With a rising number of people in Ireland regularly doing cocaine – is it uncool to not understand the cocaine hype?

A trip to a nightclub on any given Saturday will likely illuminate people to the rampant use of cocaine amongst Irish people - the Irish Independent journalist Saoirse Hanley claims.

In her latest column, Ms Hanley said that instead of being perturbed by the rising prevalence of cocaine use, “we seem to have embraced it entirely”.

On Newstalk Breakfast, she divulged she was prompted to write the piece after seeing Charli XCX’s latest vinyl release.

The ‘Von Dutch’ singer released her internationally renowned album brat last year – and has recently released a new vinyl edition of it filled with white powder, to encapsulate the theme of drug usage throughout the album.

“There just seems to be this real feeling that we've gotten very comfortable with accepting that pretty hard drugs are a pretty standard part of a night out,” she said.

“When you think about the acceptance of drug use, we've kind of, as a society, decided [that] people do some things and that's fine but [there is a] line you don't cross that if you're moving into heroin or something then that's a problem.

“But it's almost as if the kind of lesser drugs - I say that in quotation marks drugs, because they can still have very huge impact - it's almost like we've thought [they are] grand.”

Charli XCX Brat album on vinyl filled with white powder. Image: X

Ms Hanley said she can feel uncool for not wanting to participate because of how normalised drug usage has become.

“For me, it feels a little bit uncool or like I'm kind of a party pooper by saying, ‘I'm not really comfortable with that’ or ‘I don't really have any interest in that and I don't really understand why you all do’,” she said.

“I think sometimes when you're going out or you’re partying or you're young, there's kind of an understanding that you're grand getting absolutely trolleyed drinking loads of drinks and that's fine and that this is just a normal progression of that.

“But that really isn't the reality for me or for some close friends and I don't really understand why it wouldn't be.

“So for me, it feels a little bit vulnerable to admit that as I'm kind of saying that it's not cool.”

Woman reflected in mirror snorting line of cocaine. Image: Jan Mika / Alamy Stock Photo

A survey completed in 2020 found that 8.3% of those between 15 and 64 had used cocaine in their lifetime – rising from 3% in a 2003 survey.

“I think it doesn't take a scientist to kind of look at [the survey results] and say, I would imagine that use is slightly skewed, heavily more towards the 20s and 30s age category,” she said.

“But I think even just like as a country, The Irish Times reported in 2023 that Irish people are joint fourth highest consumers of cocaine globally, according to the UN.

“So it's just something that we are really consuming in bigger numbers to other countries around us and I think things like accepting it as a normal part of a night out or thinking that it makes for a fun story - that really adds to it and creates a culture where we're kind of accepting it.”

Ms Hanley said that while she is far from the first person to say, ‘Stop using hard drugs’, but the more we are conscious about it, that could “only ever really help”.

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A man divides lines of cocaine. Credit: Riccardo Ceccherini / Alamy Stock Photo