The 70s was all about cocaine. Although the "glamorised" drug wasn’t legal in America, it didn’t stop the drug and tools for doing it being marketed in magazines or newspapers. Thanks to Netflix’s newest series Narcos, a drama about the life of world infamous drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, fans of the crime drama decided to do some investigating of their own and dug up "coke gear" ads from drug magazines published between 1976 to 1981, posting the collection on The World's Best Ever.
In a description accompanying the gallery, the group says: "Like everyone else with a Netflix subscription, we’ve been bingeing on Narcos. And while watching crazy Pablo Escobar pile up and bury money in Colombia is great entertainment, we got pretty curious about where that money was ultimately coming from. In 1979, with one in ten adults using drugs on a regular basis, the American consumer was on fire, pumping an estimated $420 million per week into Pablo’s pockets.
"With almost everyone using, needing to distinguish oneself from the next person blowing snow became a status move and the paraphernalia market boomed. Here, we look at some of the advertising from the coke era between 1976 and 1981. Times, they have changed," it continues, although a quick delve into the deepest corners of the web should reveal that actually, drug advertising is healthier than ever.
