While illicit drug activity wanes nationwide, drug use -particularly methamphetamine and powder cocain -is booming among high-tech workers, according to scores of interviews with chemical dependency experts, computers programmers, technology executives and former drug addicts.

The Nacotics Task Force of San Mateo County, California, for instance, has seen the ammount of cocain seized jump 173 percent between 1995 and 1999, while the quanty of methamphetamine seized has skyrocketed 678 percent.
In Wise County, North Carolina, home to the research Triangle technology hub, the sheriff ísoffice has seen the amount of methamphethamine seized in crease by more the 6.000 percent between 1997 and 1999, while deputies have confiscated 45 percent more cocain.

The number of people between the ages of 19 and 28 who say they use powder cocain jumped by one-third between 1994 and 1999, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research found. And escalating numbers of young tech workers are seeking treatment for drug addictions. While most dot-commers eschew puplic clinics and 12-stepp programs such as Cocain Anonymous, they are flooding into pprivate treatment centers in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and New York. The Doctors who run this programs say the number of patients the the from the computer industry has grown exponentially since just two years ago, when technology workers were a rare sight.

Partys abound south of Market Street, the heart of San Francisco's hottest dotcom locale, and elsewere throughout the city.
On a recent Friday night, workers fled their cubicles and loftlike offices to cram into the Merchant's Exchange Club. Wodka flowed easily and heavily on the 15th floor of this California Street skyscraper.

A hip-hop beat throbbed throught the ballroom. Two woman slinked off to the bathroom and found a quiet coner, away from the harsh fluorescent light. As one woman pulled out a compact and checked her lipstick, the other withdrew from her purse a bullet-shaped vial. Sliding the top to one side, she tapped out a small mound of white powder onto her fingertip, lifted it to her nose and inhaled quickly.
She passsed the vial to her friend. In between their delicate snorts, they rehashed the latest gossip at their high-tech company. Other woman strolled through the bathroom. No one seemed to care. "Everyone has coke, especially up north, "said an chief executive of Los Angeles based dot-com who recently relocated from San Francisco, adding, 'It's like ordering a martini. It's no big deal."
Technology workers say cocain often is used with other party or "club" drugs, such as Ecstasy and GHB, its unpredictable liquid cousin. Speed also is pupular, even during work hours, experts say.
"I see the programmers who start their day by stirring meth into their cup of coffee," said the reverend Katherine O'Connell, a clinical spychologist and interfaith in capitola, California, who has treated thousands of high-tech workers, politicians and executives for drug addiction since 1970.

While there are no statistics showing tat drug and alcohol addictions afflicts technology workers more than the general population, drug treatment experts say tech workers are more susceptible than those i, say, Hollywood or Wall Street because of the work. Drug use by white-collar tech workers "make the Wall Street boom, and the excess that went along with it, look like puppy chow," said Nicolas Ney, a Menlo park, California, clinical psychologist and addiction specialist. "The bodycount is just starting".


source :
Tribune, 101000