Cocaine conversation – what young people are saying

Cocaine seems to be more popular than ever in the streets, clubs, and bars of Dublin, as demands for addiction treatment have been rising.

“I feel like with the price of drink these days, it’s sometimes better to just split a bag with your friends,” a second-year TUD student told The Liberty.

The price of a pint of beer in Dublin is typically over €7, and sometimes much higher.

“You can see cocaine starting to trickle from nightclubs into bars and pubs,” one student told us. And it is easily accessible: “I feel like everyone knows someone who knows someone that can get you a bag.”  

A popular opinion is that the drug has become so normalised due to its popularity at festivals and is now being used in clubs and bars to “enhance the night”.

The longstanding association of cocaine with money and status is also at work. 

“I feel like cocaine is glamourised now and people kind of see it as a show of wealth,” said a 2^nd year bio science student at TU Dublin. 

The Irish Times has linked cocaine usage with violence, and students agree.

“I feel like people are more unpredictable when they are on drugs, especially drugs like cocaine,” one said.

“I feel like people using coke kind of changes the vibe and the atmosphere of the venue, it’s always so obvious.”

One student added that she feels “unsafe as [she] has seen lots of people become quite violent and aggressive like they’re different people when they take cocaine.”  

In recent weeks, there has been media coverage of high-profile cocaine seizures worth millions of euros across the country.