One Night in Singapore: A Personal Encounter with Corporate Cocaine Culture

Work environments can fuel dangerous habits

Photo by Aleksandr Popov on Unsplash

“It’s time to party,” said a sharply dressed thirty-something male through a grin so wide it could’ve split his face in two.

I know because I was looking right at it.

It was a balmy October evening, and Singapore City’s financial district was abuzz with activity. In a dimly lit corner of an upscale bar, an overt group of young professionals huddled together, their laughter drowning out the clinking of glasses and hum of the crowd. I was one of them.

Beneath the veneer of festivity and friendliness lay a secret — a potent secret that threatened to consume us all: a small bag of white powder, its contents as alluring as they were destructive.

The veil of silence

For decades, the use of cocaine in white-collar professions has been a subject shrouded in mystery, spoken of in hushed tones behind closed doors. It’s as though snorting it — or ‘hitting the slopes’ — in a jacket and tie could remove the dirtiness from it, disassociating it from an addict doing a bump on a darkened street corner.

But cocaine doesn’t care for dress codes.

As the drug has infiltrated the upper echelons of society, its acceptance and inevitability in the corporate world has grown stronger, fueled by the promise of boundless energy, razor-sharp focus, and a fleeting sense of invincibility.

And yet, for all its seductive power, cocaine’s grip on the world of high finance, law, and technology remains a largely untold story hidden beneath a cloak of silence. Or, in my case — at least up until this particular night — perhaps a mask of innocent ignorance.

Despite numerous anecdotes, whispered admissions and the occasional social media business ‘influencer’ faux pas, a concrete picture of the extent of corproate cocaine use remains elusive.

The price of success

There’s no denying that the landscape of modern business is brutal, where the pressure to excel is relentless. The quest for success often comes at a steep personal price.