Bagged = High on cocaine (slang)

On the bag = On the coke

Coke, sniff, wifty, white, bag, banger, pure, flake, ricky, charlie; it has many names and many users. Its snorted in alleyways, pubs, clubs, toilets, houses, parties, sidewalks, buses, taxis, bedrooms, classrooms and workplaces.

I’ve heard it described as a drug that “doesn’t discriminate against anyone, age, race or gender.” It is undeniably ubiquitous yet it is still mysterious. It is of course cocaine, and it is the subject of this blog post as told by the observations and experience of the author (Ross Clarke), his research, and other anonymous contributing entities.

I was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1990. That makes me 33 years old. Like most people my age I have come to accept that drugs are just part of the world we live in. However it wasn’t always like this. Baby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964) and those of prior generations did not experience as much awareness of widespread drug use in their lives.

I would actually go as far as saying that drugs are one element of modern society that accentuates a chasm between older and younger generations. Older generations don’t understand things like; “our” obsession with social media and selfies, rap music or facial piercings. They also don’t understand why someone would want to snort a line of illegal drugs up their nose, and many older people seem to be unaware of the immense omnipresence of drugs within modern society.

I would suggest that most people (in Ireland for example) aged 50 and under are familiar with drugs to an extent that they’ve either seen or experienced a variety of drug use at some stage in their life. Many people aged 50+ seem to be less aware of modern drug use and less likely to have seen or experienced such a wide variety of drug use in their lifetime.

The reality is that drugs just weren’t there in previous generations. There may have been booze and tobacco but there was certainly no drugs. A drugged up coked up society is a relatively new aspect of western civilization.

Somewhere down through the years society got bagged, and it begs one to ask so many questions about how it’s really affecting society, and whether it be for better or worse.

Personally I believe that cocaine has impacted modern society, yet I can’t quantify or define every single ripple of The Butterfly Effect that it has created, and that’s an aspect of the drug that makes it more significant. Cocaine is definitely impacting a lot of individuals, families and communities, but to what extent remains unknown. Its illegal status and clandestine persona make it hard to study in real sociological terms.

An educated guess suggests that cocaine first started trending in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger era in the 1990’s.

The Celtic Tiger was a period in recent Irish history whereby Ireland transitioned from a somewhat poor monocultural country into a rich well-developed multicultural country. The Celtic Tiger stretched from circa 1990 – 2008 and it was characterised by reckless expenditure, decadence, new-found wealth, liberalism, renouncement of religion etc. Some people see The Celtic Tiger as a period of transition between the “Old Ireland” and the “New Ireland.” It was during this transition that the social norms of Irish society changed to make way for widespread cocaine use across all social strata.

According to research cocaine use in Ireland increased by 800% between 2000 – 2005 ( https://www.joe.ie/fitness-health/cocaine-use-in-ireland-the-facts-13344 ). Up until the 00’s drugs in Ireland had often been associated with people of poverty or layabouts, but perceptions began changing when it became apparent that drugs (particularly cocaine) had penetrated middle-class lifestyle. Celebrity Katy French (model and media star) openly admitted to using cocaine, and the cocaine-related deaths of Irish media stars Katy French and Gerry Ryan (2007 & 2010) served as further admission that cocaine use had become prevelant amongst well-heeled folk ( https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4034585&page=1 ). There was even a book published in 2007 about the growing usage of cocaine in Ireland: The High Society – Drugs and The Irish Middle Class, by Justine Delaney Wilson.

As a 33 year old from Dublin I used to know cocaine as a drug that was once very expensive (€80 – €100 per portion), and a drug that many people don’t dabble in until they are in their early – mid 20’s. Such characteristics personify cocaine as a sophisticated drug for mature people. Its also a drug that has often been glamorised in movies, music and TV shows.

When people sniff it they get high! People sniff it and they talk nonsense at 100 miles per hour; all night and all day, drinking yet not getting drunk. Users get wired off it; appearing tense yet feeling good. Cocaine enables users to party for days on end with no sleep, drinking and sniffing with no need for rest.

In my lifetime I’ve seen patterns associated with it. People can turn into selfish vultures with it, turning up to parties and hiding away in corners so they don’t have to share their sniff with anyone else. Its very habitual; a lot of people that start using it in their early 20’s are still on it every weekend by the time they’re in their early 40’s. Some people spend a lot of money on it, hundreds or thousands of euros every week. Heavy users often sell it to subsidise their own habit, because it can reach a point where immensely heavy use cannot be supported by an average wage.

Some people get into trouble with it. People can run up debts with unsavoury characters or get into trouble with the law. Some people lose control of their habit to the point where it affects their job, studies, relationships etc. It also induces a hangover sometimes referred to as a skag or a comedown. Some users say that the hangovers can be severe, panicked, long lasting, and depressing.

Cocaine becomes a defining centrepiece of some social cliques. As a millennial it can sometimes feel like there’s different types of social groups; there’s your Coke Head groups and then there’s your groups of non-users. Many ex-users say that they have to completely sever relationships with old friends and cliques in order to steer clear of cocaine. For some people this is not an easy thing to do because cocaine is literally everywhere, it can be hard to navigate away from it.

I personally don’t hang out much in pubs or parties any more so I see a lot less cocaine behaviour than I did 5 – 10 years ago. However I was curious to know how the whole coke scene has been evolving over the past few years, so I reached out to anonymous entities online and I chatted away so that I could get an idea of what its like out there in 2023. Based on my online interactions it would be fair to say that cocaine is perhaps now more widely used than ever before. Its also a lot cheaper than it was 10 years ago, a bag that might have cost €100 10 years ago can now be bought for €50.

The most common word that came up when talking about cocaine was “every,” as in everyone and everywhere. Numerous people told me that “everyone is on it,” “its everywhere.” From the wilds of Donegal to the most rural towns in Ireland its everywhere, and its seemingly used by everybody ranging in age from 14 – 65.

A secondary school teacher in a rural town in Ireland told me that his students are on it everyday. Another individual told me that he knew a woman who used to work as a police officer in Scotland. While working as a police officer she was a very heavy cocaine user, and she said that many of her ex-colleagues in the police force were also heavy users.

Another person of a rural town told me that its used by everyone in the local pub and everyone on the local football team. Its not uncommon for teenagers as young as 15 to sell it.

Another gentleman told me that his local town is destroyed from it, he then went on to tell me that he sniffs it himself in work and that his nose is ruined from it.

Apparently parents do it just as much as teenagers. One guy told me that he had worked in a bar visited by private schoolboys and their parents, he said the parents sniff it just as much as their children do. Another source told me that some people get their cocaine from their parents.

A hotel worker told me that there is always loads of empty cocaine bags left behind after weddings and parties. Another person said that its openly used at funerals. There’s also the phenomenon of long queues for toilet cubicles at bars and nightclubs; often an indicator of cocaine use.

For some people cocaine can create a riff between friends, social groups and families. I spoke with one guy who has found himself socially isolated because he doesn’t want to be around cocaine yet everybody he knows is sniffing it.

People seem to fall out with family members; lying, stealing and fighting as a result of cocaine use. A lady told me about an individual she knows who is in prison; this individual feels like prison is the best place for him because its the only place where he can stay off cocaine.

As for health effects it destroys the nose. I spoke to one person who told me about a man that snorts salty water between bumps of coke, because his nose is so wrecked from all the sniff. I heard of one guy who had some of his intestines removed after abusing too much cocaine. Another person told me that they have seen cocaine use contribute towards suicides.

As for the buzz off it its been colourfully described as an absolute bag of misery and a drug that has no personality much like the people that use it. It can make people annoying and egotistical. People who use it think they are interesting when they are not.

People think they are cool when they sniff it, and there seems to be a feeling of exclusivity granted to people when they sniff it, as if someone giving you a bump in the toilet of a house party serves as a members welcome to an elitist club that tells you “you are now on coke, you are now one of the cool cats.”

Cocaine: There’s people out there in their 20’s who owe out tens of thousands of euros in debt for it. There’s small time drug dealers in small towns in Ireland making €10,000 a week off it. There’s hangovers that last for days, and there’s people who have committed sex acts for it.

Its a drug that is described by many people as “socially acceptable,” but should it really be socially acceptable, and should we perhaps take a closer look at the impact that its having on our society?