Cocaine: still the drug of choice for the Rich

At a recent Christmas party in December, I watched a close friend of mine re-enact a depraved but funny maneuver he had seen an elderly man perform earlier that evening. Using both his index and middle fingers, he pulled up the tip of his nose to give me a clear view of the base of his nostrils and said, “This is a furnace. It needs wood.” The gesture and the words, he explained, were a veteran cocaine user’s way of expressing his urgent need for some additional holiday cheer.

This and other similar incidents that I have witnessed over the years attest to a component of upper-class revelry that people almost never discuss: the prevalence of cocaine use among prominent aging hipsters in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s.

Anyone with access to the universe of posh trendsetters and glamorous social elites is certainly familiar, at least minimally, with this behavior, but even the most unforgiving gossip columnists choose to keep quiet on the subject. Why? I’m not sure. Perhaps they are silenced by their sheer reverence for these party animals, whose myths tend to expand with each passing year.

One thing is certain: the people still partying like John Belushi in Animal House late into their years must have remarkable constitutions. It’s a special creature who can Burn Wood in the Furnace all night and nevertheless manage to function at the office or take care of the grandchildren. And with advances in healthcare enabling those with sufficient resources to enjoy the promise of ever-extended youth, these long-term love affairs with cocaine are not likely to break apart anytime soon. Manhattan, no doubt, will continue to play host to this carefully guarded tradition. It’s not called The City That Never Sleeps for nothing.