IN MY HUMBLE OPINION:WHENEVER YOU SEE the word "cocaine" in the media, the term "celebrity" is never far behind. Tragic deaths aside, it's worth remembering that for such a dangerous and toxic substance, cocaine has enjoyed good PR over the years. It's the "Champagne drug" that's associated with "glamorous lifestyles".
The insidious bond that set in when cocaine became associated with status and success gave it an easy entree into middle-class circles – particularly the urban professional middle classes. Unlike other mood-altering substances, it has developed a cool allure and users think themselves to be edgy and exciting insiders.
There were many knowing sniggers when tests carried out on Irish banknotes showed that there was more cocaine residue on €50 notes than or €5 or €10 notes. How fitting for the “VIP” drug – and yet another endorsement that the white powder could be somehow conflated with success. Despite being known as “middle-class glue-sniffing”, the professional types have successfully differentiated themselves from the usual wretched image of a “junkie”.
As if racking out the lines with a platinum credit card and snorting it through a high-denomination note makes it any different. And when it comes to the heart palpitations, the excessive sweating, the anxiety, paranoia and crashing come-down, there’s little difference between it and a tube of Bostik.
Its illegal status matters not a jot (and to many users it merely enhances its appeal) and the health warnings don’t work: people still smoke despite conclusive evidence that it is a very damaging habit.
The role of cocaine in any celebrity’s death inevitably provokes another “moral panic” about the drug. Proportion and perspective are elbowed rudely out of the way as sensationalism dominates. The inconvenient truth about cocaine is that it is very efficient – as narcotics go – which is why it’s so popular.
But I doubt Sigmund Freud (a major enthusiast) was talking about today’s lactose-saccharin-pectin- riddled cocaine when he described his pure batch as providing: “exhilaration and lasting euphoria, an increase of self-control and the possession of more vitality and capacity for work. This result is enjoyed without any of the unpleasant after-effects that follow the exhilaration brought about by alcohol.”
Cocaine’s image and “high-life” associations need overhauling. There is a bigger picture to the drug. It has always been a source of no little humour to this reporter that those people who would extol the benefits of organic food and Fairtrade produce have no problems with using the drug.
But cocaine is as unethical and immoral as they come. Between its provenance and its distribution it is inextricably linked to death squads, the merciless exploitation of children and organised crime. No drugs (alcohol included) are glamorous. And cocaine is about as grubby as they come.