In certain trendy circles, cocaine use is enjoying a comeback reminiscent of its heyday in the '70s and '80s, the New York Times reported June 10.

Craigslist postings in Manhattan use snowy euphemisms to seek out cocaine buyers, sellers, and fellow partiers, club owners are reporting more use of the drug, and cocaine references are popping up again in music, movies, and theater productions.

"It's definitely prevalent in clubs, bars, parties -- everywhere, basically," said Brooklyn resident Cristiano Andrade, 26. Herb Kleber, director of the division of substance abuse at the New York Psychiatric Institute, said younger users have forgotten or never learned about the problems the drugs caused for their parents' generation.

"There seems to be less of a stigma," said Kleber. "People don't feel nearly as much the need to hide it. They feel that they can use it in a more open fashion."

"If you're a 19-year-old and you go out and party and you're offered meth, you say no because you've heard these bad things," added Perry N. Halkitis, a drug expert from New York University. "But you're offered coke, you say yes because you assume it's safe."

Cocaine prices also have remained stable in recent years, at an affordable $25-30 per half gram, experts said.

National data has not shown a general increase in cocaine use, nor have New York Police Department figures. But anecdotal reports point to the drug's rising popularity.

"When you're in meetings and you're in the studio, it's offered like coffee," said Teron Beal, a New York songwriter and actor. "If you say yeah, they're cool with it and if you say no, they're like O.K., and they just go and do it in front of you. Coke is the new weed. Everybody says that."

"You could go into a swanky party in New York and do a line and nobody would notice," added former New York Post nightlife reporter Tom Sykes. "Pull out a cigarette and people would think you'd pulled out a gun."