Remote Work Comes With Daytime Drug and Drinking Habits

Cocaine, benzodiazepines and other drugs are no longer after-hours activities. 

Photographer: komta/iStockphoto
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

On any given work day, Ray wakes up, brews coffee, smokes a cigarette, and then “takes a hit of pot” before sitting down to morning Zoom meetings.

“Yeah, maybe my eyes are red, but no one can see that on Zoom,” says Ray, a West Coast executive, who typically continues to take a puff of marijuana hourly while on the job — all the long tail of a methamphetamine addiction that he developed during pandemic lockdowns.