I am wondering why dollar bills are invariably used to snort cocaine with? One would think that any rolled-up paper could do (in fact, I wouldn’t call cocaine users people who have money lying around - I’ve never tried the stuff and I have zero bills currently, add an expensive cocaine habit on top of that … ) Or any tube that can fit in the nose for that matter. Why are dollar bills the vehicle of choice (at least in movies and TV, but I assume these are based in reality (and considering how many people in the entertainment industry use the stuff, they’d be the first to notice a factual inaccuracy … )
What other small piece of paper do people carry around with themselves regularly?
I wouldn’t snort cocaine off a stripper’s chest with anything less than a fifty.
Dollar bills are not the vehicle of choice, they are the image of choice for those who are filming or taping a scene of people snorting cocaine – the visual connection of drugs and money speaks to the viewer. As far as I know, the discerning cokehead uses a piece from the barrel of a ballpoint pen.
I mean, shove something into your nose that’s been handled by maybe thousands of people… pu-leeze
Bank notes roll more easily than paper, because they’re made of cotton rather than regular wood pulp paper.
It’s not Hollywood. IME, the most common tube is a rolled up bill of whatever denomination is handy. I’ve never seen anyone use the barrel of a ballpoint pen. Maybe things have changed in the [my god, has it been THAT long?] years since I’ve attended parties where cocaine was available, but in the '80s only once or twice have I seen someone use a metal tube, and only once a cut drinking straw. Everyone used bills.
Where do you think the cocaine’s been?
Anyway, I once read a book where the characters used a phone dialer. What is a phone dialer, you ask? Well, back in the days of rotary phones, if you wanted to save your manicure, you used a small metal tube instead of sticking your finger/nails into the dial. I’m pretty sure you had to buy it separately, and in fact, I think the one in the book was from Cartier, but at any rate, it was hollow inside. I’ve seen phone dialers IRL (minus the cocaine); I wish I could include a pic, but you can imagine how useless this definition of “phone dialer” is in a google search.
Do you mean passed through thousands of hands each one touching each grain of coke? I can’t picture that. is this true?
It’s been handled by quite a few people. It’s been cut with other substances. By the time it got to you, it may have been in some interesting places. And of course, it’s going to destroy your body even if it’s been in lab conditions. So what could be so much worse in a dollar bill?
Don’t want to rain on this parade… but from what I have learnt by watching movies, (LOL) it looks like any drug trafficker worth his or her salt while handling the drugs, cutting and packaging, actually wears those anal-exam type gloves.
This being the only to avoid the high and possible overdose through skin absorption. They all went to the “Albert Hoffman school-of-don’t-trip-out-when-you-really-don’t-want-to.”
or whatever… we can agree to disagree on this point.
It has been proven scientifically by random bill testing in various European countries (maybe the USA as well) that there is a definite quantity of cocaine on all currency as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, which shows that bills are definitely one of the preferred vehicles.
Contamination is everywhere, lots of ground water has tested positive for traces of almost all over the counter medicines.
Aside from the drug culture stuff, about which I know less than nothing, there’s an economic misconception in the OP. It’s precisely because cocaine is so expensive that a coke snorter is likely to have cash on him. If he didn’t have a lot of disposable income, he’d be using a cheaper drug … It’s like being disbelieving that a Lexus driver might have a wallet full of cash. “How can he have that much left after buying a Lexus, when I get wiped out trying to make the payments on my Ford Escort?”
Probably because cocaine is expensive and that’s all they have left:dubious:
Interesting tidbit from CNN: 90% of US bills have cocaine on them. Frankly sounds a bit urban-legendy to me, but OTOH I don’t entirely doubt its veracity. I’d imagine that something like 100% of all bills have trace amounts of fecal matter on them; everything else in the world does.
94% of Spanish euro currency has the same. Large cocaine consumption in Spain.
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/12/24/espana/1166928254.html
I really don’t think that’s the reason. As someone who did plenty of it in college, I’ll agree with what a poster upthread said.
Take a dollar bill and roll it up, now take a piece of paper and roll it up. Not only is the dollar bill much easier to roll up, keep tightly rolled, pass around without it unrolling, it’s also likely the only thing you have laying around that’s the right size. A random piece of paper will have to be cut down and then you’ll still be fumbling with it. I’d prefer to use a straw, but it’s usually easier for someone to find a dollar bill then a straw.
Now, lesson two, exhale before you put your face down near the table.
I can’t imagine a hollow one. The hole in a phone dial is 7/16 of an inch; while your finger fits in it (and your nostril as well), one snort would probably vacuum your stash at once.
I rarely have dollar bills lying around, due to the combination of being jobless and preferring to pay for everything with debit card.
If that’s the case then, then why are people committing B&Es, robberies, and pawning all their worldly possessions just to get some more blow? These don’t sound like the kind of people who can afford it. (Hollywood celebrities and rock musicians, yeah, but they aren’t committing crimes to get their money.)
Which is why I’d question that’s going on … The only person I’m personally aware of who was engaged in illegal activities to finance a drug habit was using his ill-gotten gains to buy crack, not pure cocaine.
As I said, I’m not in any way plugged in to the American drug culture. But I don’t see how you could effectively fund an expensive cocaine habit that way. I’d really expect cocaine to be a drug of the middle- and upper- classes, with the lower-class addicts sticking with cheaper drugs.
That really depends on how much of it you’re doing. There’s a difference between a rock star that’s going through an eight ball every day some college kids who are collectively going though an eight ball in a few days.
Also, don’t forget, not every single person who does cocaine becomes an addict that spends all their money on it.