My American friends, they're in their 20's were telling me about how the older you get the more you'll start to realize how many people around you just casually do cocaine. They live in Miami so I assumed this was Miami specific because of the nightlife there but in general how common is it to find people casually doing cocaine?
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Not at all, in my experience.
Not common at all in my experience. It’s maybe relatively common for people to have *tried* cocaine or once or twice, but just casually snorting cocaine on an ordinary Friday night, not common. At least not in my circles
Depends on where you live and your tax bracket.
Casual cocaine use is definitely a thing, but it‘s not terribly common compared to stuff like alcohol and marijuana.
Not common at all.
It’s apparently oddly common in the allied health fields (docs, nurses, etc.) for some reason, but I can honestly say I’ve never encountered it in person.
Having worked in a bar, it’s far more common than you would think.
I think this varies a lot by location, profession, and income. I’m a middle class person in the mid-Atlantic region and it’s not common at all in my social circles. Weed, alcohol, and maaaybe occasional mushrooms, but that’s it.
I remember justifying my drug use by saying “everyone does drug xyz”. It was partially denial and partially me only hanging out with other drug heads.
When I worked in a burn center, we drug screened everyone. Didn’t matter their age. Cocaine was so much more absurdly common than I would have ever believed.
Probably just the circle they run in and being in Miami probably doesn’t help
I went to college in Tampa and have lived here for 15 years. I’ve only seen cocaine 1 time and I went to A Lot of parties. There was definitely people that had it and used it but if they did they generally hid that they were doing it.
I think the fentanyl epidemic has affected casual cocaine use tremendously
People in places like Miami will be open to casually telling people they do cocaine.
The midwest? Absolutely not. It would be considered taboo.
On top of that, doing cocaine in the USA is risky because we have a fentanyl problem. It’s hard to know you are getting pure cocaine without it costing a fortune. Most people can’t afford it.
I’ve actually heard more people in the UK casually do cocaine because there is less contamination.
Not Miami specific. I work in a major trauma center in St. Louis. At least once a shift a patient’s urine drug screen comes up positive for cocaine. A lot of these patients are in car “accidents.” So that makes me feel very safe on the road /s.
It’s also not uncommon in high-stress professions with pressure to work an insane amount of hours. Conservatively, at least one survey estimates that about 20% of surgeons admit to using drugs to stay awake.
Fun fact, kids: Cocaine absolutely ruins your heart and vasculature. Don’t do it.
Just depends on what you do for a living, who you associate with, and where you live. If you’re a bank teller in a small midwestern town who spends their free time in book clubs, probably not that common. If you’re a bartender in a city who enjoys going out to see live music, probably pretty common.
Obviously those are just extreme examples. Overall I’d say it’s more common than most people probably think. Super common in trade industries, sales, service industry, law/politics. If you go to any of the local dive bars in my area on a random week night most of the people in there are gonna have the sniffles.
I haven’t seen it. But I know it’s absolutely common. Especially in gen X. They talk about it. You can see coke noses & spoons.
I mean it depends. I would say overall in life, not that common. But within the party/bar scene, it is common.
Varies by profession and tax bracket. Cocaine kind of has this reputation as a drug popular with the white collar careers, but idk I’ve never seen anyone do it.
If people around my are doing cocaine, I have no idea.
Eh. My buddies and I used to use it a couple times a year. I got a bit of a heart condition in recent years and stopped but it was nice to do on new years and halloween. Outside of that though, I’ve never known anyone to use it ever.
More common than most people realize. Lots of students, young professionals, people in food service …any environment that tends to cause stress and lack of sleep, but also has a lot of deadlines that need focus here has people doing it more than people who’ve never been around and don’t know the signs or aren’t invited to join realize.
Out here tryna afford coffee and eggs lol
In certain places and at a certain socioeconomic level it’s extremely common. Otherwise not particularly common, there are cheaper drugs.
I’ve been to hundreds of parties where people were smoking weed, but only about 4 parties where people were doing coke.
I’ve never tried cocaine. My husband never has. No one in my circles, that I know of, has ever tried cocaine. I can’t speak for people outside of my circle.
I can say that I know many people who abuse(d) alcohol. That’s far more common where I am from.
The people who are in this thread saying that casual cocaine use isn’t common are confusing the fact that they don’t see people doing it with the idea that people don’t do it.
Cocaine is everywhere, but it’s very easy to do it discretely and it’s easy to hide.
That back room at a party probably has coke that only a some people are aware of. I didn’t have a clue until my late 30s. Coke is what the 2 martini lunch or pre-dinner used to be, and about as common. I personally have never used. None of my friends use. In fact the only time I’ve ever seen it was at school once in the late 70s. But once i realized it was oh, like everyone is using. You just dont see it if you don’t know.
I’m old. Before crack, cocaine was a rich person’s drug. Until Ronald Reagan and “Just say no”, you weren’t likely to get busted for small amounts of cocaine. Law enforcement was for heroin. Around 1985, that changed. The risk-reward was very different and I didn’t want to destroy my life with a felony drug conviction. I stopped completely in ~ 1985. Now, you can’t trust anything not to be laced with fentanyl.
Common in parts of Colorado
I am in my 40’s, spent a decade as a touring musician, and I have only once ever seen someone do cocaine. When I told what I saw to the guy whose house party it was, he was horrified.
I have also once been around someone who did cocaine without my knowing. They were absolutely insufferable that night, and we stopped being friends. Hell, once I hung out with someone who was just *trying* to score cocaine, and even he was miserable to be around.
Completely dependent on your location and lifestyle. I used to live in the city and work in finance and a few guys were doing it regularly – I tried it once or twice. I’m now in the country and I would be surprised if a lot of people around me were into that.
More common than you think, especially in big cities and within certain white collar industries that pay well but have a ton of hours/stress.
I know a cardiac nurse in my city and she tells me all the time people come in with heart issues, heart attacks, etc and a quick look on the chart shows they either admitted to cocaine use or it was eventually found out. She tells me that it’s kind of awkward when she’s required to tell a spouse this when they had no idea they were doing coke.
NSDUH, a high quality scientific survey with a huge sample size, estimates that about 15% of Americans age 12 or older have ever tried cocaine and about 0.6% have used it in the last month. Meth has fewer lifetime users but the same rate of recent users. Cannabis is _much_ more common than meth or coke.
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt56484/NSDUHDetailedTabs2024/NSDUHDetailedTabs2024/2024-nsduh-detailed-tables-sect1pe.htm
Ctrl-F for “250520”
Not common enough that anyone has ever offered it to me. Unlike weed, which is super common and has minimal stigma.
But ages ago I had a coworker tell me that she was certain our manager was a coke fiend. I was really surprised but she said she recognized all of the signs. So I am willing to accept that I just don’t know what the signs are!
But this reminds me of how when I did DARE in 6th grade, I went home with some Just Say No (or whatever) button and my mom told me: “I totally agree with this program. I did cocaine at a party once, and it was AWFUL”. So maybe I’m just not as cool as my mom, cause she got invited to the cocaine parties and I didn’t!