Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Many, many people took recreational drugs in the 90s. Where are they now?

999 replies

perhapsiwill · 02/02/2017 07:47

I'm not a drug addict and none of my friends were at the time, we just took Es at the weekend, sometimes other drugs. We all went to work or college, seemed like everyone else did this too. We had a great time, weekends were for dancing and hugging, I didn't get on with drunk people and one night stands and it suited me much better.
I moved away from where I grew up, nice area to another nice area.
When I mention partying in my youth to other mums where I live now, they look at me as if I'm an addict who needs help Confused.
Are they all pretending? There were thousands of us doing this so where are they now? And why do people who never took drugs appear to feel so morally superior? One of the women where I live openly talks about cheating the system financially yet looks at me like I'm scum because I went out and had fun 20 years ago. (And probably once a year now!) I feel that because I mentioned this one evening in a pub I have alienated myself from the local mums.

OP posts:
brasty · 02/02/2017 13:10

I often found my friends who took them got really boring when they took drugs.
Totally agree. I remember going away on a weekend with a crowd of people. We were all having a great laugh, until about half started taking drugs. They just got really boring from then on.

iwadeboxmonster · 02/02/2017 13:11

I love the idea of a secret handshake or a special nod.. Wink

SquatBetty · 02/02/2017 13:11

I'm here - speed and acid in the very early 90s when I was a poor student and then onto Es and coke in the mid to late 90s when I had a bit more cash. Load of gigs and festivals, not so much into clubbing (especially at the big ones) but sometimes went to Turnmills, Mass (in Brixton), some techno club night under the arches in Vauxhall and G.A.Y.

I'm now a SAHM and definitely don't miss the drug taking and going out but glad I experienced it.

Strongmummy · 02/02/2017 13:13

You're in control of what you're doing.....until you're not.

There are many on this thread banging on about how great it is to take drugs, being nostalgic about drug use. That suggests that they see themselves as distinctly separate from addicts. If they're buying through a dealer, they're not. I assume drugs bought via dark net are still illegal, the production not taxed etc....etc.....

Original poster
perhapsiwill · 02/02/2017 13:14

Oh and by the way, it wasn't just some randoms at the school gate Smilewe had been hanging out with the kids together. I think the first time we were in a pub and it wasn't me who brought it up, they were talking about whether they had ever tried any drugs. I said I had tried pretty much everything Shockthat's when I got the 'oh dear, do you need help?' looks.

I do not feel superior, just don't need to be judged.

I am suitably convinced that you are all out there after all and sorry to have upset people who don't agree with it all.

OP posts:
Original poster
perhapsiwill · 02/02/2017 13:16

Unfortunately in that scenario they all went on to say they hadn't.

OP posts:
StorminaBcup · 02/02/2017 13:16

I do wonder though if there is a link between taking E in the last and SSRI prescriptions now, if there's been research into that?

IIRC there have been a few studies in the early 2000's but the difficulty is isolating life / personality factors and co-morbid drug use (those who use drugs regularly on a recreational basis tend to use 2/3/4 different types of drugs) which makes it difficult to isolate the effects of a particular drug and determine the long term outcome.

tartansnowman · 02/02/2017 13:17

I am distinctly separate (is that an oxymoron?) from substance misusers and alcoholics, as I am neither of those things and never have been.

It doesn't help anyone to conflate the two.

tartansnowman · 02/02/2017 13:20

Thanks Bcup, It was the serotonin element that made me wonder if there was a connection. I can see the problems in researching it.

OurBlanche · 02/02/2017 13:24

Back in the 80s I was a child of working class parents. I tried almost every 'recreational' drug available at least once.

The only one that stuck with me, and almost all of my friends of that time, was alcohol.

DH was then a couple of hundred miles away and he went through much the same but a number of his friends had their lives wrecked by ensuing addiction. He was ne of the few who did not become addicted.

I could hazard a guess as to why that is, and it has more to do with their family life, interactions with wider society, availability of jobs, education etc than anything else.

I would agree I was lucky. But I would not harangue anyone who, like me, had a great, life enhancing experience with 'recreational' drugs of any sort. We all make choices, we all live with the consequences.

LittleLionMansMummy · 02/02/2017 13:24

Is there not a proven link between alcohol and depression?

OurBlanche · 02/02/2017 13:25

There's a link between any A and any B, if you look at things the right way... apparently!

CockacidalManiac · 02/02/2017 13:26

I think that I left part of my brain in the Hacienda, but I think it's all flats now.

tartansnowman · 02/02/2017 13:26

Yes, there's a link between alcohol and depression.

CoteDAzur · 02/02/2017 13:27

"the 95% who feel that their drug use is "unproblematic " are still funding the drug industry. Such a cool and clever thing to do. "

The ugly side of drug industry is caused entirely by its illegal status.

If you are so worried about it, campaign to have drugs legalised. When that happens, the drug cartels, criminals etc will disappear like smoke.

I haven't touched any drugs in over a decade but don't have a shiny shit to give about "Ooh what about funding the drug industry" bullshit. Legalise it and let drug use fund the state through taxes. If you insist on keeping it illegal, don't be so fucking surprised that illegal operations supply the market and don't be ridiculous trying to guilt users for "funding drug industry". It's not the users' fault that criminals are allowed to operate the industry. It's the legislators'.

WaitrosePigeon · 02/02/2017 13:28

I'm here.

I had a splendid time Grin

CoteDAzur · 02/02/2017 13:30

"There are many on this thread banging on about how great it is to take drugs, being nostalgic about drug use. That suggests that they see themselves as distinctly separate from addicts. If they're buying through a dealer, they're not"

What on Earth does where you buy something have to do with whether or not you are addicted to it?

Niloufes · 02/02/2017 13:36

I did some drugs in the 90s. My main circle of friends now due to a particular hobby, range from 18-early 30s, don't understand at all. They look at me like I must have been some waster who slept on the streets. But I don't do them now and so I am accepted and its all laughed off when it comes up in conversation. Even most my age that I hang about with now have never done it or have never been in those circles and so don't understand. It has a lot to do with age (obviously) but also where you spent those times. I lived very inner city and so that's just what a lot of my peers at the time did. In the sticks and commuter ville, where i live now, a very small minority of people got involved in the human traffic era most where just pubbers and went to see bands and the only 'clubs' were boozy ones, which have always been shite and not proper clubbing at all.

Niloufes · 02/02/2017 13:36

I did some drugs in the 90s. My main circle of friends now due to a particular hobby, range from 18-early 30s, don't understand at all. They look at me like I must have been some waster who slept on the streets. But I don't do them now and so I am accepted and its all laughed off when it comes up in conversation. Even most my age that I hang about with now have never done it or have never been in those circles and so don't understand. It has a lot to do with age (obviously) but also where you spent those times. I lived very inner city and so that's just what a lot of my peers at the time did. In the sticks and commuter ville, where i live now, a very small minority of people got involved in the human traffic era most where just pubbers and went to see bands and the only 'clubs' were boozy ones, which have always been shite and not proper clubbing at all.

SuperFlyHigh · 02/02/2017 13:38

Yes raver of late 90s/00s.... Grin

We actually did have one or two alcoholic drinks of choice either pre clubbing or when at the club and you needed vodka and red bull to keep you awake past 5am etc...Grin

Sadly I lost a best friend to suicude to mental health issues brought on by too many trips probably... And hate to say some of the crowd i knew back then were quite bitchy and judgy!

I think OP there are literally loads of people who didn't take drugs then...

Seems far less common place now but then again if you scratch the surface you'll find the odd lively bar with drugs etc. Just doesn't seem so mainstream these days...

Kr1stina · 02/02/2017 13:39

She said not saying that that. She's saying that dealers sell to addicts and well as naice middle class professionals popping in between their shop at Waitrose and their dinner parties. Except of course for those who are buying on the dark net from artisanal gentlemen dealers who went to Oxford and make their drugs in lovely clean safe factories in islington and pay all their workers the living wage.

OurBlanche · 02/02/2017 13:43

Ah! We bought our acid from some free wheeling folks in Wales, speed form some bikers in East Anglia, grass from local growers and the harder stuff came in via some very lary older blokes - 1 of whom fit the 'artisanal gentleman' descritption rather well Smile

tartansnowman · 02/02/2017 13:47

There has been a big decrease in drug and alcohol consumption among young people.

Strongmummy · 02/02/2017 13:47

Cotedazur, I'm not. Try reading again.

Strongmummy · 02/02/2017 13:50

There's also a link between certain drugs and depression!!! When I adopted my son the doctor did say that the worst drug to be exposed to in utero was......alcohol

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.