Cocaine?

[docB]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I'm gonna make a statement based on the rigorous scientific standard of something I've noticed:

Seems like cocaine is popping up on the drug screens more often.

I see meth all day everyday but coke is unusual. Some of the nurses were speculating that it was because the stimulus checks came out. I kinda doubt that just based on the population I see. You have to have an address to get a check. I think it's because the closure of all the nightclubs has killed the powder coke market. I suspect the dealers are cutting coke into the meth to augment the street supply. When I see someone pop for coke they usually have meth too. Starting to see a lot of speedballers as well with coke and heroin.

Anyone else seeing coke or club drugs showing up outside the usual crowd?

 

[Groove]

I'm gonna make a statement based on the rigorous scientific standard of something I've noticed:

Seems like cocaine is popping up on the drug screens more often.

I see meth all day everyday but coke is unusual. Some of the nurses were speculating that it was because the stimulus checks came out. I kinda doubt that just based on the population I see. You have to have an address to get a check. I think it's because the closure of all the nightclubs has killed the powder coke market. I suspect the dealers are cutting coke into the meth to augment the street supply. When I see someone pop for coke they usually have meth too. Starting to see a lot of speedballers as well with coke and heroin.

Anyone else seeing coke or club drugs showing up outside the usual crowd?

We've always had lots of cocaine in my area. Lots of + UDS and my patients freely admit to using it. I actually have less pts admit to meth than I do cocaine or crack. I haven't noticed any change since the stimulus checks. Heroin, fentanyl and cocaine/crack are the big players here.

 

[UKEMdoc]

Bit weird - our hardcore drug users are struggling since overseas links are being cut and Coke is imported while meth can be made locally.

 

[AlmostAnMD]

Coke is definitely coming back

Super common in my shop, 50/50 mix of opioids and often seen together.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Coke is definitely coming back

Super common in my shop, 50/50 mix of opioids and often seen together.

Weird. My area is very different. Tons of EtOH abuse, moderate amount of opioids (a mishmash of oxy, fent, heroin), almost no meth or coke at all. I've literally seen 1 guy on meth in the past 6 months. Maybe 2 on cocaine. Lots of everything else I mentioned though.

 

[bravotwozero]

I see tons of meth and opiates all the time, cocaine is not as common.

 

[Toxin066]

Un-related, but kind of related because Panic!: Champagne, cocaine, gasoline - and most things in between. Something something...Oh yeah, don't threaten me with a good time.

 

[RustedFox]

Un-related, but kind of related because Panic!: Champagne, cocaine, gasoline - and most things in between. Something something...Oh yeah, don't threaten me with a good time.

What does this mean?

Oh. Its (an) emo song lyric.
NVM.

 

[thegenius]

I’ve got f&$kin antibodies to meth it’s so prevalent in my area. And all the sequelae that comes with it: bad, rotting teeth; skin rashes; parasitosis; major tweaking that requires > 10 mg haldol and 6 mg ativan.

 

[deleted547339]

Cocaine is a helluva drug.

 

[pollyspockets]

I see tons of cocaine, although it skews older with the 50s-60s crowd in my area. The amount of times I have to give a “stop using cocaine or your heart is going to explode” talk is staggering.

 

[Zebra Hunter]

Haven’t really seen much cocaine use recently. Not sure I buy dealers cutting meth with coke. Coke is significantly more expensive than meth. Wouldn’t make much sense to do that.

 

[thegenius]

Now I've got cocaine songs in my head. My two favorites are, in no particular order

"Cocaine" Eric Clapton
"Casey Jones" Grateful Dead
"Truckin" Grateful Dead

I guess that is three. All three are great.

Why can't our cocaine addicts come in signing this.

 

[docB]

I'll play:

Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash
Cocaine - Jackson Browne
Big Shot - Billy Joel

 

[Apollyon]

Just heard it this morning: The Eagles - Life In The Fast Lane.

 

[NITRAS]

I see tons of cocaine, although it skews older with the 50s-60s crowd in my area. The amount of times I have to give a “stop using cocaine or your heart is going to explode” talk is staggering.

Admitted someone a couple weeks ago who was 72. 72 friggen years old and still doing cocaine.

Dang dude. Got great genes. . . . could live to a hundred probably if he had half a brain between his ears.

 

[wareagle726]

I think there are multiple crack trees in our city. I admitted 3 this evening to the coke chest pain obs pathway. We only have one available ED obs pathway available...and it's for cocaine chest pain. I had a 72yo gmom last week who told me she got crack in her mother's day basket of goodies.

 

[alpinism]

When I trained in Detroit we regularly had 80+ year olds coming in with cocaine induced chest pain and I mean like multiple times a week.

 

[Apollyon]

When I trained in Detroit we regularly had 80+ year olds coming in with cocaine induced chest pain and I mean like multiple times a week.

When I was a med student, back in 2001, I saw a pt in Jersey City, who was 77 years old, and still shooting heroin (regular, addict stuff, not "chipping").

 

[deleted547339]

My first intubation was crack asthma.

 

[ShockIndex]

I remember my field training officer telling me back in the mid-90s that he recalled the day crack arrived in Richmond back in 1982. Jim Simone (aka Super Cop) said something similar in passing when I was a resident at Metro in Cleveland about 15 years ago. If you talk to old school homicide detectives, it was like someone flipped a switch and the murder rate tripled over night. They hadn’t seen that many young bodies at one time since Vietnam.

I suspect that some of those addicts started using 35 years ago and somehow managed to dodge the bullets, MIs, and brain bleeds. Meanwhile, I run every day and will probably die of COVID...go figure.

 

[Tenk]

I once had a cocaine addict explain to me the difference between crack and cocaine. It went like this:

“You see doc, crack is crack, but cocaine..... Is CoCaaaaaine.”

Somehow that made perfect sense.

 

[thegenius]

I once had a cocaine addict explain to me the difference between crack and cocaine. It went like this:

“You see doc, crack is crack, but cocaine..... Is CoCaaaaaine.”

Somehow that made perfect sense.

Funny it's usually the other way around too.

 

[ThetisAntithesis]

Once had an older lady I sent for a colonoscopy, it was cancelled because she had used cocaine the morning of.
She came back screaming at me "Why didn't you tell me I couldn't use it before the procedure?!!"
Me: Uh, wait what?! First of all....

 

[yeasports]

best of all time:

 

[thegenius]

Lol COVID is killing the wrong people.

 

[Cath Up]

"Bump"

 

[Saddleshoes]

I'm gonna make a statement based on the rigorous scientific standard of something I've noticed:

Seems like cocaine is popping up on the drug screens more often.

I see meth all day everyday but coke is unusual. Some of the nurses were speculating that it was because the stimulus checks came out. I kinda doubt that just based on the population I see. You have to have an address to get a check. I think it's because the closure of all the nightclubs has killed the powder coke market. I suspect the dealers are cutting coke into the meth to augment the street supply. When I see someone pop for coke they usually have meth too. Starting to see a lot of speedballers as well with coke and heroin.

Anyone else seeing coke or club drugs showing up outside the usual crowd?

Just as the logistics supply chain has been disrupted for toilet paper, baking supplies, meat, sympathy cards and cotton cloth due to COVID restrictions.

The same is true of the street drug logistics chain. Normal supply routes have vanished. Demand for product has changed with the change in the customer's routine and financial status. Cross border restrictions have changed drastically.

Just as we have learned to get creative and use different methods and resources to go on with life. The street drug user is going to different methods and resources to go on with life.

I don't know about you guys, but in my world, the gang bangers are having a shooting war right now. I suspect it is directly related to this disruption in the supply chain.