When did coke become socially acceptable?

Heard a similar discussion on the radio today about the pervasive smell of hash around Dublin City Centre.

There was a time that folk who liked a spliff would smoke at home, maybe a quiet spot outdoors, but not openly walking down the street or outside pubs.

The discussion was along the lines of 'well, people are anticipating full legalisation and so care less about where they smoke it'.

I don't think that's what it is at all really, I just think its the same as the cocaine, in that folk know they can do exactly what they like, where they like and when they like and that there will be no consequences.

And of course the thinking about hash is bogus anyway, because in so many of the territories that personal use is permitted, like California, Colorado and the Netherlands, you cannot smoke on the street or wherever you like and it is tightly policed.

As usual in Irish cities and towns, its anti-social behaviour rulez OK and nobody gives a shite.

You gave a list of 12 occupations including Garda who you know use cocaine. Some only at the weekends, some to cope with jobs they hate. How would you even know the occupations of people out and about socialising?

Seems it became socially ‘acceptable’ during the last big boom here in the late 90s early 00s. It wasn’t just here either.

I've done coke with all walks of life and high up professions anyway over the years. It may be socially acceptable once you know the other person or people are cool with it but most people try to be discreet about it. Here in London it seems to be just the norm, dealers here will whatsapp you these enormous menus selling all sorts of stuff from weak coke to strong coke to viagra to mephedrone etc. etc.

People love drugs and they will always be prevalent and that is never going to change unless we become some kind of authoritarian states like in the middle east and asia, and hopefully that never happens.

It is rife, even in backwater little places, you’d easier get coke than a panadol. The youngsters are on it, they don’t drink they do coke instead and all of the ugliness that goes along with it, aggressiveness and fighting, jaws and noses swinging out of them. I’d say it’s been easy 5 years since it became widespread and I won’t say acceptable but not frowned upon. If we think drink is an issue for society I can only imagine the problems this coke addiction will bring.

I think that saying a drug is very safe because nobody dies from taking it is stretching things.

I was saying millions of people can take ecstasy over a weekend and have an amazing time and come off none the worse for it, so I'd consider it very safe yes. I'm unaware of ecstasy having had any ill effects on anyone I know and pretty much everyone I know and grew up with would have taken pills. I can't say the same thing about booze, that's definitely not a very safe drug.

I saw a bunch of 18-20 year old kids openly sniffing it off a key at Dalkey station over the summer, in full view of everyone waiting on the other side of the platform. I barely had the money to buy a few pints at that age.

you clearly haven't a clue what you're talking about and you're putting words in my mouth because i never said no one's ever in harm from taking drugs, i said relatively speaking cocaine is safe compared to other drugs like alcohol. if coke and mdma and pills were as dangerous as you say they are there'd be people dying from them all the time in ireland given the vast amounts of them taken every weekend, people crash drunk and die in alcohol related incidents all the time on the other hand.

probably yeah, but i'm looking at it like this, if you were to get drunk af twice a year or do a few lines twice a year, you'd be far safer on the coke than the booze in my opinion. taking either all the time will f*ck you up.

I (44) was on a 2 night stag with the youngest brother (31) a few years back and ALL of his mates were on it. They'd throw a towel or t-shirt over their head, in a bar, in the middle of the day and snort away from a novelty oversized key (think it was a souvenir from Alcatraz) that had a perfectly sized groove in it.

These lads are all late 20's, early 30's... pint-hounds... and just wanted to stave off the drunkness or hangover. Stayed awake ALL night chatting ****. But when they ran out - on the Sunday morning CHRIST were they in some state. Double hangover, no sleep and no more coke. They were fooked!

They seem to be on it every weekend... and I counted that out of say 9 or 10 of these lads, who I know quite well... none of them owned a house or were married (most in relationships). Apart from my brother (married with mortgage)! They all seemed to be happy going from paycheck to paycheck - pinting and snorting... ZERO desire to 'grow up'. All still living with the mammy.