Fashionable but deadly

This recent article in the New York Times came as a shock to me, given that my biggest vice is a glass of red wine with dinner. Not that I'm shocked that people do drugs--even in Sleepy Columbus, Ga.--but this apparent casualness about cocaine surprised (and saddened) me immensely. One guy is quoted as saying, "I'll take a gram of coke and make half a million dollars," to justify how cocaine puts him at the "top of his game" in finance, and if he needs a little boost before a big meeting. Oddly, people at these parties act all self-righteous about someone who pulls out a cigarette, as if snorting coke is no big deal.