Hard Lines
Jamie is a British expat in his early 40s, and a recovering cocaine addict. With drug use booming across the city, this is his story of the dark side of coke.
“My best friend died in June, 2003. He went on a three-day weekend bender, snorting and smoking cocaine. His heart gave out in a bar in SoHo. I watched him go into convulsions. I think he went through 10 to 14 grams that weekend. It was around that time that I knew I had to do something.”
The Beginning
“At the age of 23, I did my first line of coke at a house in Chelsea, London with some Iranian friends in 1986. It was the size of a piece of chalk when you play pool. They were freebasing [smoking]. At today’s prices, it cost HK$4,000 a gram. It was THE party drug of the rich and famous. I felt as if I’d arrived. The feeling reminded me of lyrics to an Elton John song: 'wide eyed and laughing, being just one step ahead of the wind.' It summarizes the carefree and frivolous confidence that coke first provides.
“I came over to Hong Kong in 1989 to set up a business here and I didn’t use drugs because it was a new country. At that time you didn’t think people used drugs unless they told you privately. These days, it’s almost the reverse. Three years ago I was introduced to someone who said, ‘This person doesn’t do drugs.’
“In 1994 I started really doing cocaine. A girlfriend went back to the UK and I wanted to numb my emotions. So I was drinking, smoking hash and doing coke. From 1994-96 I was doing it only on the weekends and at special events. It was manageable. Two or three times a month I also watched the racing and gambled. Earlier, at university, I had a gambling problem. My father drank too much and my grandfather is a gambling addict, but this isn’t relevant for everybody. I have an addictive personality.
“To begin with coke is an upper to get things done. But later it’s tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. It would take me five days to pick up my laundry, which was 50 yards down the road.”
The Life of the Party
“1994 to 1998 was a great time. I stayed trim owing to my ‘Colombian diet,’ though I did lose 35 pounds. For me, 1994-97 was what I would call partial use. For the first five years it was a party drug. I never got hangovers. I could party for longer. I’d be the first to show up at a party and the last to leave. Being self-employed in the sales business I needed to network. On booze, you can’t drink for three nights in a row. But alcohol and coke you can go for six, seven nights a week. There’s always something going on in Hong Kong. I started turning up late for work, missing meetings and all sorts of things.”
“To be honest, in 1997 everyday had become a special event. I was 34 years old and during April and May, I was preparing for the handover. That’s when I bought my first half ounce, which cost $9,000-$10,000 for 14 grams at that time. I spent three to four hours a day trying to find out where I was going to get coke. I had three or four contacts.