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

[perhapsiwill]

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 .
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
Forgive me if when I was in my 20s I took drugs and that at the time I didn't think about the victims of crime

Again. Fair play for being honest.

benadryl love it!

Did anyone who took illegal drugs not end up as a professional except for my two friends who ended up in so-so jobs via HMYOI? It seems everyone else only knows teachers, lawyers etc. No shop staff or car mechanics?

I'm regretting not having been more committed to the high. I'd have been running the country.

Shatners

There are numerous articles about studies which have found that people with a higher IQ are more likely to take drugs. Here is one.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/15/why-kids-with-high-iq-are-more-likely-to-take-drugs/

It's a few years old but if you google it you will see many more.

Im sure many will disagree with it though.

I've just read that article. I don't buy a lot of those theories. I think it's more likely to be because those with a higher IQ get the freedom of university life; no mum and dad watching them, no getting up for work after stopping out all night.

I knew plenty of drug users who weren't very bright though. I'm sure everyone did, they just don't know them any more so don't know what became of them!

What I mean is being intelligent allows you to use drugs more often (independence and money), not that using drugs is an intelligent choice. I can't quite put into words what I mean .

ShatnersBassoon fear not, i dropped out of school at 16. Managed to claw my way back in to some semblance of a career before i had my baby at 29. However it was only because it was in the mental health field and so my drug taking did probably help me achieve that!!!!!

I don't even think about the human suffering involved in drugs, I mean I do sometimes but not at The Time. Yet I check food labels anxiously to ensure no meat or dairy (where animal and human rights abuses often intersect) or eggs, I even have a little voice in my head that says 'ugh bee slavery' when I think about putting honey on my porridge or when I apply my Urban Decay mascara. But I don't have any conscience when it comes to drugs so that's not good.

"those with a higher IQ get the freedom of university life; no mum and dad watching them, no getting up for work"

That might be a factor for some people but not for countless others who only started using later in life.

What the article says is true, as well. Higher intelligence is correlated with risk taking and non-conforming, as opposed to pearl clutching toeing the line of societal rules and acceptance.

Loving all the tunes on here. Off to work in my respectable job now but can someone @ me when a new thread is started?

Thanks

What the article says is true, as well. Higher intelligence is correlated with risk taking and non-conforming
PMSL
This thread is hilarious

Ha ha, yes. You can go and console a drug addict by telling them at least they've got high IQs.

There may be something in the fact that people who want to experiment may have a more open mind. However, what about consequence and emotional intelligence? Drug use is illegal and funds other illegal activity. Being smug about how you used to use without now feeling concerned about the external consequence of that usage isn't intelligent in my view.

“What you typically find is that people with high IQs are less likely to smoke [cigarettes], more likely to be active and to have a good diet,” says White, noting that they are also likely to have high socioeconomic status. People in this group tend to make healthy choices, based both on health information and their own experience.

This group isn’t likely to see occasional drug use as particularly harmful, White says, both because there is little data to suggest great risk of harm from such use and because evidence of harm is rare among their peers. “With smoking, the evidence [about its dangers] is overwhelming,” says White, “whereas when you look at things like cannabis use, since they are more likely to associate with people who are similar to them, they are likely to see that smoking cannabis relatively infrequently doesn’t have huge impact.”

In contrast, drug users with less education and wealth are more likely to be exposed to negative consequences of drug use. This is due in part to the fact that money itself can buy protection against the types of criminal involvement and disease that can affect poor drug users.

Makes sense to me.

You can go and console a drug addict by telling them at least they've got high IQs

The article is talking about occasional drug users...

"The study didn’t look at the risk of addiction among those with high IQs because it wasn’t able to measure the frequency of drug use in participants."

I see drug addiction ( heroin, meth) as a different thing to taking an E at the weekend, doing a bit of acid ( who would ever get addicted to acid!) and this is what the original post was about. Not drug addiction.

However, what about consequence and emotional intelligence?

The article states, as we have already discussed, that...

This group isn’t likely to see occasional drug use as particularly harmful, White says, both because there is little data to suggest great risk of harm from such use and because evidence of harm is rare among their peers.

If you were referring to the consequences for victims of crime. Feel free to scrutinise my moral integrity, you may well be morally superior to me, as I said before, it was twenty years ago and I didn't think about it then. As we have already mentioned legalisation would stop the criminal activity.

I was being facetious, but yes, aNd as I've said numerous times i am surprised at how past enjoyment trumps feelings of remorse for funding an illegal activity. We were both buying from the same people who sell to serious addicts. I don't disagree with you re: legalisation.

TPT took a lot of recreational drugs in the 90's. Some people can get away with doing drugs, go on to have successful, full lives. Some get horribly addicted and it brings them down. Some find it changes them forever and they've never been the same. I have friends and family in all three categories. It's roulette really.

In my experience, the worst drugs are some of the prescription drugs. Once people get on them they never seem to truly get off.

Also there is a huge difference between psychedelic drugs and very addictive drugs like crack. The only thing they have in common is that they are both illegal. Once all the hysteria dies down it should be possible to form a coherent policy.

Hello..waving from a podium!

"We were both buying from the same people who sell to serious addicts"

So? We may have bought milk from the same grocery store, too.

It's not illegal to buy milk Cote (whatever you may think about dairy farming)

You don't say.

That wasn't what I replied to, though. I replied to you thinking it a terrible problem to buy from someone who sells to addicts, too.

I can't quite see the problem there.

1. Moral of the story: Life kills. Drugs, Not so much.

2. Higher intelligence is correlated with risk taking

Cote - They can't be safe and risky enough to be appealing to those of superior learning.

Not sure whether you're being deliberately obtuse, but as we know drugs are illegal and they fund organised crime. So whether you're a recreational user or a junkie you're funding organised crime. Personally I find it difficult to reconcile my previous enjoyment with the fact I was funding organised crime. You obviously feel differently.

I was hoping that someone would come back to that, so thank you Shatner