Forum: Author Hangout

How do Detect a Cocaine High?

PotomacBob 🚫

A high school girl, mid-teens, goes to an unchaperoned party in which she's been warned that some of the kids there will be using cocaine.
She herself, has no experience with drugs.
She has some experience with kids who drink alcohol and some who smoke joints, but none that she is aware of who use cocaine.
Without seeing anyone actually using cocaine, how is she to recognize that someone at the party is high on it? Are there symptoms to look for? If so, do the symptoms differ from alcohol or marijuana use?

Replies: Vincent Berg Remus2 Radagast Keet samsonjas Harold Wilson richardshagrin mrherewriting

Vincent Berg 🚫

@PotomacBob

The most obvious are small pupils (blood constriction), bloodshot eyes (mostly from the secondhand powder getting into the eyes) and of course the stereotypically constant sniffling and whining of the nose. Plus, there are innumerable speech patterns, from speaking hyper fast, constantly changing focus from one thing to another, to forgetting where you are in the sentence (though the last is rarer, and as usual, the more obvious symptoms diminish the more the experience the use has with the drug (i.e. you'd likely only notice the beginners, not the experienced habitual users).

Remus2 🚫

@PotomacBob

Cocaine is a stimulant. Run a Google search for symptoms of stimulant abuse in a search.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@Remus2

Run a Google search for symptoms of stimulant abuse in a search.

Will symptoms of "stimulant abuse" be the same as those for teens who are first-time or early beginners?

Replies: Remus2

Remus2 🚫

@PotomacBob

Will symptoms of "stimulant abuse" be the same as those for teens who are first-time or early beginners?

More likely to be exaggerated if anything for first-time or early beginners.

Radagast 🚫

@PotomacBob

Watch a Stevie Nicks interview from the seventies. Also Blondie when performing. Both were flying.

Replies: Remus2

Remus2 🚫

@Radagast

Watch a Stevie Nicks interview from the seventies. Also Blondie when performing. Both were flying.

That's a good idea. There are many examples like that.

Keet 🚫

@PotomacBob

She has some experience with kids who drink alcohol and some who smoke joints, but none that she is aware of who use cocaine.
Without seeing anyone actually using cocaine, how is she to recognize that someone at the party is high on it? Are there symptoms to look for? If so, do the symptoms differ from alcohol or marijuana use?

Despite the symptoms described in other answers the girl will have to know which symptoms specifically point to cocaine. Although she was warned about cocaine, without knowing specifics she wouldn't recognize the difference with alcohol/joint usage. A recognizable tell-tale would be some left over white powder under a nose. That would let her know it was cocaine and if she's smart she can probably see some other symptoms that differ from users of alcohol/joints.

Replies: Remus2 Dominions Son Vincent Berg

Remus2 🚫

@Keet

without knowing specifics she wouldn't recognize the difference with alcohol/joint usage.

I'd have to disagree with that. Alcohol is easy to recognize if they have working noses. Marijuana THC doesn't take a lot to recognize someone on it.
Further, if this story is set in modern times, searches of YouTube turn up multiple hits for "signs of substance abuse."

Replies: LupusDei

LupusDei 🚫

@Remus2

Further, if someone acts weird, and appears in a way distinctly different from the known patterns of being drunk or stoned, and a drug use is suspected, it's a reasonable guess that is in effect.

So, if there's known to be three ways used to get high at a particular party, and two are alchohol and marijuana with are more or less familiar by the character, and easy to recognize, the third may possibly be inferred by exclusion even if the exact symptoms are previously unknown. However, there may possibly be some who would mix two or all of those though, muddling the picture.

Dominions Son 🚫

@Keet

A recognizable tell-tale would be some left over white powder under a nose. That would let her know it was cocaine

Only if they are doing powdered cocaine and not crack.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

Only if they are doing powdered cocaine and not crack.

Actually, the two are very similar, though the intensity, duration and 'mellowness' of the high differ considerable. Needless to say, living in Manhattan and attending the typical social events, Crack was almost NEVER seen. In fact, I'm sure my experience was limited, but despite living with an extended black family, I've NEVER known ANY black (i.e. Jamaican or British black person, as opposed to your typical American black who simply couldn't afford the better drugs) who EVER used crack. It was a definite social stigma to be associated with it. You could have a LOT of friends with cocaine, but once someone saw you with a crack pipe, you'd NEVER get into another high-social party again!

With Cocaine, people would simply avoid you while you were out of your mind, but with Crack, people simply wanted nothing to do with you whether you were high or not.

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

Actually, the two are very similar, though the intensity, duration and 'mellowness' of the high differ considerable.

The effects are the same.

How the drugs are taken are very different. As I under stand it, crack is dissolved and injected, not snorted. So you wouldn't get the white powder under the nose that you get from snorting powder cocaine.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

How the drugs are taken are very different. As I under stand it, crack is dissolved and injected, not snorted. So you wouldn't get the white powder under the nose that you get from snorting powder cocaine.

Ha-ha. White powder remnants aren't symptoms, it's an example of poor hygiene! It's a clear rookie mistake, which you also encounter in those too damn high to care!

But my point remains. The high and speed of delivery are a direct result of how it's ingested!

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫
Updated:

@Vincent Berg

Ha-ha. White powder remnants aren't symptoms, it's an example of poor hygiene! It's a clear rookie mistake, which you also encounter in those too damn high to care!

But the suggestion of exactly that as a sign of cocaine use was what I was replying to when I made the comment about it only applying to powder cocaine and not crack.

But my point remains.

Your point is irrelevant to my comment.

Replies: Vincent Berg

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Dominions Son

But the suggestion of exactly that as a sign of cocaine use was what I was replying to when I made the comment about it only applying to powder cocaine and not crack.

But my point remains.

Your point is irrelevant to my comment.

Point taken.

Vincent Berg 🚫

@Keet

A recognizable tell-tale would be some left over white powder under a nose.

Except &ellipsis; most everyone wipes their nose after a snort (i.e. within a fairly short period of time), so that's less definitive if you can't actually see it. However, the telltale nasal drip is a definitive giveaway. After all, if someone's sniffling that much while kissing someone, you can guarantee their on cocaine, and no one's going to kiss (or be able to kiss) if they're that sick!

P.S. I've never snorted myself, but having lived in Manhattan during the 1970s and 80s, I saw enough of it in clubs, along with the various other substances being passed around—especially that viewed as sexual/social stimulants.

samsonjas 🚫

@PotomacBob

The normal way to learn the symptoms is for someone else to point them out. If people are high at a school party it's going to be what the girls gossip about.

Harold Wilson 🚫

@PotomacBob

There's a good description in one of the early "private banking" chapters in the latter part of Refusenik's "Human Phoenix". It starts here, or maybe a little sooner:

A warning light went off in Scott's head. He focused on the man's movements and watched his eyes closely.

https://storiesonline.net/s/72846:139367/chapter-19-human-phoenix

It goes several paragraphs and results in them leaving for a different candidate.

Replies: PotomacBob

PotomacBob 🚫

@Harold Wilson

Thank you very much. The link was very helpful.

richardshagrin 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

Cocaine High

I can't find a Cocaine High School on line, although apparently high school students do use it. There is a series of books about R. Caine High School by Author Victoria Danann. She has written dozens of books and is "well known" as an author, although not on SOL.

mrherewriting 🚫
Updated:

@PotomacBob

Watch Colin Farrell's mannerisms and speech patterns in this scene-----> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQoPBq2P94M

Harold Wilson gave a link to a story with a generic description of someone on cocaine, but generic is good. If you're not familiar with the drug, there's no reason to go into a detail, there's probably no reason to go into detail if you are. And cocaine dilates the pupils, it doesn't constrict them.

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How do Detect a Cocaine High?

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