A little digging and it appears these ads were in magazines like Hustler, Penthouse and High Times - not the The New York Review of Books or more mainstream titles, which makes much more sense.<p><a href="https://flashbak.com/cocaine-advertising-of-the-1970s-1980s-386108/" rel="nofollow">https://flashbak.com/cocaine-advertising-of-the-1970s-1980s-...</a>
<a href="https://dangerousminds.net/comments/magazine_ads_from_the_heyday_of_cocaine_chic" rel="nofollow">https://dangerousminds.net/comments/magazine_ads_from_the_he...</a>
I remember all the little "coffee stirrers" with the comically tiny spoon like ends. Of course the explanation was it's for stirring your coffee or adding a little sugar. Though who adds a tiny bump of sugar to their coffee? Turns out it was for coke and they were commonly available everywhere. The McDonalds ones were semi famous for that.<p>Its similar to those little fake flowers in a glass tube on counters in corner stores which make great crack pipes (same with those short cheap tire pressure gauges). Or the cheap looking socks they oddly sell which are useful for tie off before shooting heroin.
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MgX_VMXj3Sc/YZvryBNXhUI/AAAAAAAAg9U/rXkRbEWda2EodsNoiLcyf7MbSm0QtOnVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1351/cocaine-paraphernalia-ads-1970s%2B%252833%2529.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MgX_VMXj3Sc/YZvryBNXhUI/AAAAAAAAg...</a> "finest center cuts of imported African ivory"<p>Wow. That and <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w3Xc47mDO8E/YZvrzIxkirI/AAAAAAAAg9c/qZGhTHJnUNALEmSpL-JPIidE1xcD8p-IgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1410/cocaine-paraphernalia-ads-1970s%2B%252835%2529.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w3Xc47mDO8E/YZvrzIxkirI/AAAAAAAAg...</a> ("solid Honduras mahogany") really hit me.<p>I wonder what they see 50 years from now and shake their heads about what we squandered. My guess is "wild caught salmon" and atoll beach resorts.
It's so curious that cocaine is still illegal, one could assume purely as a side effect of the nations that produce it and the complications that are involved with those in charge of distributing it, which some might argue is a byproduct of it being illegal in the first place.<p>When taken on its own, it's a surprisingly mild stimulant as a nasal snuff, not at all like in the movies. When taken nasally, it has a short half life, low potential for adverse side effects in normal adults, and only causes alcohol like euphoria in the highest doses. I can see why it is still used in medicine, it is highly efficacious, and some day I can see it being tolerated, if not legalized.<p>It might just be me being old, as we tend to remember the positives more than the negatives, but this was a nice trip down memory lane. It is unfortunate that the hobby has settled/devolved into its lowest element, these days.
The ivory ads are probably the best.<p>"The drugs you consume fund an international racket of abuse. Why not display it with the abuse of animals?"
As a child of the late 1960s, early 1970s, that was a messed up time.
After the assassinations and riots of the late 60s, Kent State, Watergate, the end of the Vietnam war, people were done. The drugs just flowed. I was frequently a designated driver for my trashed friends. A lot of those people that did the most drugs are now some of the most wrapped up conservative ass hats as adults. I can't talk to them, haven't been able to in years. Their excuse is always "It was wrong then, and I'll be damned if I am going to let others make the same mistake." My own kids (Gen Z) were all so much more rational through their teenage years. There is hope for the world as long as the old farts just sit down and shut up. I only speak up because I am sick and tired of my peers. There should definitely be an upper age limit to serving in Public office, and maybe even an upper age limit to voting.
> In 1986, under Ronald Reagan, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed. [...] The act also created the first laws against money laundering or moving illegally obtained money (such as drug sale proceeds) into or out of bank accounts.<p>The Bank Secrecy Act was enacted in 1970. Money laundering had already been on the books. Reagan’s drug law widened the scope and increased the record-keeping and reporting requirements. I think Nixon is the one who has the distinction of enacting the “first” AML law.
Reminds me of the 'valentine love roses' <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/8pq62j/the_fact_that_the_local_gas_station_sells_legit/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/trashy/comments/8pq62j/the_fact_tha...</a>
I feel like the thing missing here is which magazines. Just like you can find unlawful/illegal websites before the web were magazines and books. So, were these in mainstream publications or were they in already outlawed publications?<p>Curiously the website is called "Rare Historical Photos" but the premise under which this is [so] shocking is that these are not rare adverts.
I yearn for the day where all drugs are legal.<p>No difference between cocaine and caffeine or alcohol. They’re all drugs if you remove your bias and conditioning.
My dad [0] was a technology columnist in from the 80s to mid 00s, and related this story:<p>Ken worked for what was then a first-tier Japanese hifi company. At the time -- it was the eighties -- companies exhibiting at CES gave shit away. Shirts, pens, calculators... you know: trade show crap. Rather than have his giveaway get lost in that sea of crap, my friend decided to give out pocket-sized mirrors, each encased in a blue silicon sleeve emblazoned with the company logo. His Japanese masters said "Ken-san, why you give away small mirror. We don't understand." And Ken-san said "trust me, they'll love it." And they did, because a) it was the eighties, and 2) while some preparatory activities are best done on a cardboard record jacket, others require an unyielding surface. I should add that the notion of including a single-edge razor blade in the package crossed his mind, but was rejected as being too on-the-nose.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/how-metafilter-brought-a-deceased-fathers-jokes-back-to-life/274599/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/how-m...</a>
Of course, you can still buy drug paraphernalia. For example there are plastic Roses in a glass vase sold at gas stations that are really crack pipes. And there are lots of shady "tobacco shops" out there.<p>Some of these products seem pretty nice, I'd buy a couple of them if I did cocaine.
> While traditionally cocaine was a rich man’s drug (due to the large expense of a cocaine habit), by the late 1980s, cocaine was no longer thought of as the drug of choice for the wealthy.<p>This phrasing seems to suggest that something else <i>displaced</i> cocaine as "the drug of choice for the wealthy."<p>If something did, what was it?<p>And if nothing did — i.e. if young-rich-people parties just shifted away from being drug-fueled — then what caused that? Because that feels like a very surprising shift; drug-fueled parties were a staple of decadent wealth for hundreds of years as of that point. I wouldn't expect that a single drug losing its perception of "classiness" would lead to a wholesale abandonment of drug use by an entire class of people.
I feel like this is a place where I should share this bit of weirdness:<p><a href="https://www.retrojunk.com/commercial/show/2788/synth-coke" rel="nofollow">https://www.retrojunk.com/commercial/show/2788/synth-coke</a>
I’ve seen ads on Facebook for Etizolam ( and other thienodiazepines which are nearly identical in effect to Xanax ) as well as ads for products that contain 4-fluoromethamphetamine and other amphetamines analogs. I took screenshots if anyone is interested. So honestly this doesn’t really shock me at all. Back then it was at least paraphernalia. Now you can find drug suppliers through mainstream ads. Not to mention the plethora of ads for SARMs and other performance enhancing drugs ( to which some of them are actually non regulated anabolic steroids, not SARMs )
You can still buy these kits as "snuff kits".<p><a href="https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=snuff+snorting+kit&_sop=12" rel="nofollow">https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=snuff+snorting+kit&_s...</a>
The last photo in the article comes from the UK Daily Mail according to the credits:
`Photo credit: David Wilfert / The World’s Best Ever / Daily Mail UK`
San Andreas throwback: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabNcVpyvAc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabNcVpyvAc</a>
Many times I think "what today will sound absurd in the future?".<p>Our widespread and normalised alcohol abuse is one of the things crossing my mind, and I wonder if many ads related to vaping, smoking and alcohol will look like this for us in a few years.<p>Edit: To clarify, what I mean with normalising alcohol abuse is not getting a bit of a buzz with a few glasses of wine or beer in a social setting. It's how we've normalised getting completely hammered every weekend, and even celebrate people who can drink a lot.
> These vintage ads for cocaine and cocaine paraphernalia show how crazy and disturbing the 1970s were.<p>Things are more disturbing nowadays because people go through violent routes to get their drugs. Its still there and its worse but at least the sensible eyes of the millennial browsing the internet from his brand new M1 is protected. Hooray for the war on drugs.