When you think of drug use among university students you probably think of lots of beer and marijuana. One imagines alcohol as the major stress-relieving tool on campus, with a joint getting rolled every now and then at a party. But this is not the full picture according to researchers. More and more of you may start hearing about the return of a certain disco favourite. Cocaine is making its way back into the mainstream.
On Tuesday, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health released the findings of their bi-annual drug survey on Canadian adolescents. One of the trends of the past few years is the rise of cocaine as a recreational drug among youth. While marijuana use has stayed relatively level, cocaine use has steadily been rising from one per cent of students having used it in 1991 to five per cent in 2003. The survey was comprised of almost one million Ontario students in grades 7 to 12 in the spring of 2003.
At the press conference, Doctor Edward Adlaf from CAMH spoke about the increased availability of crack and cocaine. He said that fewer students disapprove of cocaine because the perceptions of the risks are weakening. “The increase in cocaine is the dominant increase of the past year,” said Adlaf. The doctor attributes this to the fact that the use of ecstasy is on the decline for the first year. “The decrease in the use of ecstasy is a reaction to the media portrayal of the risks. Ecstasy is being viewed as a risky venture. Perhaps a substitution is occurring.” In terms of harmfulness, Adlaf said that cocaine and ecstasy are very different and it’s hard to compare them. The risks of cocaine are mainly related to the cardiovascular system.
Cocaine causes blood pressure to surge and at the same time it constricts the blood vessels. The possible dangers of abusing this drug are an increased risk of a heart attack or a brain hemorrhage.
So does this growing gang of coke-snorting high school students mean that coke exists only on the other side of the post-secondary divide? Evidence shows that some of their older brothers and sisters in university have already shown their fondness for the stuff. The latest available statistics about university students from The Centre for Adiction and Mental Health are from 1998, and show that five per cent of students nationwide have used cocaine before and that 1.6 per cent had used it in the past year. Ontario was also the second highest region for overall illicit drug use after British Columbia.
None of this sits well with the city’s law enforcement agents. One constable from the Toronto Drug Squad who asked not to be named is appalled by the use of cocaine. “Get your kicks elsewhere” is his message to students. “Don’t do it. It’s a frightening step in the wrong direction. To be a drug addict is a ruined life because you’re forever seeking it.” The constable is sure that coke is as readily available as ever. “Anyone who wants to get it can get it.” Compared to other drugs cocaine is also quite expensive. The constable put the price of a gram at between $100-$125. One of his major concerns is that cocaine use is a mere stop on the road to crack. “Cocaine is not as addictive to crack but crack is cheaper and it’s stronger.” The downward spiral in such a lifestyle might then entail frightening prospects. “I find it very scary. You see what it does to people. Once you’re started, look out!” he warned. “First it seems like a lark but then it isn’t. With women it can mean turning to prostitution and for men it could be stealing to supply the habit.”
If that’s not scary enough then there’s always the simple fact that you might be getting cheated when you hand over your hard earned money for a bag of coke. It’s a case of “buyer beware” suggested the constable. The purity of what you are paying for is not assured. “When we get large amounts we send it off to be tested. Only 25 to 30 per cent of it is actually cocaine. The rest is baking soda or some chemicals. You don’t know the level of the rush…you don’t know what’s in it.” At all the levels of production and distribution there are opportunities for the cocaine to become diluted, thereby destroying the purity of the final product.
So, if cocaine is addictive, expensive and potentially harmful, why bother with it? One U of T student who has been using cocaine recreationally for more than a year said that she now uses it about once every other month. “It’s better than any other drug I’ve done,” she said. “It’s my drug of choice.” She says that most people that she knows have done it at one point or another with a handful of her friends doing it on a regular basis. “It seems normal,” she commented. Saying that she started mainly out of peer pressure, she was at first nervous about a drug that seemed so strong. “Before I did coke it sounded like it would be intense. I would have equated it with heroine. But now it doesn’t seem that big of a deal.” Seeing the drugs’ effects on her friends, “it didn’t seem that extreme.” The student found that coke made her more energetic and talkative. “It’s a party drug.”
Although cocaine has been a largely positive experience for her, the student expressed a concern that she could see a tendency for it to become addictive. A few people were perhaps using it too much. “Some I’m worried about. They do it all the time and then they lie about it.” She has seen the results in others to be mixed. “Nobody’s jumped off a roof, although some people’s marks have dropped.” Personally, cocaine has also given her an ache in the jaw the next day from grinding her teeth together. “You feel shitty the next day. It also has a really yucky taste,” she admitted, describing the unpleasant way that the drug drips down into the mouth after snorting.
Above all, it seems baffling that a substance that one equates with the affluence of the 1980s is making its way into the lives of a student population that is supposedly hard up for cash. “I can’t explain it,” she commented, but added that the people she knows who use it on a regular basis are quite wealthy.
Cocaine could continue to appeal to student consumers or it may fade away with the eighties revival. Doctor Adlaf says that, as was the case with ecstasy, the key to reducing cocaine use may be simply paying attention to it. “We’ve gone through it already with cocaine…these things are cyclical” he said. “There will never be a time when we are completely drug free. There will always be something.”
