Pubdate: Mon, 10 Oct 2005
Source: BBC News (UK Web)
Copyright: 2005 BBC
Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Author: Jonathan Duffy, BBC News Magazine

THE COCAINE PARADOX

Cocaine is an addictive Class A drug, its use widely deplored. Yet, as
recent events perhaps show, its sphere of influence is wider than we
might think. So, do we have a paradoxical attitude to the drug?

Everyone enjoys a party now and again, so who could begrudge those
celebrities who populate the pages of the tabloid press with tales of
their "partying" antics? Yet all is not what it might seem with such
stories.

One interesting aspect to emerge from the deluge of coverage following
last month's allegations that Kate Moss had snorted cocaine was the
use of the word "partying". Frequently it is a euphemism for doing
drugs.

"Celebrities are forever saying in interviews: 'X was partying a lot
at that time'," wrote author and journalist Anna Blundy. "What they
mean is that they were addicted to drugs."

This revelation will come as no surprise to many insiders. From LA to
London, cocaine has long been known as a social lubricant.

It is a stimulant, helping users feel alert and socially confident. It
dulls the inhibitions that most of us have, to a greater or lesser
extent, when mixing with a bunch of people we don't know very well.

In some parts of some industries - fashion, public relations, the
media, city trading, pop music, to name just a few - socialising into
the small hours is part of the job. And coke is part of the scene.

Robbie Williams last weekend highlighted what he saw as hypocritical
views towards the drug in the media, saying he had personally taken
cocaine with journalists who had criticised Kate Moss for doing the
same.

For all its associations of glamour, cocaine use is not condoned by
modern mainstream society - though things were different in the 19th
Century, when it could be found in dozens of medicines on sale in High
Street chemists.

While legalisation of cannabis, a so-called soft drug, is a perennial
debate, heroin and crack occupy the other end of the spectrum. Hard
and highly addictive, they draw in the desperate, and turn them into
junkies.

But despite having the same Class A status, cocaine occupies a more
paradoxical place. While the media overtly abhors it, in the very same
breath it laps up the glamorised celebrity culture that cocaine helps
perpetuate.

What's more, sections of society have increasingly come to imitate
these values, as individuals become accustomed to spending more on
going out and enjoying themselves. The falling cost of cocaine has
also made it more accessible.

Mark is 33, owns his own flat, rides a scooter around London and knows
how to apply himself in his skilled job of website development. He
also enjoys cocaine.

'Socially acceptable'

He is just the sort of person Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police
commissioner, had in his sights when last year he vowed to target
middle class cocaine users who think it is "socially
acceptable".

Cocaine use has risen sharply in the past nine years, albeit from a
low base. Latest figures show 2.4% of 16-59-year-olds in England and
Wales had used cocaine in the past 12 months - up from 0.6% in 1996.

In the mid-90s ecstasy and hallucinogenic drugs were more popular than
cocaine. Today, coke is the second most popular illegal drug, after
cannabis. The steepest rise has been within the 25-34 age group -
which includes Mark - where almost 6% took coke in the previous year.

Mark first tried cocaine when he was 19 and his usage now goes in fits
and starts.

"I'm waiting for a delivery now, for the weekend. It's a friend's
birthday. But it's been six weeks since I last took it," he says. Last
year, though, there was a two-month stretch where he took cocaine
every weekend.

He likes the drug's ability to "perk you up" on a Friday night, at a
bar with a drink after a tiring week, and how it oils the wheels in a
social situation.

"There's also the social aspect of going to the loos with a friend and
giving them a line of coke. It's a friendly act, and it's also a bit
naughty."

Health issues

The drawbacks of snorting coke include damage to the lining of the
nose, which leads to surges in blood pressure caused by the narrowing
of coronary arteries. Users can suffer chest pains which can lead to
heart attacks or strokes, and some experience an itch, known as
"cocaine bugs".

Aside from the physical problems, regular use can also lead to
psychosis and severe depression, say experts. And, as with all illegal
drugs, it can create a divide between those friends and family who
also use them, and those who don't.

So far though, Mark has seen nothing of these effects - either in him,
or his network of about 15 friends who also take coke.

"You might have a bad night, but you'd have that on alcohol. None of
us has been hospitalised from coke."

The alcohol point is an important one for Mark and those like him, who
argue there is a moral equivalence between alcohol and drugs like
cocaine. Yet one is legal and one is banned.

"You go into the bars where I work and you know people are taking it.
It's going on and everyone knows it. Celebrities take coke all the
time, but it's just not reported. It's like [comedian] Bill Hicks said
- - you've got to have a war on something."
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