sexy suspects

WHAT does a drug-pusher look like? The word conjures up images of lowlife junkies, who sell to feed their own habits; or maybe shady gangsters of the criminal underworld, greedy for fast money.


It could be that he is the sleazy, low-profile character on the social scene whom nobody seems to like, but who is always at the best parties.

Perhaps so.

But the true picture may be a little more close to home. Because the most dangerous character, the most powerfully persuasive, is more likely to be a glamorous, middle-class woman of childbearing age, usually aged from late 20s to late 40s. The kind of woman others look up to and trust because they "know stuff".

So when someone like this tells you it's OK to take endless lines of cocaine -- only occasionally, you understand, when there is a big celebration or a long weekend -- it's easy to see how you'd believe them.

The message is: everyone does it, and if you were sexy and cool and middle-class like us, you would be into it to. It's the drug for those who have it all -- career, money, success and families.

They have the responsibility of children, but they refuse to be adults. Cocaine is a status badge.

Addiction experts say it is these types -- trusted friends and respected figures who know little about the real hazards of the drug --who are very often the ones responsible for pulling others into cocaine abuse. They are guilty of a grown-up version of the schoolyard peer pressure.

The danger of coke is that while some people become addicted, many don't. And while the ones who think they can enjoy cocaine without any obvious problems are vocal and boastful, those whose habits have spiralled into life-destroying addiction tend to keep it to themselves. But the ill-informed testimonies of the lucky ones rubber-stamp it as "safe" to take to others.

The emergence of the Yummy Mummy coke dabbler is one of the examples of how the user profile has developed since the drug took hold of the country over the last decade. And take hold it has, no matter what the cynics say.

It is now an epidemic -- and one I warned of in this newspaper in an article in 2004. It was headlined: "Cocaine's sexy image blamed for threefold rise in abuse". A headline that, just three years on, seems terribly dated, the escalation of the use of the drug has been such.

In the beginning -- and I hate to admit it -- there was something sexy about cocaine. It was, so we thought, for the professional, successful, discerning, twentysomething cool gang. The idea of rolling up a �0 note and the action of snorting the drug was as heady a rush as the drug itself.

But it quickly moved on to the older crowd, the ones who should probably have passed over their drugs phase long ago. They wanted a bit of the cachet, a bit of something that would let others know that they were still a bit cool, and that they had not lost their identity or their credibility, just because they were married with kids.

Counselling psychologist Leslie Shoemaker says using a so-called "glamorous drug" is a desperate attempt to hang onto your cool image.

Said Ms Shoemaker: "In the past, people usually outgrew taking drugs as they matured, maybe married, or developed other interests and became professionals. Now it seems adolescence lasts until the late 20s, and 30s are the new 40s.

"Part of the reason is to look exciting. They see themselves in a different category to other drug users, because they are a different age and their life circumstances are different. This denial is quite dangerous as it allows them to continue with their behaviour.

"But they are gambling with their futures as well as their reputations. Who wants to have kids bullied at school because mom was arrested for drug possession?"

One of the hallmarks of the Yummy Mummy dabbler is that they won't touch anything else except coke. Coke is regarded as both safe and classy. You won't see them smoking joints, too hippyish, or going near heroin, dirty, only for scumbags, or asking around for ecstasy. That's a bit Nineties and for teenagers.

Now that cocaine has dramatically dropped in price and spread to all classes -- from the socialite to the council estate party animal -- it may lose its image as a posh drug. But you'll still see them at parties, asking any likely suspects where they can get hold of some coke, maybe using code words to prove they are in the know.

And after the night is over, they can go home and sleep it off while the babysitter looks after the children. And then go back to having dinner parties and discussing the property market or creche facilities or 4x4s.

These are the relatively lucky ones, according to Stephen Rowen, clinical director of the Rutland Centre for Addiction in Dublin.

"Like alcohol, some people become addicted to cocaine and others don't," explained Rowen.

"Those who don't can use it recreationally, without feeling the need to have it. Of course, they will wind up having emotional issues, alienating themselves from themselves and depending on drugs to feel good but there won't be any outward problems."

Stephen Rowen continued: "So they tell people that coke is great. And others believe them because the proof is there. But there are those who take cocaine who become addicted quickly and who need it more and wind up stealing and maybe dealing to feed their own addiction.

"I think it is these people, who have had positive experience, and who have told everyone how safe it is, how sexy . . . I think it is these who are the most dangerous groups in a cocaine society," he said.

Lately, I have found myself making excuses for not indulging, saying anything rather than admit I just wasn't interested and be marked out as a square.

What I should have said was: "I'm bored of it. I'm bored of cocaine, and most of all I am bored of listening to all you middle-class snobs going on about it."

It's not cool anymore, guys, it's just boring and sad, ridiculous and pathetic.

Kyle MacLachlan: FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
Michael Ontkean: Sheriff Harry S. Truman
Richard Beymer: Benjamin Horne
Lara Flynn Boyle: Donna Hayward
Sherilyn Fenn: Audrey Horne
Warren Frost: Dr. Will Hayward
Michael Horse: Deputy Tommy "Hawk" Hill
Harry Goaz: Deputy Andy Brennan
Madchen Amick: Shelly Johnson
Dana Ashbrook: Bobby Briggs
Peggy Lipton: Norma Jennings
Jack Nance: Pete Martell
Everett McGill: Big Ed Hurley
Piper Laurie: Catherine Martell
James Marshall: James Hurley
Ray Wise: Leland Palmer
Sheryl Lee: Laura Palmer
Series Created By: David Lynch and Mark Frost
Directed By: David Lynch, Lesli Linka Glatter, Caleb Deschanel, Duwayne Dunham, Tim Hunter, Todd Holland, and Tina Rathbone
Series Air Date: April 8, 1990
DVD Release Date: October 30,