COCAINE LATEST COCKTAIL FOR A HIGH SOCIETY

Tobyn Andreae Looks At How The Rich And Famous Are Dabbling With A Drug
Becoming Even More Popular With High Fliers As The Days Of Recession Are
Left Behind

HUDDLED over a copy of a glossy American magazine, a line of cocaine laid
out in front of him, Lord Frederick Windsor barely paused for thought
before snorting the powder into his nose. The rush would have hit him
instantly, producing a glowing and powerful euphoria. If the health risks
ever bothered him, if the threat of prosecution or the fear of public
repercussion ever crossed his mind, then none of it made any difference in
the face of Britain’s most glamorous and seductive narcotic.

Welcome to the Cocaine Generation, a breed who take this Class A drug with
the casual indifference of a social drink. Intelligent, articulate and with
every advantage in life, they are the recreational users who have helped
cocaine , or Charlie as it is more commonly known, to become the fastest
growing drug problem in Britain and one, it seems, that now goes right to
the heart of the establishment. Ten years ago, it would have been truly
shocking to hear a member of the Royal Family admit that cocaine use was
prevalent among his peer group. These days it is merely accepted as fact.
In the past 18 months a member of the House of Lords, a BBC children’s TV
presenter and the son of England’s future King’s mistress have been forced
to confess to their secret vice. And they are hardly the exception.

Figures released at the weekend revealed that cocaine use trebled between
1996 and 1998, with an estimated quarter of a million 16 to 29 year olds
taking the drug during 1997, up from 95,000 two years previously. The true
figure could be even higher. A survey by the Institute for the Study of
Drug Dependency claims that half of all 16 to 22 year olds have tried
cocaine . Meanwhile, barely a week goes by without another well known name
being added to the ever expanding roll call of prominent users. Camilla’s
son, Tom Parker Bowles, societyúgirlúTaraúPalmer Tomkinson, TV host Mark
Lamarr, the BBC’s Johnnie Walker, Blue Peter presenter Richard Bacon, actor
John Alford, the Earl of Hardwicke.

The list could go on and that’s just who has hit the headlines in the past
year. For every Frederick Windsor there are a thousand anonymous users.
Often young professionals from stable backgrounds, they are far removed
from the notion of drug users as downtrodden junkies whose only comfort in
life is the oblivion their habit provides. Despite all the police
propaganda, all the ashen faced confessions from former addicts and
burgeoning public awareness, cocaine use is more widespread, more socially
acceptable than at any stage in its history.

Jeremy, for example, is a 34 year old City trader who admits to taking
between two and three grammes of cocaine every month, at a cost of £60 per
gramme.

For him and his circle of friends, taking the drug is not seen as reckless
or daring, merely par for the course. “It’s regarded as the norm. No one
bats an eyelid,” he explains. “I was at a 40th birthday party on Saturday
night and everyone was doing it in the loos, in the bedrooms, everywhere.
And the people there certainly weren’t outlandish. They were middle class
professionals with good, well paid jobs. “It’s definitely more prevalent
than it used to be. I was working in the City 10 years ago and you would
hear these myths about some boys on the dealing floors popping into the
loos for a quick hit but I never saw anything. Now it’s a social thing. As
more and more of your friends do it and they introduce other friends, so
its use has mushroomed.”

The risks, it seems, seldom enter the equation. “It’s certainly not
perceived as dangerous or addictive,” adds Jeremy. “The only times I’m wary
of it is when I feel it’s getting socially addictive you feel you have got
to have it to enjoy yourself more, or if you want to stay up later than you
could normally.”

To understand how this situation has arisen and what can be done to control
it requires an understanding both of the history of narcotic abuse and the
nature of cocaine itself. While drugs of all kinds have flitted in and out
of fashion, each generation has its signature narcotic, the drug whose
widespread influence on contemporary culture helped define the decade. In
the Sixties it was marijuana or pot.

In the Seventies, it was LSD and amphetamines. By the late Eighties,
Ecstasy had entered the fray, bringing with it its own music, style and
fashions. At £10 £15 a pill it was cheap, widely available and apparently
free from many of the more extreme side effects brought on by other illegal
substances. At university campuses, nightclubs and open air festivals, the
young couldn’t get enough of it.

Like it or not, there was the common understanding that if you weren’t on
E, you weren’t at the party.

But time and trends move on. Yesterday’s clubbers are today’s corporate
warriors and as the Ecstasy kids grew up, the demand was there for a drug
that could offer the same intensity of experience without the uncertain
quality and lingering effects that became the downside of E.

What’s more, in the current economic boom they have the disposable capital
to pay big money for cheap thrills. Cocaine has always been the rich
person’s drug of choice not only is it expensive but it carries a phantom
image of glamour. That is partly why its use has been confined to
musicians, media executives and those with inherited wealth.

And also why Lawrence Dallaglio, captain of the England rugby team, found
himself boasting about cocaine use, then later denying it. Easily concealed
and swift to take effect, it offers the user the illusion of well-being,
supreme confidence and boundless energy in short, those qualities that are
at a premium in a social environment. For regular users it is also highly
addictive and potentially lethal.

But for young professionals eager both to work hard and play hard, such
problems can come later. In the meantime they have discovered that cocaine
offers the chance to spend the night high and still turn up for work on
time in the morning.

And that’s exactly what they do as Alice, a 27 year old advertising
executive, explains. “No one I know is the least bit phased when some coke
comes out at a party. Most of the people I know do it and they range from
people who work in the House of Commons to accountancy firms. Some of us
used to do it at university but generally it was too expensive for a
student grant. Only people with their own money inherited trusts and what
have you could afford to buy it. But now I earn a decent salary I can
afford it myself. I do buy it but more often than not, I’m offered it free
at parties. It just always seems to be around.”

In this social climate it is hard to see what the police or the Government
can do to control the situation. Jack Cunningham says he hopes to cut the
consumption of cocaine in Britain by half within nine years while drugs
counsellors do their best to warn of the hazards. But it will take more
than a few high profile prosecutions to change public attitudes. The
cocaine snowball is rolling and there may be only one way to stop it a
recession. A downturn in the economy would soon reduce demand but it is
unlikely that a government would place a social agenda above fiscal
concerns. In the meantime, society continues to pay the price in the ruined
lives and failed careers which, as sure as night follows day, lie waiting
for today’s Cocaine Generation.