Cocaine

[dreadnut]

Many moons ago, I dabbled in Cocaine. Thank God, I never had enough money to buy a lot of it. I was more of a moocher from my friends. "Here, let me help you with that." The thing I discovered is that it was an insatiable desire. I'm surprised my heart didn't explode a couple times. Then when Lenny Bias died, I and a million other people walked away from it permanently.

My friend almost lost his business because of it, he told me he put about 100K up his nose over a two year period. Thank God, he was able to get sober.

Of course now it's even more dangerous because of the introduction of Fentanyl. Now when some people snort, they die.

Public service announcement from Dread.

 

[Teleguy61]

Overly romanticized very addictive drug.

The heroin of the 80s.
Bad stuff.

 

[twocorgis]

I tried it a couple of times, and never really liked it, which is a good thing after I saw what it did to some people I knew!

 

[Midnight Toker]

Yeah, glad to have made it out of the 80's. It used to be a "special occasion" type thing. "We've got an oceanfront beach house for a week, should I bring an 8 ball?" "Paul is throwing a big New Years bash, I'll get a couple grams for us." Nevermind a boys night w/ a Risk or Monopoly board game going all night into the morning. I knew many that became regular users, then they got caught up in crack and it basically ruined their lives forever. My steadfast rule was always, NEVER have leftovers. Do it till it's gone, then at least you'll wake up feeling like complete crap and swear it off for good....or at least until New Years comes around. Everyone I know that got hooked on the stuff were the type to "save a couple bumps for tomorrow so I can make it to work on time." That typically leads to needing more by the end of the day, and the trap has been set.

I haven't touched the stuff in over 25 yrs. But I at least was able to solve all the world's problems while jabbering away all night on the stuff.

 

[Guildedagain]

When I roadied in the 80's, they would leave lines for us on the tank lid in the sh*tter.

I called it Joke.

I've never seen anyone as negative as someone coming down off it, usually about 10 minutes after snorting it.

It made my muscles lock up, like you hold something heavy for 20 minutes while gibbering with someone, and your bicep hurts for three days after that.

The worst part was the people associated, and the games, who's gonna get some, who's not.

Luckily it fell out of favor because we all learned how to make crack by hiding in the bathroom with a little glass vial, some water, baking soda and a cigarette lighter.

And the hits had to keep getting bigger and bigger.


I still remember my last hit.


I said I'm going to make the biggest hit I've ever taken and it's going to be my last one.

And it was.

Cold turkey off hard drugs now for going on 40 years.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Back when I was an advocate of judicious drug abuse, I loved it. Never had any manic cravings for it, though. Just thought it was fun when it was handy.

But like lots of other forms of potable entertainment, it was too expensive to take seriously. I mean like stupid expensive. So I eventually figured, shoot, why bother? Leave it to the Wall Street elite. Booze is cheap if you don't overdo it, and assuming you're old enough to buy it, it's easier to get your hands on.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Overly romanticized very addictive drug.

The heroin of the 80s.
Bad stuff.

Where I lived, heroin was the heroin of the eighties.

 

[walrus]

I gotta say, I was expecting this:




But I also gotta say I only tried it once, wondered why I spent so much money on it, and never did it again. There are advantages to not having much money.

walrus

 

[Neal]

In my 25-year career as a probation officer and probation chief, I could clearly delineate between my "before crack" and "after crack" caseload.

Before crack, I dealt with mostly drunks and heroin addicts, and not all that much violent crime aside from domestic battery. After crack, caseloads doubled, the number of violent incidents skyrocketed, and people could not stay clean, even with substantial penitentiary time hanging over their heads. The number of DOC inmates grew from ~7,000 to over 40,000.

Really bad stuff. I had one probationer who took his wife's dishwasher right out of the kitchen and sold it for crack. He had bought it for her birthday just a few weeks earlier.

 

[richardp69]

Never was a serious user and I'm good with that. Gave it a couple tries back in the early 70's when it was much safer. But, truth be told, I preferred my alcohol which except for a daily glass or two of wine, I've now given up as well.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Where I lived, heroin was the heroin of the eighties.

Same here. And I lived in a very socioeconomically advantaged city. All middle/upper middle class, 99% white suburbs. Nothing to do...but find trouble. Plus some kids were thinking, if it's good enough for Clapton, Richards, Page, Garcia, and a slew of other music heros of theirs, it can't be all that bad. How wrong they were. There were a few really talented guys in my school that had the world in the palm of their hand back then. Last I heard, they were basically homeless, sleeping in the stables at Laurel Race Track, hotwalking horses for $25 a day to get their fix. Sad.

 

[dreadnut]

Sometimes I just have to say "There but for the grace of God go I."

 

[Guildedagain]

I got a line on you babe ;]

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I got a line on you babe ;]

Loved those guys!

 

[dreadnut]

Great song!

 

[Neal]

Four percussionists, five guitar players. Now I know why that song sounded huge.

 

[Boneman]

Like others I did some back in the 80's/90's, don't know why but we called it yay-oh. Couple times my heart felt like it was gonna explode, and yea, then when Len Bias dropped dead on the court I said f that, never again. Plus now with the fentanyl stories everywhere, no thank you.

Along those lines, (see what I did there) I do like Metallica's song Master of Puppets, all about cocaine addiction, love the lyric "Chop your breakfast on a mirror!"

 

[mavuser]

stupidest drug ever invented. u could be crushing beers and weed all day, and in less than one second, just one little bump will completely kill that buzz u have been perfectly crafting and sculpting all day. it just sobers u up. and then for 2 weeks u feel like garbage. no idea how so many people are additcted to that. other drugs, alcohol, sugary foods, gambling...basically anything else, i can at least understand the addicting side and the difficulty in those things. coke has always been a head scratcher for me though, thankfully.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Four percussionists, five guitar players. Now I know why that song sounded huge.

In that video, yes, it's a big band.

But on the LP and radio, it was just the four of them: California, Locke, Ferguson, and Whatshisname.

 

[Canard]

A highly dangerous drug, and all the more dangerous because it is subtle.

My experiences with people who used it extensively are entirely negative - major personality changes - empty and unfounded hubris, hostile impatience, heightened aggressiveness, delusional paranoia, etc, and then there's a bad side, too.

The was a famous black comedian, now in disgrace, who did a solo routine in which he delivered both sides of a conversation between two people:

A: So like, why do you do cocaine?

B: Because it intensifies your personality.

A: Yeah, but what if you're an a--hole?