Scottish Footballs new throwing fad.

[Sortmeout]

I’ve partaken in numerous recreational drugs over the years and I’ve always thought it was mental that people take coke and go to the football. Sitting at Rugby Park, mostly in the cold, coked out my nut seems like an absolutely terrible idea.

[beesher]

Speaking more generally, cocaine use is absolutely rife in the west of Scotland. I must be getting old because it gives me the absolute fear.

Mix that in with the booze and general ‘boisterousness’ of the fitba and it’s no surprise incidents like those at ibrox are on the rise.

[SuperSaints1877]

I can’t believe how many people take cocaine given what it is cut with by multiple dealers.

I’ve seen what it has done to a close friend of mine. 

[RawB93]

24 minutes ago, SuperSaints1877 said:

I can’t believe how many people take cocaine given what it is cut with by multiple dealers.

I’ve seen what it has done to a close friend of mine. 

 

[BucksburnDandy]

Agreed with everyone on the increasing use of coke among young fans being a large factor in this.

Even compared to when I would have been young enough to be YT (10-12 years ago), the amount of drug taking is comparatively huge compared to back then.

It isn't just a Scottish thing, see the reports about the use of powder around Wembley for the final of Euro 2020.

[Hoose Rice]

Children/teens can do whatever the feck they want with nobody to answer to.    Jails are going to be mental in the next 10 years. 

[East Coast Warrior]

Not surprised folk are mentioning powder.


I don't doubt it's always gone on in. But has usage gone right up in Scotland, or are folk feeling they can be brazen/visible with where they take it? Or both.
Whichever way, it definitely seems more noticeable when you're at events (including football) these days. 

 

[Sortmeout]

8 hours ago, East Coast Warrior said:

Not surprised folk are mentioning powder.


I don't doubt it's always gone on in. But has usage gone right up in Scotland, or are folk feeling they can be brazen/visible with where they take it? Or both.
Whichever way, it definitely seems more noticeable when you're at events (including football) these days. 

 

Both if you ask me.

When I was 18-21 (2005ish) you knew the odd person who took coke. I couldn’t name one of my group of friends at that time as someone who bothered with it more than once or twice in a year or so. Other drugs were more popular. Nowadays I know a few people who are taking it either every weekend or at least every single special occasion or night out.

These days it seems like that is all people do and the money that is being spent on it is mindblowing to me. However going onto the point of how brazen it is, everyone seems to now be taking it everywhere. People talk about it in work as if they are just talking about going for a night out, it’s not whispered conversations in a corner. I would guess that there are a few kids in schools taking it in the same way that you got the smokers in the toilets/behind the school back in the day.

 

On the cost side again, I just don’t understand how people can do it. I earn a half decent wage and I don’t have any major debts etc to pay off so financially I’m doing ok. However if I tried to add in a £100 a week (at least for some of the people I know) bill for powder on top of what I spend just living quietly every month I really don’t think I could afford it. There will be some young guys out there spending the guts of £100 going to the football and never even seeing the inside of a pub. 

[Richey Edwards]

12 hours ago, SuperSaints1877 said:

I can’t believe how many people take cocaine given what it is cut with by multiple dealers.

Yeah. I wonder how many of them are anti-vaxxers because "you don't know what it'll do to you" and "you don't know what's in it".

[Dundee Hibernian]

The police generally override ground regulations and the 'law' when large supports visit away grounds. They are only interested in getting groups of fans in and out the ground, then out of town, as quickly as they can with minimum fuss. Stewards are told not to interfere when on the gates and in the grounds at away ends in these cases. Nothing will change in a hurry unless policing changes.

[Sergeant Wilson]

Rangers supporters have an amplified sense of entitlement because the Scottish football authorities admitted they couldn't live without them and allowed them to join the League. Why wouldn't they feel entitled when it's presented as official policy that your indispensable no matter what you do?

[Comrie]

On 04/04/2022 at 09:19, VincentGuerin said:

But now it seems to be off the scale. At The Mallard on Saturday I naively joined the queue for the toilet only to stand there not moving for a few minutes before realising nobody was waiting for a pish. Spoke to loads of people with the same experience. The ching crew was massive, loads of young boys out the game. It gives things a different atmosphere. Apparently one of them ended up spewing all over the toilets, but I never saw that.

Issues with coke and away fans has been an issue in the Mallard for a long time. It's why the urinal lids were removed I thought as most Saturday nights after a home game they were just clarted in powder.

[Salvo Montalbano]

On 04/04/2022 at 14:27, VincentGuerin said:

Some of it just comes down to how they choose to prioritise things from a stewarding/policing point of view.

For example, a couple of police officers (that I saw, maybe more) came to the Mallard on Saturday afternoon before the game. They seemed to just be checking in, as it was trouble-free, just boisterous and a lot of folk seriously blootered.

Yet, if they'd gone into the toilets, they could probably have lifted whatever 15 or so of the Young Team were in there openly doing powder at that time. Now, clearly, they probably knew this and decided it wasn't worth the hassle. You can argue that one either way. But the point is that the authorities have tools at their disposal currently that they don't use.

If you make going to the football an occasion where the usual rules around openly taking drugs in public don't apply and general acts of disorder that would usually result in arrest are tolerated, then you can't really complain when a general feeling of lawlessness prevails. The police are basically telling these kids that the rules don't apply. Add a lot of drink and drugs into the mix, and you're much more likely to get bother and it's not all that surprising that it reaches the point of folk fighting and throwing stuff.

 

2 hours ago, Dundee Hibernian said:

The police generally override ground regulations and the 'law' when large supports visit away grounds. They are only interested in getting groups of fans in and out the ground, then out of town, as quickly as they can with minimum fuss. Stewards are told not to interfere when on the gates and in the grounds at away ends in these cases. Nothing will change in a hurry unless policing changes.

Yep, this has been the case for donkeys years. We just had to get used to the sight of Rangers and Celtic fans openly urinating in people's gardens, drinking in the street, ticket touts, etc when we were back in the SPL as was. But if a Dunfermline fan had an open can of lager or said something too loud or whatever a policeman would be over to "diffuse the situation" which usually led to an argument about the hypocrisy of it all which of course never ends well.

[Charles Stiles]

Don't both sets of bigots still bring their own stewards to supposedly steward them at away games? Absolutely disgraceful this appeasement is/was allowed in the first place. It's no wonder they basically do what they want and get away with it apart from the odd token gesture. 

[Doctor Sanchez]

I've lived and worked in various places down south, and compared to us they were early adopters of the ching and football thing.  

I have taken in games wherever I've been, Birmingham was the first time I experienced it 99/00ish. Same pretty much everywhere now. Seems to be part of the fabric of match-days the way a few pints before the game were, and still are, for many.

Mind you, after recent performances it might be best if the St Mirren team started gear just before 3 on a Saturday.  Baboom-tish..!  And with that, I've finally turned into my father...  

[coprolite]

2 minutes ago, Mdiap said:

Drugs are for mugs.

Mushy tea, for example

[johnnydun]

The only acceptable form of launching from the stands?

[Clown Job]

On 04/04/2022 at 14:27, VincentGuerin said:

If you make going to the football an occasion where the usual rules around openly taking drugs in public don't apply and general acts of disorder that would usually result in arrest are tolerated, then you can't really complain when a general feeling of lawlessness prevails. The police are basically telling these kids that the rules don't apply. Add a lot of drink and drugs into the mix, and you're much more likely to get bother and it's not all that surprising that it reaches the point of folk fighting and throwing stuff.

T in the park vibes.

Thats sort of behaviour was tolerated for years and we all know the outcome of it. 

[The Other Foot]

On 04/04/2022 at 21:50, RawB93 said:

 

@8MileBU

[Ray Patterson]

On 04/04/2022 at 09:19, VincentGuerin said:

We were discussing this on the train back from Ross County on Sunday morning, even before the Old Firm game.

There's a general change in behaviour that I've certainly noticed over the last few years and it's definitely sped up post-lockdown.

Quite a few teams, and Hearts are definitely one, have developed these Young Teams who all sing the same songs, wear the same gear, drink the same garishly coloured drinks, and are all out their tits on powder. Don't get me wrong, this kind of thing has always gone on. Back when I was going as a teenager and a younger adult some of my mates were into that stuff and we were all bevvied out our minds pretty much every game.

But now it seems to be off the scale. At The Mallard on Saturday I naively joined the queue for the toilet only to stand there not moving for a few minutes before realising nobody was waiting for a pish. Spoke to loads of people with the same experience. The ching crew was massive, loads of young boys out the game. It gives things a different atmosphere. Apparently one of them ended up spewing all over the toilets, but I never saw that.

I don't doubt that this sort of culture has led to what seems to me to be an increase in bellend-ish behaviour among Hearts fans. Quite a few away games I've seen things being damaged and stuff being thrown, one day at Fir Park a few years back sticks in the mind, and these bairns seem to revel in bringing back some pretty unpleasant songs that in the 2000s had mostly vanished from Hearts games and were certainly generally frowned upon.

Basically, I blame the wee fuds.