# Coke Scenes in Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376 "2007-02-15T19:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/1 "2007-02-15T19:29:22Z")
How do they do scenes in movies where someone is snorting cocaine? Is it some other substance that is actually being snorted up the nose? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/2 "2007-02-15T19:32:29Z")
[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus] How do they do scenes in movies where someone is snorting cocaine? Is it some other substance that is actually being snorted up the nose? [/QUOTE] They snort lactose. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/3 "2007-02-15T19:32:37Z")
At least sometimes they use powdered milk. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/4 "2007-02-15T20:14:42Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] They snort lactose. [/QUOTE] Dude! That’s SWEET! 🆒 Ok, I’ll go back and hide now. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/5 "2007-02-15T20:16:31Z")
Pwdered milk is/has lactose, but how do they not have sneezing fits? Or is it \ “CUT!” “achoo! achooo!!! Where’s achoo! my achoo! agent? achoo!” Or is lactose powder well-tolerated in the nose? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/6 "2007-02-15T20:19:35Z")
Powdered milk contains lactose in the same way that a chicken salad sandwich contains chicken. They are not at all interchangeable. And since lactose powder is used, it must be well tolerated. Q.E.D. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/7 "2007-02-15T20:21:20Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] Pwdered milk is/has lactose, but how do they not have sneezing fits? Or is it \ “CUT!” “achoo! achooo!!! Where’s achoo! my achoo! agent? achoo!” Or is lactose powder well-tolerated in the nose? [/QUOTE] Since cocaine is often cut with lactose (that’s why baby formula is locked up in lower income neighborhoods), I suspect it’s at least as easy on the nose as cocaine! ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/8 "2007-02-15T20:42:43Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Since cocaine is often cut with lactose (that’s why baby formula is locked up in lower income neighborhoods), I suspect it’s at least as easy on the nose as cocaine! [/QUOTE] Baby formula is also really expensive. There’s not much else you can find on grocery store shelves that costs $30.00 for a can that size. Well, nothing else you HAVE to have for the well being of your child. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/9 "2007-02-15T21:00:49Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] Baby formula is also really expensive. There’s not much else you can find on grocery store shelves that costs $30.00 for a can that size. Well, nothing else you HAVE to have for the well being of your child. [/QUOTE] Only if you buy the obscenely expensive stuff. Costco has two of the hugeassed cans for $20. I’m so glad WhyBaby liked it when my milk ran low! (In fact, we’re having a little trouble convincing her to give cow’s milk a fair shake now.) I actually priced it out and, while YMMV depending on local prices, found that Costco baby formula is about equal in price to organic milk around here, per gallon mixed. That’s not to say it’s cheap, but it’s not as bad as I thought. Or maybe organic milk prices are worse than I thought… Since low income women can get formula for free on WIC, I believe the retailers when they say the locks are to discourage dishonest coke dealers. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/10 "2007-02-15T21:09:06Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] Well, nothing else you HAVE to have for the well being of your child. [/QUOTE] Unless the mother breastfeeds. (Yes, I know some women have problems breastfeeding. But I also know that formula is over-marketed among women who would have no problems whatsoever.) ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/11 "2007-02-15T21:20:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Or is lactose powder well-tolerated in the nose? Sugar is pretty well-tolerated. There are several varieties of “white snuff” available (such as Snuffy Weiss, Schneefernerprise, and Mentholin) that are made from grape sugar and menthol, that are used by snuff takers to have a soothing effect on the nose. ---
**Author:** ![gaucho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@gaucho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaucho)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/12 "2007-02-15T21:46:38Z")
No cite, but I seem to remember from some DVD commentary track that they used vitamin B12. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/13 "2007-02-16T00:27:25Z")
Is it a Gary Busey movie? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/14 "2007-02-16T00:54:31Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Since low income women can get formula for free on WIC, I believe the retailers when they say the locks are to discourage dishonest coke dealers. [/QUOTE] [Here’s](http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_2_chap7_cocaine.pdf) an interesting link. In 2004, the last year they have data for, the average cost for a kilogram of street level purity cocaine was $21,500 and the per gram cost of the retail product was $88. That means that the markup on a kilogram of cocaine $66,500. The average cost of a 12.9 ounce container of baby formula today at 1-800-diapers is $13.99. Its price, when sold as cut in cocaine would be $31,800. Do you think that the guy buying $21,500 bricks of cocaine to flip them for $88,000 has a lot of trouble coming up with the cash for baby formula? I suspect the retailers think that they’re more sympathetic protecting themselves from drug dealers than they are when they’re locking up baby formula to keep women from shoplifting to feed their starving babies. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/15 "2007-02-16T18:34:50Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Since cocaine is often cut with lactose (that’s why baby formula is locked up in lower income neighborhoods), I suspect it’s at least as easy on the nose as cocaine! [/QUOTE] They’d be insane to buy it in that form. Lactose in pure form (food grade) is available from home brew shops for less than $2/lb. You’d buy it pure. The formula is locked up because it’s crazy expensive, and people steal it. The shrink rate on it when it was in aisle 5 of the local market I worked in during the late 80’s was huge. And that wasn’t in a low income town. ---
**Author:** ![Gbro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Gbro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gbro)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/16 "2007-02-16T21:44:40Z")
Havn’t seen any for a long time but the Germans would snort a tobacco product, (Snuff) and when i was in Germany (1972&3) i enjoyed the Coppenhagen snuff. A group of Germans saw me putting it into my snuff drawer(lower lip) and thought they would teach me how to do snuff, It was something to see, how they coughed, and sneezed after snorting Cope. (I quit snuff 15 years ago). 2 years ago my Nephew put a pinch in while we were fishing, and like so many times tryed to offer me some, knowing watching someone was hard. I accepteed that pinch and after about 2 minuets, i just about fell out of the boat. Wow what a rush, i don’t ever remember that from the past, and i can remember the 1st pinch. There must be more Nicotine in it today! (never again)!! ---
**Author:** ![FlightlessBird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cdc98d/32.png) [@FlightlessBird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlightlessBird)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/17 "2007-02-16T21:58:41Z")
I heard an interview with Jeremy Piven about his drug use on Smokin’ Aces. He said he was snorting powdered vitamin C. Interview can be downloaded [here](http://www.kevinandbeanarchive.com/audio.php?dir=audio&search=piven) (Smokin’ Aces link) His comments start around 5:00 of the clip ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/18 "2007-02-17T01:44:15Z")
[QUOTE=gaucho] No cite, but I seem to remember from some DVD commentary track that they used vitamin B12. [/QUOTE] I doubt that… B12 (well, pure, anyways) is bright pink! Makes a bloody-red solution when disolved for injection (both cyanocobalamin and hydroxycobalamin, the two forms I’m familiar with). ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/19 "2007-02-17T01:57:19Z")
[QUOTE=mnemosyne] I doubt that… B12 (well, pure, anyways) is bright pink! Makes a bloody-red solution when disolved for injection (both cyanocobalamin and hydroxycobalamin, the two forms I’m familiar with). [/QUOTE] And you’d be throwing up in no time after that much vitamin B12. How do people tolerate lactose? I have lactose buffered pills and the minute they touch my tongue I taste it… that sickly sweetness, it’s so difficult not to gag. I can drink milk, but powdered lactose beats ipecac for me. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376/20 "2007-02-17T03:32:20Z")
I swear I am not making this up: Last year several guys in my Music Theory class snorted Altoids during class. I’m not sure why. They didn’t sneeze, IIRC. I think somebody sneezed while snorting water, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coke-scenes-in-movies/392376.md?page=2)