Here's the latest from our Highly-Placed Professional.

'She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie...Cocaine', goes the famous JJ Cale song of 1976.

And that's the line we all tend to remember - and not the rest of the refrain: 'If you want to get down, down on the ground, cocaine. Don't forget this fact, you can't get back, cocaine'. Coke destroys you and puts you in the dust, and there are a lot of folks in the City realising this now.

Unless you get close to the stuff, and meet people who have gone through its embrace, it's actually quite hard to comprehend just how insidious and addictive it is. I remember particularly well a ravaged, middle aged bond sales colleague when I was working in New York. He was a Brit too, so we had a certain affinity. But he was always going off to the doctor, and seemed to have an endless line of ex-wives, and terrible financial problems.

I once asked him over a beer what was going on. 'It was the 80s and cocaine that did me in', he said with a sort of nostalgic glint in his eye. And he then recounted all the nights of wine, women and coke back in his 1980s heyday, when you made half a point on a bond trade and easily pulled in $50,000 a month. Before long, however, he was left a shell of a man - broken down, bust and without a family. And he was one of the lucky ones - because he was still able to eke out another 10 years in the markets.

Bloomberg recently ran a long and well researched article on City cocaine use, which explained that some addicted City workers are finally finding that they are able to escape its clutches - now that they have lost their jobs. All of these addicts have lost their money, their self respect and usually a key relationship in the process. It doesn't surprise me in the least that there are about a million cocaine users in the UK, and that the worst culprits are right here in the City. Coke use has become endemic in certain broking and dealing areas of the City. It's almost expected - a kind of weird right of passage, where even clients expect a narcotic treat to go with their celebrity chef grub.

Coke's high evidently suits very well the dealing highs of the day. And what the hell, if things aren't going well on the floor one day, why not take a snort to keep you up for the rest of the day...? But where are the regulations, I hear you ask ? Where is the medical screening ? Aren't investment bankers and traders meant to be drug tested regularly, and fired immediately if they are found to be positive ? It seems not, as human rights legislation apparently prevents random screening - another example of 'Elf and safety', or European Directives gone mad. Of course, there should random drug tests, and no second chances - because people running around doing huge deals while high on coke cannot surely be relied upon to always get things right.

But I don't care as much about all the failed lives, and the misery that these addicts have heaped on themselves. As usual. I am much more concerned that there are people who have been pushing financial deals while under the influence - because ultimately it's the man in the street who picks up the pieces when it all goes wrong. I find it chilling that there are still bars in the City and Canary Wharf where you can buy the stuff openly. What does that say about the FSA and our almost non-existent regulatory environment ?

And as for City coke victims themselves, I do hope that they can rebuild their shattered lives, go to AA meetings, and find something else more productive to do. One guy apparently joined the Israeli Army to get away from it all, and another bought a chicken farm! Good for them. Unfortunately, it seems that sometimes it's only by physically removing yourself from the buzz and temptations of our world, that you can get things in perspective and your life back on track'.

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