How popular is cocaine in the UK ?

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mrhippoj@reddit

I've been told its cheaper than drinking

Where did you hear this? Do you have their number?

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jiBjiBjiBy@reddit

Must have got it mixed up with MDMA.

brazilish@reddit

It was brutal in my 20s and its more brutal in my 30s. Such a shame because it’s so damn fun.

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ND_Cooke@reddit

I know if I ever tried it again I'd need to be careful.

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MilkMyCats@reddit

Yeah a dose of between 120mg and 160mg along with something to help you get a full night's sleep can actually make the following day excellent.

Banging two 200mg pills and you're definitely not gonna feel great the next day, and then three days later.

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EroticPotato69@reddit

And most pills now are double that. Super strength pills, in Ireland and Northern Ireland, at least, are the main ones on the market

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Wind-and-Waystones@reddit

The real tip is to not take pills. Crystals all day. I've never had anything but a bit of the blues after crystals but pills leave me feeling grotty.

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Cause pills are full of shit. Crystal is at least pure, and you can somewhat control your dose by dabbing it. I've found less is definitely more and one person's 100mg is another person's quarter of a pill, both of which is less than a couple of dabs of crystals.

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Spid1@reddit

What happens when you take crystals? How do you take them?

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ikejrm@reddit

Crush em down to powder, then in a drink/up the nose/rolled into a cigarette paper and swallowed for a good ol' fashioned 'bomb'.

I've always found, the better purity and the better the final product is filtered from adulterants or unreacted precursors that contribute to a worse comedown - then the better the result all round.

About 20 years ago, there was a press going round in the South of England called Octagons.
They were white, speckled pills, regular size, nothing like double stacked Mitsis or similar.

The only way I could get my hands on them was to buy direct from a distributor in bulk. So, I got a large batch of 100 pills/ I spent a month selling them all off to friends.

I had about 8 left before I was due to go to Spain on a family trip. I stayed awake all night and ate the lot. I was totally wired going through airport security - although, this was the days before 9/11 so it was a bit more lax.

Anyway, I experienced NO comedown whatsoever and spend the next couple days chilling on the beach reading books.

I think I've probably only done MDMA 2-3 times since then, so I've not got a good sample size. But, I've never come across anything as pure or clean since and because of that, I think the comedown was virtually non-existent.

I think the only way to go, is to buy pure crystal. There's still the chance that it's unfiltered. But I don't trust random pills where you can't tell exactly what's in it.

There was the horrible story of when the DEA captured TONS of Safrole precursor and the chinese manufacturers had orders to fill, so they used another production method and ended up with PMA instead of MDMA. In the netherlands, the government announced that there was a batch of piulls going round that were horribly toxic and it saved lives. In the UK, they sat on this knowledge because they didn't want to come across as condoning drug use by saying 'avoid these pills, use something else'. Whatever the reason, it led to many deaths.

The story itself is fascinating and is featured in an interview with David Nutt.

Story starts around 21 minutes in

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AltruisticGarbage740@reddit

Just take one dose

Makes a ridiculously massive difference

I barely get a come down at all

Ok_Assumption3869@reddit

Just don’t get stuck in a mirror

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nervous_veggie@reddit

I heard a rlly interesting kind of harrowing interview with a recovered addict who described how he just constantly did it, because he knew how awful the crash would be. Weeks of being absolutely skyrocketed and then about 3 weeks where he just thought he’d die in the aftermath of the bender

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FlammableBudgie@reddit

Ah yes, festival season.

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guycg@reddit

Keep your lovey dovey stuff. Without Cocaine, how can I tell everyone in the smoking area that 'I'm like a Shark, me. Always on the move.' ?

What's the Eccied equivalent? 'You're my best friend you are.' Would be my guess.

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FlammableBudgie@reddit

Talking about the issues, we call it.

There's always so many to get through and not enough hours in the night/morning/early afternoon.

Just so many issues.

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Psychological_Ad853@reddit

Always got yer head in a fish

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Choo_Choo_Bitches@reddit

Only learned the other day that its meth. The MA in MDMA is Methamphetamine.

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Not bad. Didn't realise the powder form was widely available

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weekedipie1@reddit

0898 212121

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dxsgraced@reddit

To be fair if you do buy in decent bulk it’s not as bad money wise. I can easily spend upwards of £300 on a night out on drink alone, a q will cost about £350 right now and will last a decent amount of time if you’re not an absolute fiend

We went to the alchemist with our daughter who is literally 12 and spent £201 in 3-4 hours during the day. We checked the bill and £50 was food, £20 was a service charge, £10 was the tip we paid because we didn’t know a service charge had been added and the rest was drinks. My daughter had about 5 mocktails which were £8-10 each. A couple of the more grown up cocktails were £20 each!

We then went and spent another £50 on one more round at turtle bay while we waited for our taxi which were £20 each way.

Honestly it would have been cheaper to send her to her grandmas and stay in with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of bags in the kitchen.

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Scarboroughwarning@reddit

Tbf, I've done £180 on booze, but that was an all day do, with £50 bottles of champagne. And, I bought one for a friend. TO consume £300 in pubs would kill me

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dxsgraced@reddit

Starting at like 2pm ish whilst on the sniff it’s very easily done honestly

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Scarboroughwarning@reddit

So £300 booze plus £100 for coke?

Damn, I'm a pauper.

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dxsgraced@reddit

don’t often do these nights/days out ahah, probably every few months, but yeah something like that, usually about 2g of coke and whatever alcohol i consume

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Scarboroughwarning@reddit

Damn...big session.

For me, I'd pick sex over coke....and for some, it's one or the other, lol

Not seen pills or LSD for years.

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dxsgraced@reddit

oh yeah definitely it’s one or another for me, can barely piss when i get home after taking all that never mind trying to have sex lol

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I2RFreely@reddit

A q for £50 will be cut to fuck. Better off spending more and doing less.

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dxsgraced@reddit

It can be a lot cheaper, depending on usage and how much you are paying of course.

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imtheorangeycenter@reddit

I missed a word reading that and saw instead "how you are paying"...

Don’t feel naive though, if you’re not into the drugs scene and never have been you’re less likely to come across the stuff

Cocaine is pretty great but it gets boring if done too often and I prefer other drugs

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whoresongummy@reddit

How does the UK party scene work if most pubs/bars close by midnight?

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-MassiveDynamic-@reddit

Not all of them do, especially on Friday’s, Saturdays and holidays. The bar I go to most weekends closes at 5am every night. And this in Leicester, so a mid size city at best.

Pubs tend to close earlier, bars are likely have to later hours

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georgeyvanward@reddit

Really great summary! Some people say they see it all the time and others have no idea but with most things, your exposure to it really depends on you, and who you socialise with

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Master-Monitor112@reddit

It used to be very popular in the uk in the 90s but now its Ketamine. A-lot of the cocaine is cut by 50 % . A friend said he could get some cocaine cut by 10 % I didn’t believe him . He got me some and OMG the stuff hit me hard . I only have it at weekends but in the week I keep looking at the bag of cocaine every day .

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Mop_Jockey@reddit

Pretty sure the UK is the highest consumer in Europe but it's often taken with booze not instead of.

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pip_goes_pop@reddit

"Highest" consumer ha!

Seriously though that's correct, and the UK is the second highest in the world, just behind Australia.

However it's still a minority thing. 1 in 40 adults take it in the UK. Miles behind booze which is nearly half all adults.

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

Although I understand this will depend on social circle and profession, I seriously doubt the 1 in 40 figure.

Is it based on self reporting? I'd assume quite a lot of people would lie on a survey even if it's anonymous.

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pip_goes_pop@reddit

There's actually whole fields based around studying the accuracy of drug surveys, precisely due to not just the concern of honesty, but also the scope of the survey and exclusion of certain parts of the population (e.g. this study).

Also most of them are anonymous to try and help with honest answers.

So there are error correction factors built into these studies to try and get as accurate as possible. The figures quoted are from the ONS, who generally know their stuff. But even if you double it, it's still a long way from a majority.

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Turtlespizza82@reddit

Sorry, no, I know how insanely secure surveys are as I've actually worked in research for years but I'd still never admit to things like this. I can guarantee those figures are much higher in real life. Humans shame everyone for things like this and because of this we're not going to be open about it.

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fussyfella@reddit

There are some great techniques to get people to answer surveys honestly (and anonymously). One is the parallel questions method. Consider a survey with two possible sets of questions, one about ice-cream use and the other cocaine use. There are two questions for every answer set and people are told they can answer either question.

So imagine a question pair:

Have you consumed any ice-cream in the last 24 hours?
Have you consumed any cocaine in the last 24 hours?
Answer: Yes/No

Now you run a large survey for just the ice-cream answers and you can use that to adjust out for those answers which were ice-cream based.

It is better than anonymous as even if the answers were leaked, there is no way anyone can know what a person answered for a given question.

Let's ask people, "Say 'Yes' if you like CinnaRolls or if you like Pegging". If 70% of people say 'Yes'?... Then we know that 70% of the population likes one, the other, or both. 30% like neither.

Then, we ask, "Say 'Yes' if you like CinnaRolls". Let's say... 55% of respondents say 'Yes'. Now we know that 55% of the population like CinnaRolls. They might like Pegging too, we can't be sure. But what this does tell us, is that 15% of the population like Pegging but do not like CinnaRolls.

Then, we could do something fancy like...

"Say 'Yes' if you like CinnaRolls AND Pegging, or if you like neither of them". We're grouping 'Pegging only' and 'CinnaRolls only' in the 'No' camp. We're grouping 'Pegging and CinnaRolls' and 'Neither' in the other. If you enjoy being pegged, there's plausible deniability either way. So if it's a 50%/50% split, then we can deduce that 35% of people like 'Only CinnaRolls', 20% like both, 15% for 'Only Pegging' and 30% for neither. In conclusion, 35% of the population enjoy Pegging.

That would be my armchair soc-sci approach. I doubt that's precisely how it's done. Consider it a proof of concept :)

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Put very well, there is a bit more maths, but that is exactly the principle.

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_Pencilfish@reddit

Presumably it would be sensible to use something that doesn't have massive seasonal variation in consumption (like icecream) so that you don't have to do all your surveys at the same time (or weather!) each year...

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fussyfella@reddit

Yes, I just used ice-cream as a simple easy example. There also would be multiple questions in a typical survey.

Also you do not have to use the same control questions for everyone - in fact if you have a big enough survey it is better not to, as you can compare different groups.

It's not a perfect technique but it is one used for asking sensitive questions.

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Chazzermondez@reddit

Surely that rules out all the people who have ice cream AND coke, because they answer Yes to both surveys and get ruled out of taking coke.

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Wind-and-Waystones@reddit

There needs to be because if I have an ice cream in the park in the afternoon and then a bag that evening with friends I'd be saying yes on both surveys and people would assume I'd only had ice cream

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Yermawsyerdaisntit@reddit

Ahhhh that makes sense now, thanks.

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

That's interesting, thanks for the info :)

I wouldn't imagine it would be the majority, 1 in 40 just seemed low. I imagine it'll be most popular with people aged 20-30 in high paying jobs and without children.

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I’m just outside that demographic you mentioned and I’ve never even seen coke in person let alone taken it. So for me the 1 in 40 figure rings true. I am going to guess your social circle and location plays a big part. I didn’t do the whole London rat race thing.

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Gullible-Lie2494@reddit

Not so much high paying. But young and earning? Scaffolders come to mind.

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pip_goes_pop@reddit

Yes that's exactly it, certain social groups (which happen to have a fairly disproportionate overlap with Redditors) will be a much higher percentage. If you happen to be in that group you'll see it a lot more and it's easy to think that means it's much more prevalent than it is. Just human nature to do that.

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neo101b@reddit

Can we not measure the concentration of metabolites in the local water, vs the general population and come to a conclusion that way.

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rinkydinkmink@reddit

yeah I know BUT these statistics (in general) about drug use seem to have been way, way off for as long as I can remember, and I know for a fact that a large proportion of the people who have taken or would be willing to take drugs claim not to take drugs if asked. I think by this stage it's not easily explained away by saying that I'm just in some kind of "social bubble" - I'm in my 50s and have known all different types of people in my life so far. I can accept that perhaps pensioners drag the numbers down, but it's actually really quite rare for someone to say "no" if something is going around ... and there are even more people who will occasionally use something or other on a "special occasion" but for whatever reason think it "doesn't count". I can just about believe the statistics if they are for the number of people who have actively used the drug in question within a set time period, but what I'm saying is (I think) that the numbers would skyrocket if people were actually offered a line (or whatever).

I can't prove this, it's just observation, and I'd compare it directly with all the people who claim to be "christian" on surveys, who have probably never set foot inside a church other than possibly weddings, funerals and christenings. They don't think about god, don't read the bible, don't pray, don't worry about heaven/hell ... it's just nonsense really, but they get counted as "% christians".

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

Cocaine and MDMA (which are probably the most popular drugs) are both out of your system in 2-3 days so you can just take it when you know you'll be away. Me and a few mates took a driving trip through France, Belgium and Germany earlier in the year and the lad who's currently in the military just didn't take anything for the last 2 days.

I don't have any science to back this part up but I'd guess that fit people who do a lot of exercise would be more likely to metabolise drugs quicker than overweight, sedentary people. I've heard of people passing drugs tests when they should have failed.

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spliffwizard@reddit

I'll add my small sample size to that, 100% of them. Though that's maybe 30 people.

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problem_chimp@reddit

Wastewater analysis seems to be improving, though as far as I'm aware Bristol is the only UK city that's been doing it.

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Gullible-Lie2494@reddit

A lot of people have done it. Doesn't mean they do it.

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joehonestjoe@reddit

The only pub that made an effort to stop it was Wetherspoons by intentionally keeping their khazi as disgusting as possible.

It's no coincidence that the wetherspoons has just shut down......

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Shporpoise@reddit

I thought you meant the price of a bag was 14.55 on Wednesdays and I was like, c'mon man, I got a kid and responsibility and things. Don't fucking entice me. I'm not going to Glasgow tonite from the midlands.

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i_forgot_to_forget_@reddit

🤣

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Weekly-Dog228@reddit

We all know that one of those two guys is you.

World fucking champions mate.

But nah Liverpool is better for it than us.

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jvjones95@reddit

Yes lad us scousers know how the thing is lad

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KampKutz@reddit

Yeah Liverpool is unlike anywhere else in that front. I’ve seen a good few people who presumed that they knew what good stuff felt like, be humbled by what they got in Liverpool. The further away you get from there the worse the quality seems to be.

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PeterJamesUK@reddit

I'll never forget the line overheard in Liverpool "Bring two rotties and a bag of beak, this lad's getting a serving"

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Iwantedalbino@reddit

Aberdeen was for many years. In terms of consumption per capita.

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glasgowgeg@reddit

Aberdeen was for many years

Probably a combination of high oil and gas wages and a comparatively lower cost of living, for more discretionary income.

Australia finally representing something on the world stage we can be proud of.

Believe it. Very much more common these days for some reason.

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rectal_warrior@reddit

Still 300, and you'll get a 0.5.

The usage of cocaine in Australia pails in insignificance compared to the UK, we're talking orders of magnitude.

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Kidtwist73@reddit

As an Australian, I can tell you, Australia takes very little cocaine. Sydney and Melbourne do, but not as much as meth. And every where else, you can't get good coke for love or money. Even at 600 a gram. I'm not sure how they are measuring the consumption, but it's certainly not by volume.

jloome@reddit

In self-reporting of cocaine use, maybe.

Crack cocaine is cocaine. I absolutely guarantee you that the US is the largest cocaine consumer in the world (albeit perhaps not per capita). It's been a primary drug of choice among full-time addicts there for forty years.

You can look these things up easily. Takes like 2 seconds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_prevalence_of_cocaine_use?wprov=sfla1

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Fungled@reddit

Of course it’s still a minority thing - one is legally available everywhere, the other is a controlled substance at the highest level in this country 🤷

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Dazzling-Astronaut83@reddit

Australia is higher because their coke is dog shit. A friend of mine used to get the cheapest, nastiest coke sent from the UK. Cut it a shot ton, and the Aussies still saying it's the best coke they've ever had 😂

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intenseskill@reddit

I have had it a few times and honestly I don't get why people bother. Ectstacy/md a is much better imo.

iamsuperindecisive@reddit

This doesn't match my experience of the Netherlands. Seeing people take drugs like coke and MDMA on a night out partying isn't really unusual. Having drugs at a festival in NL seems common, especially MDMA and weed. The figures don't really look that significantly behind the UK across multiple websites' stats, so I assume that this is probably a case of you having different social circles in each country if you think cocaine use is that common here. It's still quite uncommon across the population. Perhaps you're living somewhere more urban in the UK than you did in NL?

I only have a couple of British friends who like taking coke and MDMA when partying, whereas it's near impossible to have a night out with the Dutch people I know not taking coke and MDMA. I don't think this means coke is more common in the Netherlands than in the UK - it mostly highlights the different social circles. This isn't young Dutch people either. The regular coke users are mostly in their late 30s with young kids, which made their behaviour more surprising to me. My British friends who like to get coked up regularly are all childfree types. I really can't stand being around people on coke, so it's unfortunate it's not less prevalent in both countries. 😂

Football on Saturday/Sunday? Have some beers at a mates/the pub.

Wedding? Gotta celebrate with some drinks.

Funeral? Gotta commiserate with some drinks.

Work do? Gotta have drinks to ease up.

Birthday? Well go on then, gotta have some drinks to celebrate.

Going to a gig? Well might as well have a couple of beers...

Etc.

Most people need an escape from the relentless rat race and drugs (including booze) are an easy (but bad) answer.

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D0wnb0at@reddit

As an alcoholic it’s even more miserable. I used to be a drug addict but I distanced myself from drugs and the people I took drugs with, I never think about drugs these days. Alcohol however. It’s fucking everywhere. There is no escape from it, and tons of adverts for it. It’s the only drug that people commonly ask and need a reason for you not taking it.

“Wanna go to the pub for a pint?” “I don’t drink but I’ll come and have a coke” “Nahh, come on man, have a drink” Or “why you not drinking, just have one”

Replace drink with any other drugs in that sentence and realise how daft it sounds.

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Littleloula@reddit

I've got a recovering alcoholic relative. I really notice this when trying to buy her a birthday card. So may have references to wine or gin or pictures of champagne bottles and what not

Imagine that if it was showing pills or powder instead

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D0wnb0at@reddit

Crazy right?

It’s crazy how normal and ingrained alcohol is in the UK. People forget it’s a drug that can destroy lives. It’s “cool” for the people who do it once in a while.

People coming into work on a Monday saying “went out on Saturday and still feel hungover today” and everyone’s like “sounds like you had a good one!”. Yet if I turned into work on a Monday haggard saying “man, had such a good Saturday night on Ket, still feeling it now” then I’d get fired.

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_Pencilfish@reddit

I agree, there's way too much social and societal pressure to drink, even though everyone seems to know that it's not healthy - a sort of social doublethink.

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trapdoor101@reddit

Nothing to do with being ‘miserable’

It’s a party drug. People take it to go party

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Mikeymcmoose@reddit

Typical Reddit puritans

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TheGospelFloof44@reddit

They don’t need, they want. This is coming from a recovering addict.

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Jonnyporridge@reddit

There is nothing inherently wrong with taking drugs. The illegality creates the moral, personal and societal problems associated with them.

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minadequate@reddit

I moved from the U.K. to Vancouver and I’ve never seen drug use like it… both seeing people injecting and smoking crack on the street, obviously the fully legal weed and essentially legal mushrooms (tonnes of fancy mushroom shops that the police don’t raid) and how many people causally take acid.

I do miss how cheap and simple THC/CBD were versus alcohol

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HarHenGeoAma62818@reddit

It’s not replacing drink as said above it’s used in connection with don’t they say something like 90% of bank notes have a trace of cocaine on them.

I’m not into drugs and never taken them due to having health issues younger in life and it’s just not something I would ever do -‘I don’t get why everyone gives it away … I go to the toilet of a club get chatting to someone 8/10 I get offered it .

In a club few years ago area I know but don’t know the club or people anyway bounced comes into the toilet these younger men 19-23 I would say were doing it bouncer saw clear as day , obviously know them said put it away and left the toilet

Then on the other hand club I know more bouncer “thought” someone had it on them and only way I can describe is “bullied” them by throwing them on the floor in the middle of the club . No need for that the bouncer was double the size of this bloke never knew if he had it or not

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PickleJuiceZeus@reddit

Coke heads are crack heads, the only difference between the two is a pipe and some baking soda.

Why tf has taking that stuff become so normalised? In weddings it's just a fucking huddle of people in toilets trying to convince themselves that getting cracked out is fun as long as everyone else is doing it.

goat mouth ahhhhhhh muthafckas

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Derp_turnipton@reddit

That's what the man said on the Larry King show.

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improbablistic@reddit

The Bolivian, Peruvian and Brazillian government should guarentee they buy all the cocaine made in their country, and then you get those cocaine producers to track down and eliminate any competitors.

The global drug trade exists because the English upper class didn’t want to pay for the expensive clothes they’re wearing in the old paintings.

Instead they forced their slaves in India to mass produce opium. Their existing trade cartel the East India Company began paying the Chinese textile manufacturers in opium, becoming the first ever drug cartel.

You should read up on the Opium Wars.

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Terrible-Group-9602@reddit

That was erm a while ago lol

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fishsupper@reddit

Yes, time is linear.

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No one from Nestle has threatened my life because I asked them to peddle their Kitkats elsewhere.

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Flat_Development6659@reddit

Nobody from the cartel has threatened my life because I asked them to peddle their cocaine elsewhere either.

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Slyspy006@reddit

Strangely enough, being in the UK, I've never had to deal with a cartel, just the odd local dealer.

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Mr_Lovepants@reddit (OP)

Wow, I really am naive. Thanks all for answering

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srhg@reddit

I’m with you! I have never seen someone do cocaine at work, in my social circle or my boyfriend’s social circle. I have three individual friends who I know dabble with drugs occasionally but afaik it’s occasional rather than frequent. I hang out with those friends and drug taking has never been a thing, they’re perfectly happy to just dabble occasionally rather than regularly doing it.

The only time I actively see many people doing it is at music festivals.

I’ve never been interested in it - I don’t judge people that do but I’m too anxious to take something unregulated that could be laced with whatever. When I drink alcohol I know how it’s gunna make me feel and how much I can handle. Plus the whole exploitation of people in the drugs chain makes me feel not good about the idea of taking them.

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coffeewalnut05@reddit

Same. All drugs seem to do is cause more problems than take away from them. In fact I’d attribute the UK’s mental health crisis partially to our drugs/booze culture.

Exactly!!! 👌🏻💟

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44Ridley@reddit

Yeah all good until you're whacked out of it and those same "friends" you've just met decide to nick all your stuff. It happened twice to me at gaff parties. Dealing with it all post come down was the lowest I've ever been 💀.

(early 2000's)

1st time was a group of much older adults I worked with when I was 18. They gave me 5+ pills for my first time, I was even snorting them! I fell asleep on their couch. There's more to it, but they stole my wallet, jacket and house keys. They shaved my eyebrow, drew all over my face and set me up to lose my job the next night (they all got sacked too). After being sacked on the spot, I had to go home and sleep on my doorstep until my Dad booted me awake. The next day, 1st ever come down, I had to fly to England minus one eyebrow to go see my Mum.

A few years later, at another party where the host invited lads off the street. I passed out on his couch, they stole my wallet (€500), burnt a hole in my new jacket, shaved my eyebrow, stole a load of my cds from the house, broke up the cd player and poisoned their child's pet goldfish with washing up liquid. Guess who I had to meet the next day minus an eyebrow, my Mum, again 🥴

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imminentmailing463@reddit

Football grounds have become awful for it. Particularly if you're in the away end. So many coked up lads who are really unpleasant to be around.

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AEHBlandalorian@reddit

I can’t remember the last time I was in an away end that wasn’t filled with blokes doing key bumps out of a bag they were passing around. Football fans are difficult enough to be around sometimes, let alone ones coked up to their eyes.

Fortunately it’s not like that where I have my season ticket for home games.

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boothjop@reddit

I'm not going to dispute this, honestly I'm not. But I find it absolutely baffling that you could go to a public space, notoriously full of both CCTV and television cameras, and do lines for all the world to see with impunity. Da fuq?

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AEHBlandalorian@reddit

Mate it baffles me. Especially at football matches, the level of police surveillance (if arguably justifiably in this case, tbh) means that the old bill know if you’ve scratched your arse or not - why are they okay with such rampant cocaine usage?

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Bunion-Bhaji@reddit

Because having people confined and being non-violent is easier than wading in and starting to arrest people.

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scare_crowe94@reddit

However, if you look at things like the government drugs survey, it's still fairly niche. The ONS says that 2.4% of 16 to 59 year olds used it in the past year, and 5.1% of 16 to 24 year olds.

Absolutely was not interested. Didn’t want to say no but tried to dissuade them as it was only a small casual gathering. They wouldn’t take no for an answer (probably because they’d already had some). Then they came back and said my partner had said they wanted some. Which I thought was sus as my partner had only touched it at like festivals. Not quiet house parties. I also didn’t want a fucking drug dealer in my street!

I spoke to X and Y who said that the person told them I WANTED SOME and that they had to put in some money to get the delivery or something and they’d reluctantly agreed and handed over cash but they were probably going to pass.

Then I spoke to Z who’s their partner. And they also had said no, that they didn’t want it, didn’t want their partner to have it, had given a firm no… I asked where she was so I could just say, no and it’s final... turns out she had left the house, alone, walked to another street somewhere, got in some random drug dealers car and picked up. Despite everyone they spoke to saying no. We didn’t know until she was back.

People don’t accept no because they’re addicts and they feel like they aren’t addicts if everyone else is having fun too. But this just means they spend the whole night badgering people just so they can take drugs and not feel like an addict.

This situation came at a time when I was deciding to have kids and basically just grow up, and really opened my eyes that there was becoming a very wide gap between people who can take it or leave it, or who can’t. I’ve noticed it a lot more since but I refuse to budge and just say I’m not interested.

I spoke to my friend the next day at the breakfast table and told her I was worried, and that she’d tried to manipulate the situation to turn nos into yesses and it also wasn’t even the kind of situation. It was infested. She told me it wasn’t true and I’m being a baby about it. Said I was coming at her for no reason. I said well X Y Z and my partner all said no and you told them that everyone else said yes, to get a yes. And you also put yourself in danger and walked off without telling anyone, including your boyfriend, and got in random drug dealers car who you don’t even know …. Apparently I was being dramatic now. When her bf joined in and said I was right, then I was inserting myself in her relationship…… anything other than accepting that they had a problem. we re still friends. She just trustees rug sweeps her addiction.

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Sparkletail@reddit

The thing with those parties is you get selected on the basis of whether you are 'cool' with drug usage. So li,e at ours 90% will be on something with only the odd one who doesn't care and won't talk using. At least where I live tha parties like that are packed full of drug users because of the need for confidentiality and if you use you don't tell. Which probably also skews the perception for people on the scene.

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Orri@reddit

Part of it is it's quite a social drug and is often mixed with alcohol. If you go to the pub or football you're basically at the place where people are most likely to take it.

I never saw it in the 80s. Literally once or twice in the 90s and I am from that demographic that raved on other things regularly. There was a bit of an E drought mid 2000s due to some supply chain issues and the coke seemed to take off in the clubs. I wasn’t going out much then but the atmosphere had changed. And not for the better. I did partake a couple of times but apart from nasal problems I didn’t like it. But lately, it does seem to be both the local tradesmen as well as old ravers doing it regularly. So it’s not really about the social circle, it’s more about a cheaper price, higher quality, and for many, an easier come down.

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Substantial-Skill-76@reddit

Yeah and those kind of circles tend to gravitate and socialise at the same types of events or venues, so you see them all out at once at the same time. Looks like 'everyone'is on it but it's just a higher percentage than of the whole society.

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asjonesy99@reddit

I don’t even know if it’s so much your own social circle more so if you’re someone who frequently goes out clubbing etc?

When I look at groups of people I know for a fact don’t do coke, they also don’t really go out for a Saturday night.

Whereas I could bump into all sorts of people I vaguely know on a night out and a sizeable percentage of their group will be on coke.

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Niccagediscomfort@reddit

Yes, same thing every time this comes up here. "Literally everyone is doing it everywhere". No, your mates and a couple of guys from the office do it

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colombiachile1995@reddit

....but we are the cocaine capital of Europe and the country with the second highest usage in the world?

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Niccagediscomfort@reddit

More people doing it in the uk, relative to other countries, isn't the same as everyone in the uk doing it

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Shifty377@reddit

However, if you look at things like the government drugs survey, it's still fairly niche. The ONS says that 2.4% of 16 to 59 year olds used it in the past year, and 5.1% of 16 to 24 year olds.

And yet you're replying on a thread with the statistics that plainly tell you it's a niche activity and that not everyone is doing it everywhere.

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BadMachine@reddit

There's a lot of confirmation bias in that though. You know the signs so are on the lookout, and it's easy to assume that because you spotted it in a couple of people at the pub that it's more widespread.

The particular pub, day of week and time of day you're visiting really narrow the pool of people to those who are likeminded, effectively similar to your own social circle.

So you probably do see more than 2.4% of adults taking it, but that can't be extrapolated to "most people". There will be a lot of crossover in a venn diagram of adults are out drinking at the pub on a Friday night and adults who take cocaine.

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ant1greeny@reddit

Also "spotting the signs" means nothing. I've been told numerous times that I look like I'm stoned. Never touched any kind of recreational drugs in my life.

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kylehyde84@reddit

Absolutely this. A former social circle everyone was at it. Current social circle, one guy we know does it

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_whopper_@reddit

The ONS data is going to be very wrong and will underestimate drug use, as they acknowledge.

Besides anything else, it's not hard to see why someone might not want to tell the government that they use illegal drugs.

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imminentmailing463@reddit

It's probably an underestimate, but I doubt it's 'very' wrong. Certainly not to the extent that you often see claimed.

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wobshop@reddit

Lol at self report crime surveys

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imminentmailing463@reddit

Even if it's an underreport, it's clearly nowhere near as widespread as some claim.

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AonghusMacKilkenny@reddit

Football, horse racing, raves, bodybuilding, 'lads' holiday types.

Purple_ash8@reddit

They really don’t.

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Wonderful-Support-57@reddit

No they don't. I'd argue the opposite and say these are just the loudest idiots.

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Hailreaper1@reddit

Your bullies, basically?

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Dry-Victory-1388@reddit

5.1% of 18-24yr olds is fck all. These threads are a joke.

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General_Kamakaze@reddit

That graph is kinda weird in that it has the price on the Y axis but no units for purity.

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lalalaladididi@reddit

Some seem to have a romantic view of drugs. Over on some music forums people talk about tripping on acid. It's drivel for the large part. Just a fantasy.

Reality is that very very few do these drugs.

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bigwill0104@reddit

Yeah, a $400.000.000.000.00 market is maintained by very few users…

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lalalaladididi@reddit

You really believe that in the UK that millions of people are drug addicts?

Complete fantasy that the majority of people at music festivals are drug addicts

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schpamela@reddit

Oh right, who said they're addicts?? I certainly didn't

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lalalaladididi@reddit

No I did

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schpamela@reddit

No I did Haha I see, and you're disagreeing with yourself?

Would you say the same of people who always drink beer when they go to the pub? Or would it depend on the frequency and the compulsiveness of their use? Would it be more sane to suggest that some of the people drinking in a pub may be addicts while most are not?

Just to remind you that the UK festival season only lasts the summer. I have met a lot of people who only take those substances less than 5 times per year when they go to festivals or raves - are they addicts?

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lalalaladididi@reddit

Yes they have addivitve behaviors

Pavlovs dog. You do understand what that actually means

Why does the term drug addict bother you?

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Mikeymcmoose@reddit

No you’re projecting onto them because you have an issue with drugs. Using anything doesn’t make it an addiction or mean they have addictive personalities; you can’t just change definitions to fit your puritanical worldview.

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Matthew94@reddit

Reality is that very very few do these drugs.

You can buy psychadelics over the post on the clearnet. They're unbelievably easy to get.

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lalalaladididi@reddit

So that means that millions of people take them.

4k bluray are easy to buy but hardly anyone buys them.

I only very rarely will use cocaine. Maybe once a year, if it’s free, yet I have like 5 coke dealers that message me the weekly menu 😂

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thegroucho@reddit

the weekly menu

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Calm-Plant-1477@reddit

Same. For me it was a movie/rich people thing.

The first time I’ve seen it in person was before my partner entered rehab. And hopefully I’ll never see it again.

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dagnammit44@reddit

As an ex taxi driver in a town (not city) for a few months, it was very popular. Even had one cheeky chappy have me chauffer him to his dealers meet spot (dealer drove a nice range rover!), then he got back into the taxi and proceeded to get stuck in!

You and me both, it’s definitely a social circle thing.

I mean the difference between someone having a friend group from book club or the rugby team will be the difference 😂

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fussyfella@reddit

You have not been to my book club 😂

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FinbarrSaunders69@reddit

Same and I'm a lot older than he is, some of my friends are even older than me and they do it on occasions.

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MegaMolehill@reddit

I always thought no one I knew took it and then one drunken conversation at the pub I discovered out of eight people two did it semi regularly and one other used to have a big problem with it but quit.

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My mate would treat himself to some for his birthday.

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jarjaracroft@reddit

No, it's not replacing booze. Just finished Uni and I can confidently say that the number of people drinking outnumbers cocaine about 10 to 1. Honestly weed is much more likely in the demographic I'm in

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Inevitable_Outcome55@reddit

Its about quality not quantity but essex is swimming in it defo