Being someone directly in that mould (and not alone in this forum), and who goes to some of the bars in that area, I don't see huge amounts of coked up people running around town. No doubt there are some, but 65%? Fact of the matter is that like people who are drunk as skunks, people coked up can cause huge amounts of trouble, something the bar owners do not want. Likewise if caught the bankers can kiss their jobs and lifestyle goodbye for ever.anyone in their early 30's working in finance would have a different opinion from you geoexpatters -- go to wyndham on a friday night, it's rampant.. overstated and exaggerated of course, but coke use is rife..
Lastly drug taking is not exclusive to bankers, I'm fairly sure that not all those busted in Lamma a while back were bankers.
ever been up there past 10pm on a thursday/friday/saturday football16?
65% is excessive and exaggerated, but still having 10% (which i'd say is fairly accurate) snorting coke, is quite a lot, and pretty scummy in my opinion....
fth ---
cant imagine many bankers were caught up in the lamma bust -- but if you look at the figures, i believe it was less than 5g of cocaine, and around 2oz of cannabis in the raid across 3 seperate bars -- which is nothing, considering bankers will be buying cocaine 1gram at a time.
disclaimer -- i've no agendas over drugs, think it's up to anyone to choose what they want to do, but just find it strange that most posters on here are dismissing the article as fantasy and scandal when there are many people here in town taking class a drugs in a manner that i would assume they wouldnt do as conspiculously in their home countries...
Well it seems like the reporter had multiple interviews with all parts of the community to determine her comments. Anyway some of the comments seemed to think it's not getting worse.Original Post Deleted
I get asked often when i am in one of these bars which bank I work for, not what do you do for a living. Maybe it's because I have a large pint of beer in the hand at the time and wear a pin stripe suit but hey this is baseless dribble anyway!
"which is nothing, considering bankers will be buying cocaine 1gram at a time" -> source?
No Bailout this year so ppl need another topic to start the Bankers Bashing ;-)
Not saying none are taking drugs. Some are like in any other group of ppl in this city (yougsters, doctors, marketing executive, hair dressers...)
I am not taking any offence from the article but clearly the article is written in way that does not relate FACTS but simple "rumors" or "heard of".
A good (and relevant) article, would have been one with FACTS, something unfortunately, journalists do not seems to be able to do those days (maybe they take too much drugs too...)
This reminds me of high school discussions about drinking/drugs/sex where claims of people doing it are rife but with rarely anything but gossip to back it up...
I guess that's why the queues are so long at HSBC! All the tellers are snorting coke in the back room instead of manning their windows.
I can't really speak much for 30-something's involved in the finance industries, but 65% seems quite over-exaggerated.. As I hit my mid-20's though, it's becoming more and more apparent that recreational drug use is far more prevalent than I had originally imagined.. It's a bit daunting actually, but I wouldn't really say it's out of control and is an epidemic as the article has sensationalized and exaggerated.
65% is not exaggerated if you include bud. and yes, certain nightclubs do give out stuff to pretty girls and models. They might not have a sign on their foreheads, but it's pretty obvious if you know what to look for. and the police? c'mon, they turn a blind eye to this (and prostitution, etc.) as long as they get their cut and nobody loses face.
Has anyone read "Dazed in the Light - Memoirs of a Hong Kong drug dealer"? That book certainly provides an interesting insight into what the ex-pat drug scene was like.