Use of the illicit drug has plummeted in recent years among gen Zers, compared with their parents’ generation
Ever since cocaine first emerged as a popular party drug via the shores of Miami in the early 1970s, use of the stimulant has been inextricably entwined with the very essence of capitalist excess and what it is to be American: brash, bombastic and brazen.
The wide-scale use of cocaine in the US has left a trail of destruction in its wake, largely thanks to the illegal nature of the trade and the resultant US government policy of a “war on drugs”.