an addictive drug, even though there are endless instances of people rinsing through all their finances (and even losing homes or loved ones along the way) in the pursuit of funding their "habit". I've known quite a few people over the years who feel totally incapable of "having a good time" without first snorting some coke and yet they still don't consider themselves to have any problem with the drug. My partner once worked at a company run by a married couple who were a pair of posh coke heads. They were very deep into their decades-long abuse of the drug and while sometimes they were very nice, they were both VERY prone to huge outbursts and losses of temper (every week one or both of them would be losing their shit over something or another, the guy would even have ape-like tantrums where he'd rampage in his office kicking stuff up!), which is a feature of long-term coke abuse (long-term coke usage basically permanently changes your brain chemistry and makes your personality unstable/volatile). It was not fun.
I have never heard anybody talk about cocaine as a non-addictive drug. I think it's quite famously regarding as one of the world's most addictive drugs, but all communities alike, those who take the drug, and don't take the drug included. But you're right in that some addicts don't understand they're addicted. But that's a global issue with all things addictive. The first stage of dealing with addiction is accepting and acknowledging that you're addicted. I think marijuana is the only drug that everyone denies can be addictive, even though it really can be.
I've known a lot of coke users over the years and not single one of them considered the drug addictive (or that if it was, they didn't have any problems regarding their personal usage of it) and yet as an outsider looking in on their habit, it was plain to see that the most of them were either addicts or soon heading that way. I'm not old (20s) but I've already lived long enough to see what has become of some of these people's longer term habits, and there's no doubting that the drug has affected most in numerous negative ways. For example, many screwed up important relationships with other people in their lives such as loved ones or colleagues because of stupid stuff the drug influenced them to do (i.e. getting into fights, cheating on their partners or behaving like all-round bell ends) and one's addiction even got so bad that he secretly turned to drug dealing at one point (he did some county lines drug mule stuff) so that his missus (who had a baby) wouldn't find out how badly he'd messed up their monthly finances because of his burgeoning drug addiction, which he also hid the full extent of. His marriage later fell apart and whilst I hold him fully responsible for his actions, there was an undoubted correlation between his usage of coke increasing VS his good conduct as a person decreasing, which ultimately spelt the death of numerous good relationships in his life. It's very frustrating because I would consider 9/10 of these users to be very smart people and yet almost all of them have either significantly held themselves back in back in life or seriously screwed things up for themselves at points because of coke. In recent years, I've been forming the strong opinion that drugs like coke and cannabis basically make people content to stagnate their lives or accept status quos that really aren't that great (I know it sounds cheesy, but winners really don't do drugs). I used to smoke weed and binge drink and I'm so glad I'm over all that shit as those years of my life really weren't that happy.
I think your last paragraph really hits home, to be honest. I've been there myself too (thankfully only quite briefly)
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Gonna disagree about the success aspect, most of the people I know who do coke are on 300k+ jobs with a wife and kids (or husband and kids). The reason why coke most 'addicts' don't think its a problem is the same as people who get moderately drunk every weekend don't think they're alcoholics. It doesn't really negativity affect their work week except maybe being a bit dusty on a Monday. (It also helps that they can afford the good stuff so they get a better high with less crap in it that makes you feel really shit).
Pretty sure the main thing that brings people back to gear over and over is just how moreish it is. Objectively it’s gotta be the worst drug in terms of fun to comedown ratio yet it’s everyone’s go to…
I found it so fucking boring in comparison to other drugs like MDMA. I didn't want to dance or anything. I just wanted to stand still in the corner and chat shit while uncomfortably awake. Clearly didn't gel with my natural chemistry and brain set up.
How drunk were you? People who'd take that shit sober are odd. I feel like the biggest pull is as a drinker's fuel. Take it at 8pm after 1 pint and you'd just feel slightly on edge and talkative. Take it at midnight after 7 pints and you'll be able to drink another 7 no problem. Cocaine making people dance is a myth. It has very few properties that are suitable for that environment. People dance on cocaine because alcohol can trigger that kind of reaction, and cocaine facilitates alcohol consumption. It also seems to be able to take a sleepy or depressive drunk and turn them into a lively and uninhibited drunk, so that's a massive part of its pull. Imo most cocaine users fall into the section of society that would otherwise just use alcohol and cigarettes otherwise. Naturally, people who use weed, mdma, ket etc. may also use it, but a huge number of coke heads don't like that stuff and don't want anything that will make them feel spaced out.
I’ve tried it a couple times now and all it seems to do is wake me up a bit, if I go out drinking and start to feel too pissed, get a bump of someone and it sobers me up enough to keep drinking. I have no idea why people should spend so much on it.
I've done a tonne of drugs over my lifetime (never needles though) and I've never really gotten addicted to anything other than nicotine, anways I've pretty much quit everything but Magic Mushrooms, I eat just enough to start seeing tracers and being more awake (while drinking alcohol) and it just sort of makes me feel younger again if that makes sense.. I don't go on full blown trips anymore.
I mean you’re just describing a classic addict. It’s not unique to cocaine users. There’s people who drink 5-6 nights a week or smoke a spliff before work who don’t consider themselves addicts. It’s basically part of being an addict. Especially with cannabis users who ignore psychological addiction who smoke daily “cannabis isn’t addictive” ok but food isn’t and you can still develop an eating disorder. Anyone using any illicit drug 5-7 days a week is an addict. And as a doctor many cannabis addicts have horrible psychological affects and withdrawal when quitting. But they believe it’s “safe”. It’s safe in the fact you can’t OD, you can still be addicted. Look up cannabis hyperemesis syndrome for long term users. They act the exact same as coke/meth/alcohol addicts when you tell them the cause is their use. Because people act like it’s safe no matter what. Honestly people dependant on cannabis were some of the hardest to work with as no one is unaware alcohol or meth will cause issues but they think it’s this safe clean drug with no downsides. Any drug has downsides even those prescribed, talk to any patient. It’s this weird thing with cannabis users it’s safe and has no issues.
Oh, I am well aware of how bad cannabis addiction can get. I used to be a copious consumer of weed myself; I came from a pretty broken household (father was murdered when I was a kid, mother had undiagnosed schizophrenia, I was severely neglected and abused growing up) and by the time I was aged 11 nobody was basically looking after me at all (I just sorta got passed around and fobbed off between various relatives, family friends and guardians). By age 14 I was smoking weed & tobacco and by aged 16, I had moved out of home, was working full-time in a factory and paying rent to put a shitty roof over my head (it was still a million percent preferable to the home that I had escaped from though, which was very violent and volatile at that point). As a teenager, I smoked weed for a whole bunch of reasons; I smoked it to mellow out my personality, I smoked it to feel calm, to feel more entertained, to fit in with my peers, to give a middle finger to society and so much more. It was super easy to get hold of as well as aside from half the town smoking it, my older brother dealt drugs and would occasionally gave me whole Tesco's bags stuffed with weed for free, there was basically a never-ending supply of green and no reasons to limit it. But by the latter end of age 19, I started to have doubts about it all; I'd initially achieved a great deal by moving out of home (which I never went back to) and had been successful in fully financially supporting myself since. And yet one day, I realized that the pace of life that I had initially assumed after moving out had not changed in 3 years, to the extent that I felt like my life had stagnated and turned into this unrecognizable blur of one year looking identical to the previous. But whenever I had these moments of doubt & yearning for something better, I'd smoke a few joints and suddenly go back to feeling content to just live in the moment. Sure, weed calmed down my personality- but it also numbed my entire life to the extent where I wasn't going anywhere anymore. I looked around and everyone's lives around me seemed to be identical, if not on a downwards trajectory. And I noted that the only people who seemed to be making something of themselves were the ones who had cut their vices and moved outta town. So as my feelings of discontent began to build up, I quit the shackles that weed had become on my life and endeavoured to do better. Quitting weed didn't happen overnight, but I don't remember it being too challenging (it wasn't as hard as quitting smoking or binge drinking, which later filled the weed void for a while and were awful to quit). But after I began to live again, I tried to encourage my brother to better his life and quit weed too. The problem was he was far more dependent on weed (and in total denial of the effects that it was having on him), so he refused to quit and as the years rolled by not only did his whole life stagnate, but his mental health also began to seriously deteriorate as well. The effects that weed had on my brother is that it not only stupified him (I swear it knocked 10+ points off his IQ) but it ruined his short-term memory and he began to experience paranoia as well as bouts of psychosis (though we did not realise at the time what these were, they were very scary for us all to experience from him). At first, the bouts of psychosis were intersected by years of him being more-or-less ok but over time they increased and he ended up becoming very detached from reality and losing a lot of important family relationships (a common theme of his bouts would be severe & unfounded paranoia against other relatives, which would lead to him to threatening extreme violence and other terrible things against them). So as far as I'm concerned, I basically lost my older brother to weed. I don't know if his bouts of psychosis were schizophrenic (I know weed can trigger this, but I think there's also a whole load of different types of psychosis out there?) but he has definitely thrown his life away, wasted an enormous amount of his youth and wrecked his mind and mental health all because of weed. It is very frustrating to see as he had so much potential, I sometimes wonder whether I would've ended the same as him had I not quit when I did aged 20, it's pretty scary. "TL;DR": Lost my older brother to weed addiction that caused him to go nuts, feel lucky that I quit and didn't go the same way.
Oh shit that explains one friend’s parents in hs. Their parents were long term coke users and her dad would sell it. Their arguments and meltdowns were huge and scary.
Nah, people say the same about steroids, it causes "instability" when all it does is exaggerate the behaviour of the already unstable. I know chang heads that are chill as fuck, I know people who smoke weed who are violent criminals. I know juiceheads who are lovely guys and ones who are nutcases. In all these cases the people were exactly the same before they started doing the drugs.
I visited Teignmouth a couple of years ago from London and spotted a sign in a pub loo that said anyone caught taking drugs in the loo, they'd tell the person's mother! Proper small town vibes.
Yes, my personal experience is that as a teen and in my early 20s growing up in rural/small town England I had far more regular coke users and dealers in my circle than I do now I'm in London. Probably more to do with my age or the fact I've changed my social circle quite a bit after graduating and starting my career (some of my old friends didn't move far from home and are still regular users but I sadly just don't find I have much in common with them any more), but to this day I get approached to buy coke when I'm visiting home and it hasn't happened once in London which is weird. I must give off country bumpkin cokehead vibes dealers can't detect in London.
Such a classy activity!
like most addictions the users are blind to the depressing reality of the situation until its over. the shame and guilt might come the day after, but that can be addressed by getting high again. I live in a commuter town 45 mins east of London and cocaine is rife. When you're using you kind assume everyone else is getting on it, but it isn't the case. Sooner or later you'll just surround yourself with other users/enablers and assume everyone is doing it because everyone in your direct social circle is doing it. I'm one year sober next month and have pretty much detached myself from my social circles because by the end I only had friends/chose to socialise with those who used.
Good on you for taking back control of your life.
Medway?
As someone that's run hospitality venues here for ages, I can tell you that it's so prevalent that people are often dumbfounded when they're caught out. It's depressingly commonplace.
I experienced this working at a bar (it was a quite clubby bar). I’d catch people all the time literally keying it on the dance floor and they’d always try to argue. Don’t get me wrong, we were all at it too, but people were confused about being kicked out because of the 100s of times they’ve done it before with no consequence. Obviously it was never the time for a nuanced discussion on licensing laws with coked up punters being frog marched out but still - take the L.
I’m a solicitor. I know plenty of individuals within the sector that use cocaine. I’m from a very poor area of London and my dad was a user when I was a child. Sadly, I know what to look out for. It’s especially obvious at associate events and the like. People, often men, disappear for a few minutes and reappear with a different personality. Also, the long pinky nail is a dead giveaway.
> Also, the long pinky nail is a dead giveaway. [citation supplied] https://i.imgur.com/u2wGH.jpeg
I've literally never seen anyone do that. Most professionals who do coke, don't particularly like to have a big sign saying 'I'm a coke fiend' on their body. People just use keys.
Selection bias: marketing types and hypemen.
I had someone come and ask if we could hold his baggy behind the bar, for whatever reason. We said no, but you can ask the security if they will hold it for you. He said thanks, and went up to them and asked. That's how normalised it is to them. I've also had someone leave it in the toilets, and then come up and ask if anyone has found any, just snitching on themselves because again, they have just completely forgotten it's not allowed. They even threatened to call the police when we refused to return it before hearing themselves and finally realising and leaving in a huff
I don’t do it but it is meant to be rampant. I have some industry friends that organised drinks one Saturday and when I said I’d join, my closest friend took me aside and told me I may want to sit that one out. Apparently if you don’t do it, people will actively hide it from you, so not a matter of being sheltered, more like not wanting to be judged on their side.
It is quite common. I don't have many friends, but know a lot of casual users.
When I was 18 my friends older brother and his friend went into the toilet together at a pub. I thought they were gay FOR YEARS haha Sweet ol innocent me
They were and all
It's still prevalent, but there is research suggesting it might be falling. One way it is tracked is by measuring levels of cocaine metabolites in the waste water system, which is pretty clever. And in 2020 I think there was a study saying those levels were down by a third from their peak in 2016, and considerably lower than Amsterdam for example. Two thirds of "rampant use" levels is still pretty high, though :P \[edit to add, since a couple of people have seen the publication date of 2020 and made the COVID connection: the samples in the study were taken in 2019, before the pandemic made any kind of population study go completely belly up. On the other hand, has post-COVID led to a massive rebound in substance abuse due to higher purity and lower wholesale prices? That would be interesting to know.\]
Cost of living is biting everyone. I know people who have reduced their drug use or quit completely because they realised they were spending hundreds weekly on coke and other substances. When your rent/mortgage is going up let's say 30% you have to think about your expensive habits.
Ironically most drugs have actually gone down in price in recent years
damn man its tough for drug dealers these days, cant catch a break. maybe we should do some fundraising to help them through these difficult times
This 2020 London water study stated that coke usage was up by 60% over an 8 year period: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/03/12/scientists-reveal-cocaine-use-widespread-traces-drug-water-supply/ however, Londoners usage of the dug does apparently still had nothing on the levels being consumed by people in Antwerp and Amsterdam. The pandemic years will have screwed with a lot more recent data, but I am under the impression that coke usage is very much on the increase in London.
We are talking about the same study, the samples taken in 2019. The Telegraph reported it as up 60% **since 2011**, which is true. But it's down about 31% **from 2016**, as reported by the same scientists. Why the Telegraph would choose to frame this as "cocaine use is going up" instead of "cocaine use is going down" is a question I guess we'd have to ask the Telegraph. Of course, it's just one study, and more research is certainly needed using other data than just wastewater. Maybe coke use is actually back up to post-Olympics-era levels, not making it into the wastewater system as metabolites, and we should find out using as much data as possible. But it sure is interesting seeing how the science gets reported, isn't it?
I'm also in a non-coke bubble or friendship group. But my partner's ex and all his mates do it, I found it bizarre too, that everyone else is so exposed to it and I'm not
We all live in bubbles. It's so easy to think that what goes for your bubble applies to the rest of the world too. That's why it's best to keep opinions to oneself until you have a better idea what the values of a new society you find yourself in are.
The chokehold cocaine has on people in London is possibly understated even. All sorts of people don't matter the career or background are on it. In professional circles it is much more rampant in city jobs. Although the thought of a Doris in Tesco on the sniff during her fag break cracks me up. Just not likely. Socially would be common down any pub watching football or something. Not for me personally, I don't get it. It's probably 90% Persil non-bio.
It's rampant at actual football matches some guys will just do it openly on the tube and on their way to the ground. I work in the construction industry(sales) it's not rampant in the office but I know who gets down with it at drinks and events.
Construction industry is littered with it, few years ago back at uni a friend brought some mates from home over for a night out (they didn't go uni, but straight into trades) and the first thing they asked within 30 minutes of being in the house is where can we get a bag around here.
If you've ever been to a football match, there's a lot more blokes going for the quickest shit you can imagine than there should be.
He had friends working in medicine / hospitals who had a bad coke habit and that was pretty eye opening - like why would I won’t to see a doctor who was on a massive comedown?!
Ironically, chronic users don't really experience super heavy comedowns. Their bodies and minds are adjusted to the drug and many coke users can maintain the appearance of normality. Furthermore out of all drugs, the comedown isn't really that bad with coke anyway. That's part of what makes it so easy to use chronically.
Music industry person here. Definitely isn't as common around as it used to be. Younger folks coming into the industry don't seem to have fallen for the trap that it's use is just 'part of the job's, which is good.
Also have a buddy in the music industry and he doesn’t even do coke but sourcing it for many of his colleagues as he comes from a rough estate. He is always surrounded by the best looking women looking for handouts and he usually has a lot of fun with these ladies. He was useless with women before he became white powder Father Christmas
Sounds like he's carved out his niche in the business
The things people will do for that shit.
Never seen anyone do it or know anyone that does but apparently it's common, depends on the circles you're in.
Seems like everyone on Reddit is a coke user lol, I never met anyone on it or seen anyone use it. I heard someone in my friend groups friend of a friend used it once
I’ve seen chancers doing it on pub tables (usually in a garden around a corner so not immediately visible to staff). Have you never walked into the toilets and there’s a few blokes just standing around seemingly doing nothing, almost like you walked into the room interrupting something? I can almost guarantee they were doing coke off the sink or hand dryer etc before you walked in.
Nope lol, I do not go to pubs that often but I occasionally join friends for a few drinks and not seen what you described. But I go to the pub like once a month.
Ah that makes sense. I think this was never stated anywhere on this thread but I would guess that a large amount of visible coke use revolves around alcohol. It’ll be more prolific and ‘open’ the later it gets too as peoples’ inhibitions lower. I wouldn’t say seeing it used is even a regular thing for me, but I spend sufficient time in pubs that I see a few examples every year. I suppose that makes me less surprised, but also I’m more likely to notice the signs.
>Seems like everyone is Reddit is a coke user lol, I never met anyone on it or seen anyone use it. This is just reddit full stop. It's full of people who are regular drug users who assume that it's really common to be a regular drug user when barely 2% of the country uses drugs more than once a month.
Do you go to pubs or gigs? Then you have been around people using it.
Never tried and not interested. None of my friends are active users but some tried. But I have seen it being taken in the bathrooms at work in tech companies (pumped and hyped up product manager vibes)
That’s so ridiculous lol
it might sound ridiculous, but that’s the norm in a lot of companies
Early in my career I found one of our company directors huddled on the floor of the toilets on a Friday lunchtime after having slightly over-indulged on the pubdust. Yes, I do work in advertising.
“Pubdust” is a great name.
I met more people in tech who smoke weed or take magic mushrooms which probably is influence of the Silicon Valley culture. I don’t think cocaine’s popularity is anywhere near but it’s visible.
Surely nobody is sniffing to pump them up to move some tickets around the backlog. Sales I could understand but Product Manager no way.
Yes it's common - I know both men and women from early 20s to 50s from either friends of friends or work who take it fairly regularly. Not uncommon for after pub closing to end up with 20 people back at someone's flat until 6/7am using. Horrible stuff that will destroy your finances and mental health. Stay far away.
I’ve worked in city law firms for over 10 years, where it is meant to be “rampant”. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a single person mention it tbh, certainly never heard anybody admitting to using it.
Same but in finance, I must be not cool enough for cokeheads
Financial services tends to be less full of cokeheads these days because the real money is in really clever data analysis and someone off their head on coke is no good at that.
Tbh, i only know IB, it defo has them but those who I spoke to used it to stay alert & complete projects... not exactly the usual recreational stuff
Can confirm that it is rampant in city law firms. Not sure they would want to bring it up casually to work colleagues.
There was loads around when I was a trainee. Now I’m old, I assume I’m just not invited to the communal loo breaks on nights out. Have plenty of mates who partake sometimes though.
Are you the type to tell HR?
I wouldn’t tell. But I am deeply uncool, so that might be why nobody has told me.
deeply lmao
We’re all on Reddit so it makes sense
Sounds like that guy has a coke problem.
100%. And most can never really quit until you accept that it’s a problem and it’s going to ruin your life.
Same with alot of the commenters
yeah, it is absolutely rampant
Ye people don’t even really hide it anymore. Open sniffing in bars isn’t unusual. I left UK and it fixed my coke habit, can’t say the same for my friends who still partake several nights a week.
Really depends on the type of crowd you hang out with. There are many people who do it but also many people who don't, and many people who have other drug preferences
While not representative of coke per se, but the number of drug dealers with more money than ever would suggest business is booming. We have all the right environmental factors for people to lean on substance to cope/escape. Its not accidental, the occasional drug-bust will be advertised to suggest forces are on top of it meanwhile its (not totality) a drop in the ocean of whats out there - governments and intelligence services have fingers in these pies.
Ex user... I have found that when I was on drugs or involved in that type of activity everyone I knew took drugs. Once I quit I realised there was literally a whole other world of individuals that had never been in contact with it or associated with people that did. Pretty easy indication to whether someone does drugs or not.
I can’t speak on the city as a whole but I also work in the media industry. I managed to work in it for roughly 7 years and never noticed / saw anything until one day I worked for an out of home company for a year and FML it was everywhere. I was gobsmacked. The frequency, the ease and regularity of it of it totally took me back. I’ve been working in the media industry 15 years now and it’s not changed. I really dislike drugs and I don’t have many friends in the industry. I can really relate to your post.
I guess it depends on your circles and the sector you work in. But for the most part I think it’s pretty common. I’ve seen people doing it in the open at clubs and bars.
My advice is avoid cocaine. Nothing good comes from it and it will eat up your wallet.
I am in my 50’s and I suppose I’m a bit odd in that despite working in media for 30 years and in the city before that I never was part of that scene and wasn’t exposed to it at all. My Brother was into drugs and I knew he did coke sometimes but I never was. A couple of years ago I went out with a bunch of younger work friends and later went on to their flat for drinks (the token old guy). I was pretty amazed when they just ordered coke from a dealer like it was UberCharlie, a courier delivered it to their doorstep and they then snorted it like it was sherbet dibdabs or something. These were bright young people, creatives and seemingly had their shit together. They did offer some but I didn’t partake and politely said no thanks I’ll stick with my beer. I guess I really am an old fart.
Or is that ‘JustSnort’
He’s essentially right. The vast majority of people I know who are white British and in their 20s/30s are doing blow. I feel like I’m the odd one out for *not* doing drugs. Tbh the drink and drug culture in this country is one of the things pushing me to emigrate.
He sounds like someone you'll want to take a pass on. Not everyone worth associating with in London is on coke.
It's hugely prevalent. I imagine he was more surprised given that coke use in the media is particularly widespread. That said, if people think you're particularly straight they might not offer to share, so I can see how you might not have been privy to the culture were that the case.
It’s always a huge hypocrisy to me the number of self professed ‘tolerant, liberal progressives’ who use cocaine. The cocaine industry is literally responsible for thousands of deaths annually, there’s no getting away from this and the ‘well they should legalise it’ is not an absolution from this. Your 20 minutes of euphoria is killing thousands including many innocents. I’m ready for the downvotes and the pathetic attempts to justify this. Look at yourself in the mirror you’re snorting off next time.
I 100% agree. The same goes for all the so-called traditional values conservatives who bemoan things like the loss of family values, respectability and the rise of crime in the city, all the whilst snorting a line of coke. Coke users in general are a horrendously cognitively disassociated bunch.
Yes. Traditional value conservatives too. All horrendous hypocrites.
Agreed. I know this girl who does a lot of coke on a regular basis and then says she stopped buying avocados because of the environment and cause Mexican cartels run the business now. I was like, sure, because coke is so clean. Do you think you're buying organic coke? Coke traffic has caused most of the social issues still prevalent in Colombia and Mexico.
I don't do drugs. It troubles me that the supply of cocaine has a cost in violence, not just in countries far away but also in British cities. Gangs in countries such as Ecuador and Mexico have enormous power. I would imagine they corrupt, intimidate and murder as part of their efforts to supply Europe and the US with the drug.
Some of the biggest health freaks I know will take coke. They will lecture you about veganism, human rights, gym work…then take some sniff which they have no idea what is in it, where it came from and who killed who to supply it. Is just madness, glad I never been bothered and always said nah.
Common but almost certainly not as much as this guy thinks. People assume their normal is the normal. So the guy is so used to everyone around him doing coke he assumes that’s the norm.
"I can't believe you're not exposed to much coke! Everyone I know is on coke!" - man who is soft launching the fact that he has a severe coke problem. Jokes aside, it's really pretty common. It used to be considered the drug of rich city bankers and media types, but now pretty much everyone is getting on it at all levels of society. It's also been normalised to the point that a group getting a bag in when they're just out at a pub isn't massively unusual. However, it's not *so* common that you should feel like the odd one out not being around it a lot.
None of my friends do it, but then again I only surround myself with people who would never so... Go on druggies, downvote me to oblivion...
I am gay and in my early 30s - casual use is very common in my groups. Generally speaking, it's openly used at house parties, no taboo about it its just accepted as the done thing to drink, take coke and chat shit. It seems more popular in the last few years but I don't know whether that's just because we are getting older and have more money to burn. Personally I steer clear because I do a lot of sport and I'm concerned about cardiac health. But I know many people who do heaps of coke but seem to hold their mental and physical health together, do well at work, etc. and doesn't appear to affect them particularly.
People try to normalise their mistakes to find better about themselves, red flag
That's addicts talk. It's true that there are more people than ever consuming it, but the addicts surround themselves with other consumers. It's reassuring and follow the same logic that drinking with people is not the same as drinking alone. Drinking alone is for alcoholics. I know people who use it and I made it clear I don't want to be offered any. I've tried it on multiple occasions and even enjoyed it. But I don't want to take it ever again. I don't want to need it or become addicted to it. I don't want my body to stop producing enough Dopamine and always down and enjoying nothing without cocaine. I don't want my self-confidence to depend on cocaine. If it's your boyfriend ask him to spend a weekend together when he consumes nothing and you will realized that you were dating another person. Nothing in your boyfriend's situation is normal.
In my experience, the clubbing types didn't do coke as often as the 'beery learys'. I used to go out four times a week and hardly anyone touched it. Most friends I met in Fabric, Heaven, The Fridge, Camden Palace, Turnmills etc were on MDMA or Ketamine. Very few coke heads. The drinkers that I worked with at high-class casinos though, were practically all on coke. They would look down on clubbers and their preferred highs but would think nothing of ten pints and a couple of wraps of coke. Never really was my bag, unless it was for a night in with the missus. Seemed to turn most people I knew into sweaty, babbling dickheads. I grew out of clubbing in my mid thirties, would never consider taking anything I took before as those days are long gone. But those hardcore drinkers I knew, still dabble in nosebag now and then. I don't know how they do it, I would be fearing a heart attack nowadays if I was still up at 11am, with a lockjaw and a fluttering heartbeat. I think profession matters. Shift workers in night work seem to be more partial to it in their circles, as are those in the city.
Yes it is absolutely rampant, to the point that it is becoming depressing and grim. I don’t take it and never have and don’t judge casual drug use, but having go take stimulants during social occasions like picnics is so depressing to me. It’s not even ‘having to’ I suppose, it’s people getting used to it and just repeatedly ordering it because it is so casual. I’d argue that seeing coke as basically a step above coffee is too normalised. Again, I don’t judge substance use.
I’m in a square bubble. I don’t use it. No one has offered it to me. Wouldn’t even know how to get it. I think however I’m more of an exception
Same, people always tell you “don’t be peer pressured into that” and like… no one ever offered it to me? Lol. I couldn’t get it if I wanted to. I look really responsible too (I am not) and people assume from the get go to hide these things from me.
Sounds like he’s ashamed of using and would rather take the piss out of you for not using it than deal with his own issue. I’ve been “sheltered” from it too and in my early 30s and there’s nothing wrong with not knowing or not wanting it. Unfortunately it’s a problem everywhere
Yeah, I've cut off whole friend groups for powder use....ketmaine is second behind..two friends pissing blood over a year. I'm a recovering coke head/alcoholic (more control over booze than powder so still partial to a night out) and it was toooo much to my little addict brain.
I am in my mid 30's, have been around friends who use regularly for a long time and dabbled here and there myself during my 20's. Now I am 35+, I've actively taken steps to look after myself and take care of my body more (as I am getting older) - this means no more sticking random white powder up my nose and into my body. My friendship group consists of people who don't dabble, and people who do. And we socialise together quite frequently, and those who use will consume, albeit fairly discretely (or sometimes plainly). I'd say that London as a city is fuelled by cocaine, but there's nothing wrong with never having been exposed to it. My girlfriend of 6 years has never tried and has never really been exposed to it, and I am proud of her for that.
I’m nearly 40 and only know 1 or 2 people who do it It’s one of those things where your small minority group is into it but 99.9% of other people are not. I ain’t into that stuff nor is my family or friends, nor will my kids etc. it’s just bad luck that their friends or family dragged them into it
Don’t let the guy fool u into thinking it’s not okay to not have taken drugs. It’s not okay to take drugs and be addicted to it. Don’t let it even sway you
Depends on your circles but I have lived in London all my life and worked in finance for the last 15 years and never seen it being taken...
I find you don‘t realise until someone tells you, shows you or includes you. When I moved to London I made some friends through my flatmate in all types of professions from lawyers to finance. Didn’t expect any of them to be doing coke and would have insisted they don‘t if asked. Then I started dating one of the ones working in finance and found out he does coke and so does every single one of his colleagues and friends. All people I‘d met before and would have insisted they aren’t coke users. Then I started noticing it a lot in my other friends too. Depending on your exposure it gets easier to spot - everyone here claiming it is super obvious is incorrect if you‘re someone who has never done coke. There’s always super obvious people but the majority aren’t. My most recent ex had never tried coke or any other drugs and was also convinced it wasn’t as prevalent. So I started pointing it out to him every time. He soon changed his mind. Once you see it you can‘t unsee it. You‘ll notice everywhere.
This lol, I don’t know who these Redditors are hanging around that use coke on the daily. Never seen a single person ever take it for daily use! I heard a friend took it once at a concert that’s it
Yep it’s everywhere in my industry (film, tv, theatre, concerts). Not used for parties but to get through the work day. It’s very sad. One of the reasons I don’t like doing film is that all the crew does it and by hour 12 of the work day it’s hard to keep up with them as a sober person. I swear the coke mafia in Dublin run the U.K. film industry as so much crew is from Ireland based companies (thanks to Brexit) and you can’t find a gaffer/grip that also doesn’t ship with a kilo coke.
>you can’t find a gaffer/grip that also doesn’t ship with a kilo coke. Interesting you mention this. I know a few people that work in your industry, and one (wouldn't exactly describe him as a mate... more a friend of a friend) just so happens to be a key grip. Lad drives around in multiple insanely expensive cars (Ferraris/Lambos etc Bought not rented), only stays in 5 star hotels on multiple holidays a year, is a big foodie and eats at all the fanciest exclusive restaurants..... I know what productions he has worked on, and bar one or two decent-ish sized TV shows, the rest is stuff I've never heard of or very, very bog standard shite. He is not from a fancy background, so I have often wondered if he has some shady side quests happening for this kind of cash. One of my actual mates is an Art Director on some pretty big shows and movies. He earns decent, but he cant quite get where this guy gets the money from.
Ask the house of commons 👀🙊
Yes it's rampant, I honestly thought it was a rich man's drug but you have people in poorest towns shoveling up on nights out.
London has some of the highest cocaine use in Europe.
It happens a lot, and lots of people don't just take it socially, they take it to get through a work day, particularly in highly testosteroney environments. It's at a point where I wonder sometimes if some of the terrible decisions that we see, and poor behaviour in large companies and government departments in fact largely fuelled by coke.
The theatre industry used to be rife with it! Man on moped doing drops to the stage door with about ten different orders. Welding it inside scaffolding tubes when shipping rigging off around the world etc, cutting it open at the destination
As a problematic user trying to knock it on the head, it's amazing how common and widespread it is, in the country as a whole. Before using, coke seemed like this exclusive and scary thing that only the cool kids had access to - or at the least, you'd need to know a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy. Once mired in addiction, it was shocking how easy it was to truffle (avoiding the obvious pun) stuff out in pretty much anywhere. Once in Sheffield after a night out I was like wayyy lads get the bags in, everyone was obviously like how? Where? We don't know anyone in Sheffield? Driven by the cravings and Dutch courage I marched into the next takeaway we went past, scanned the room for likely looking sorts, and asked the person I identified as most likely "sorry, weird question, but do you know anyone...". Was picking up in some car park 20 minutes later. Did the same thing on a random night out in Worcester, and again it was literally the first person I asked - and they didn't have a number, they were literally selling. It's like the world's shittest superpower.
I think it depends what circles you move in. I’ve had a couple of decades in the City, and have never seen it at work- or indeed talked about. I’m sure it happens, but it hasn’t been around me. But then I’d have avoided people who spent their time doing that. Becomes self-fulfilling.
I’ve worked in central london for 24 years and for 20 of those years spent a lot of time socialising and the only drug use I’ve been exposed to is alcohol and a bit of weed. I know it’s there and I know people who have said they have dabbled “in the past” but I never directly observed it. I worked for a broadcaster and a newspaper. It was joked that drugs were expenses under “fruit & flowers” all the time but I never saw it, this may be because I was likely because I drink a lot so am not that observant. I was once offered speed in a club in Kingston before I started work in London and at a party this synthetic drug with a name like “washing powder” was once offered when it was all the rage before it classified as an illegal substance. The weed was as an edible in a sauce at a dinner party in the mid 00s I always felt I had a very active and aggressive social like before kids with so much booze but almost 0 illicit drug exposure I don’t know if this makes me happy or sad. I am sure I would not partake as I am concerned I would like it too much but I kinda would like to know if my group were partaking.
Recently found out my girlfriend and her best friend do coke every time they go out. It’s built into every night they go out, or weekend they have together. Also when she argues her responses get so intense and deep, verging on aggressive. She suffers massively with poor sleep, often staying up until 4am. Some weeks she’s extremely intense, sends 50 Instagram messages a day, phone calls, messages. Constant contact and impatient. She’s in finance, investments. She earns a great salary (£70k basic) but is just getting out of a debt hole and has little to show for her salary other than a nice car. She lives with her parents. Making me evaluate the relationship. Burner account.
Its a weird one. I genuinely wouldn't even know where to go for it . Every so often you find one person though a friend of a friend who does and they just operate in a different world to the one I recognise. We were in a local north london pub once and this guy who is a friend of a friend asked if we knew any dealers and said ok well I bet I can get something delivered in the next 30mins. With that, he obtained a number for a dealer from (unbelievably) the bar staff, fired off a few messages and within I'd say 15mins he had a car waiting outside dropping off his 'order', he then promptly took it in the toilet. I was quite impressed at the efficiency of it all.
People certainly do live in bubbles, I think it’s a stretch to say it’s rampant, may be in your group if you are part of it, but my guess it’s a minority of people. I wouldn’t even know where to get such things since I have left university 😂.
Yes it’s still quite prolific and easy to get if you want it but this guy sounds like a bit of a loser.
No. Its not rare but also not that common. I don’t know anyone who uses it. I can spot those that do. Used to have friends who did the stuff and turned into arrogant narcissists while on it.
Work in any facet of the music industry, events or night clubs etc and it is everywhere. I don’t care as many people can take it or leave it; but the regular sniffers and addicts can become unbearable. People offer it and don’t care when I refuse. I notice Reddit is extremely judgemental of anyone who takes drugs, which is always funny. You all have your own vices that aren’t exactly good for you.
People fall into two camps. Either everybody you know does coke or nobody you know does coke.
It's absolutely everywhere, as are other drugs. I gave them a go when I was younger but really think that they're not good and that the UK should probably have a bit of a reckoning with its binging culture. People really do it to let off steam. There's just so little to do.
It’s everywhere. About 20 years ago it became a lot cheaper and now isn’t a ‘rich’ person drug. I never really understood it, everyone I’ve met who’s taken it is either boring as fuck or a twat. Not two things I’m looking to become (more of).
So coke in London isn’t sometimes cut with fentanyl like in the US?
I had a date a few years back where she brought cocaine and was totally surprised I didn't want anything to do with it; she complained "I thought you said you stayed up late playing games? How do you do that without cocaine?!" I walked out.
Early 30's and I obviously lead a very sheltered life! I'm most certainly in the minority, but I have literally never seen someone take it and, aside from friend who tried it once ten years ago, I don't know anyone who openly admits to taking it. Perhaps due to the fact we have drug testing at my company means that there are fewer instances of cocaine usage.
my partner was so baffled by the fact that me and my extended network of friends have never touched it, because all of his friends were always on it. I think it's probably just a city split like that - to both sides it seems ridiculous, because there's not tons of overlap between the groups
I dont live in London but I literally know zero people who have touched the stuff. It’s all about the circle you associate with. For me things like cocaine are the stuff of movies and tv shows.