Cocaine Is The New Astoria

Low prices and easy access to midtown mean that cocaine is enjoying a renaissance. The New York Press whispers that it’s worse than you think:

When surveying the cocaine scene, it’s almost tempting to ask, New York-style (“Is Manhattan the New Brooklyn?” “Is Abstinence the New Sex?”), whether coke is the new weed–or at least the new coke. In terms of provenance (Medellin cartel) and potency (got talc?), though, coke is pretty much what it’s always been. What’s changed is who’s doing it, where, and why.

. . .

While the Mayflower set may have discovered some sense of decorum toward the drug, not all among the city elites have. Two acquaintances recently went into a meeting with a powerful business executive and were interrupted twice: first when the businessman pulled out a bag and took a toot, and again when his beautiful young daughter popped in to help herself to a bag for later.

Afterward, the pair was invited out for a drink by the daughter, who it turned out was in the eighth grade at an expensive parochial school. Lugging about a volume of Dante, she told them that most of her friends used coke, and that she had her own dealers but visited her father because he had better stuff.

If this sounds unbelievable, recast it with marijuana in place of cocaine. It’s disgusting, but not implausible—not even shocking, really. Perhaps coke is the new weed after all.