The world might be in the grip of a pandemic, but, in East Atlanta, the drug of choice for party folks is still cocaine. Chop a line now!
The cocaine trade is a million dollar industry in Georgia, the state where I is. And you don't have to be J.K. Galbraith to know that where there is demand, there is also supply. Coke is everywhere in the Coca Cola state. Not so long ago, just down the road in Savannah, the Feds busted two knaves with 40lbs of the stuff; at local Hartsfield-Jackson, "the world's busiest airport", the Feds busted a coke smuggling ring run by some "gotta go" baggage handlers.
Props to the Cops but the stuff is still getting in. How do I know this? Because I've been offered "blow" in bars from East Atlanta to Virginia Highlands, that's how. The going rate in "the city too busy to hate" is $60 a gram but you can pick up a "baggie" (one third of a gram) for $20. Say, isn't that cheaper than Bangkok or London? Rack 'em up nice!
Though illegal in Atlanta, Bangkok and London, coke was, and is, everywhere in Atlanta, Bangkok and London. And, in Atlanta, Bangkok or London, there's no escape from the marching powder. Take 97 Estoria. My local hipster dive bar in "Cabbagetown" was once raided by undercover cops from the Drug Enforcement Agency. But stings and busts and Medieval style plagues have done little to deter the coke dealers from coming back to ply their sordid trade to customers old and new.
Why coke? Powdered cocaine has never really gone out of fashion. In Atlanta, the drug is popular with rappers. And those hard working folks in the film industry. That's a $9.5 billion a year biz for the state of Georgia (and a 30% tax break for Hollywood). But say, have you ever seen a film biz personage out-and-about in the wilds of Atlanta or anyplace else? Not film stars wary of "civilians" in line at the coffee store but off duty crew members running amok on a mind-bending combination of drink, drugs and anti-depressants. Tut-tut. Like Frank Zappa once said, "The cocaine decisions that you make today, will mean nothing later on, when you get nose decay."
Why fret about cocaine decisions? The gear is moody. It's NEVER pure. And it's toxic. Fentanyl is dangerously used as a cutting agent. Less so with glucose. Or baby laxatives. Acidic or alkaline, however, the hazards for the drug user remain. "I've never done good cocaine in Atlanta," one local protested at the bar of 97 Estoria in Cabbagetown. "Just the stuff you take one sniff of and you're on the toilet."
Coke heads huffing in the john. Coke heads wiping their nostrils and talking in loud voices. Why, it's not so dissimilar to life back home in London town! That old, damp city has a very nasty coke habit. Thanks to the Albanian mob in London, it's cheap. And pure. Before the pandemic hit in March 2020, the toilet cubicles and the dining tables of London were sprinkled with the stuff. Nowadays the dealers come to your door disguised as "key workers" and the folks of London town are content to huff their gak indoors, free from the long arm of Cressida Dick and her Boys in Blue.
Cocaine is an horrid little drug, one that makes horrid little people out of its long-term users. No one user ever thinks about the social cost or their contribution to Third World exploitation. Despite living in an age of mass communication, this is a reality with which they are not yet fully cognizant. As to the use and misuse of this controlled substance, the best decision to make is right out of the 1980s. JUST SAY NO!
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