Well, there are recreational and performance-enhancing drugs. The attitudes about the two types are different.
Coffee, alcohol, nicotine, and pot are all just normalized. Nobody cares. We chat about it in passing (e.g "so Friday I was high....blah blah rest of story"). Coffee is perf-enhancing but people treat it recreationally.
The performance stuff is alluded to but not really in any detail. Cocaine, adderall, ritalin, modafinil are all considered "ok", to some extent. As in, "ok. You do you, I guess" and it's fine as long as productivity isn't impacted. Cocaine is definitely the black sheep of that bunch, but it's still a fairly clean sheep.
Psychedelics/dissociatives are never admitted to, at least where I work. I have used them (LSD, DXM) but I wouldn't ever consider doing them at work or on a weeknight. They have little business in programming, I think.
Then, finally, the "white-trash" drugs. I don't know anyone who uses opiates, meth, crack, PCP, ketamine, kolonopin, etc. RXs are probably being abused more than I'm aware, but generally, our drug use is pretty elitist. If a poor person would do these drugs, not-poor people stringently avoid it.
White trash drugs? Benzodiazepines, of which kolonopin is one are used by over 15 million people in the US and over 10 in the UK. It's one of the most widely used, widely prescribed categories of drugs and kolonopin one of the top prescribed in the category. And opiates? Who uses opiates who isn't addicted to them? You think being rich gives you a pass on addiction, and chronic pain?
Woah woah woah. Hold on. I'm most certainly not saying that being well-to-do somehow makes me (or workers) better. I'm simply saying that __in the environments I worked in__ (responding to the post), certain drugs were definitely looked down upon when used recreationally. I called it "white-trash" as an example. Taking KPins because you actually have a prescription for something is __not__ what I was talking about. Doing whippets at parties or smoking crack was.
And, I mean, let's be real here, do you know any programmers who casually do heroin? I don't, and frankly, even though I sympathize heavily with people who suffer from addiction, I wouldn't personally associate with a person who does heroin in their free time.
this is exactly why it took me so long to get help for my heroin problem. i'm a senior software engineer, but if i admitted to my addiction at work, the stigma and ostracism from people like you would be awful. fortunately i am now in a methadone program, due to a manager much more open minded than this...
Ketamine AFAICT is used mostly for DIY anti-depression therapy. I might have a weird social circle that's unusually receptive to learning about and trying better living through chemistry.
Coffee, alcohol, nicotine, and pot are all just normalized. Nobody cares. We chat about it in passing (e.g "so Friday I was high....blah blah rest of story"). Coffee is perf-enhancing but people treat it recreationally.
The performance stuff is alluded to but not really in any detail. Cocaine, adderall, ritalin, modafinil are all considered "ok", to some extent. As in, "ok. You do you, I guess" and it's fine as long as productivity isn't impacted. Cocaine is definitely the black sheep of that bunch, but it's still a fairly clean sheep.
Psychedelics/dissociatives are never admitted to, at least where I work. I have used them (LSD, DXM) but I wouldn't ever consider doing them at work or on a weeknight. They have little business in programming, I think.
Then, finally, the "white-trash" drugs. I don't know anyone who uses opiates, meth, crack, PCP, ketamine, kolonopin, etc. RXs are probably being abused more than I'm aware, but generally, our drug use is pretty elitist. If a poor person would do these drugs, not-poor people stringently avoid it.