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.

we're everywhere.

I'm still in touch with my group of clubbing friends from the late 90's early 00's. Everyone has responsible jobs. Only I have MH probs, but they were worse before I took drugs and I was actually problem free for a while. My most recent bout is life being extremely shit related and it is anticipated that I'll return to work before too long.

When I lived in the city I was surrounded by people who had also done the same as me when they were younger. Now I've moved rurally it seems that sort of thing wasn't as common as I thought!

All the Party People I know are now mostly married with kids and careers.

We laugh about it now. The one with the biggest regret is a friend with a tattoo saying 'mental raver'.

I'm here! I smoked a lot of drugs in the 90s, and most of my school and uni friends did too. I stuck to weed but my friends all took speed and ecstasy when they went clubbing.

They are all mums/dads and have very professional jobs now!

I'm the opposite. Never did anything more exciting than weed. Was astonished when this came up with some 'respectable' friends and pretty much all of them had spent their twenties doing all sorts of exciting things off the back of toilets.

I was rather jealous, actually. It sounded like a lot of fun. Anyone up for a Mumsnet rave?

My DH was like this. I was too sensible! DH is now a very respectable member of society..actually his limit is two pints now so maybe he's a bit too respectable nowadays

Ohbuddyhell I must've misunderstood the thread then, because I thought that this was about what people got up to in the 90s/their pre-kid/family/grown-up days.

I see lots of people talking about what they did or didn't do when they were young - as in late teens and early 20s.

I never did, I know people who did but I was never there!

I drank too much, plenty of times and went driving in cars with boys, hitch hiked, partied, slept in strangers houses etc. I would vomit with fear if I know my DCs took risks like I did (they are too young yet!) but I don't chat about this to people I meet as it would be boring for them. I'm not proud of my younger life. It was what it was.

Are you sure they thought you were scum and they are morally superior? Or maybe you think that is what no-history-of-taking-E people think? I don't think I am morally superior. I avoided drugs at times but for most of my life they just didnt cross my path.

I never did. I am allergic to many things and always have been very cautious about what I take or drink. In the nice area where I live now, several young people aged 15-20 has lost their lives due to recreational drug use.

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Barely drink now, haven't smoked in 13 + years, I'm pretty boring these days!

I can still (lightweight, bit of booze, no more) party, but I have friends (mid 40s) who " partied " proper then and still " party " proper now on a weekend.

Then they get up and carry on on a Monday morning, sober as judges. Does raise a few eyebrows locally as there are some seriously highly placed professionals amongst them....

I'm 80's/90's vintage as well. Friends and I didn't do E's mostly because that was a different music scene. Knew plenty of people who did. I think some still take the odd recreational pill but not many. We were mostly booze and a bit of dope. Anyone we knew who got into drugs ended up with heroin because that was cheapest and never ended well. It was only when I moved down south in my late 20s did I come across a lot of cokeheads. Only people I know who ended up with issues due to taking drugs were potheads. I know a few with mental health issues.

To be honest I would assume that quite a number of the mums at the (v. middle class naice) school gates have similar experiences in their youths. I have just never mentioned it cos it just hasn't come up - definitely won't now!!!

Another CJA and ANL demo-goer here. I remember The Levellers played one? Not CJA I don't think. That kicked off.

Still party with my 30s+ friends, but we are all childless at the moment.

Big ravers back in the day, but I was a London student so all my old haunts have gone. Our parties tend to be more domestic now, so we can play the music we like.

I get way worse Hangoves than I ever did/have from other things, to the point that I can't drink much these days as i have to right off the next day. However, I am more aware of the ethical issues on drug manufacture and importation. E/Mandy is its own category, though, as mostly made in the uk or Europe.

waves hello OMG I had so much fun in my late teens/early twenties. Am a fully functioning adult in my 40s now The 90s were awesome.

You'll find they may have dabbled in a few things as a young adult, but feel they may get judged. They're not morally superior at all. You're here to tell the tale & had a good time.

How is she cheating the system? I'd feel more embarrassed doing that let alone admitting and bragging about it.

"oh it's just those lower class people with their existential issues and their defective personalities " .

If you've spent any time in the rooms of NA, CA,, AA or any other 12 step program you will know that "existential issues" arising from trauma, abuse, neglect etc are the gateway to substance abuse and addiction. These problems impact people from all socio-economic backgrounds and I am not sure why you are bringing class into it.

Apparently, drug experimentation is a sign of higher intelligence.
and I must say, of my circle, we all have MAs, MScs and PhDs in a range of arts, humanities and science subjects. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, dentists amongst us....

If however you have a "naice" comfortable respectable life and want to dabble with the odd line of Coke etc or get paralytic every now and then to let your hair down - hell yeah I will judge you. Because it takes just that one time for you to die of alcohol poisoning or get a bad hit and fuck up your kids life forever - and you gamble that for FUN.

I'm sorry but this is just way over the top and shows a complete lack of understanding about the issue at hand.

I model substance misuse services for a living so am well briefed on risk/dangers/current trends etc. I also from time to time have a line of coke or (shock horror) take an e at a festival.

The new substance misuse services commissioned by the government are quite heavily focused on addressing the huge problem we have with alcohol as a country. This is the biggest cost both economically and to wider society. Some of you might be surprised to hear that in detox facilities nationally people withdrawing from alcohol heavily outweigh those withdrawing from drugs.

We have an ageing heroin using population which is dying out. Young people are much more likely to use MDMA and cocaine which get little attention in the service specifications I read (and in the past two years I have looked at least 25 services to include London, Leicester, Kent, Manchester, Nottingham...).

More of a problem is the Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) that technically aren't illegal being research chemicals not yet banned and far more dangerous. By far the most sensible thing to do would be to have a regulated system underpinned by a programme of harm reduction.

In a nutshell I would say there is very little risk in taking 'recreational drugs'. Of course there are going to be a few horror stories but overlaid with the huge damage alcohol has on our society they really are quite meaningless. There is a chasm between someone having a line of coke on a Friday night and a entrenched heroin user. Sadly the latter is much more like to have ended up in that position as a result of their social situation (poverty/limited life chances) rather than weed or similar acting as a gateway drug. I would also say that to move from using MDMA to more hardcore drugs is very very unusual as they are used in entirely different circumstances and for entirely different reasons.

The uproar about collateral damage is misplaced as well. The rise of the darknet means more and more people are buying directly from labs online shifting how the trade operates.

A large proportion of my peers (to include a deputy head, a pilot, a pharmacist, senior civil servants... I could go on) all use occasionally and do so with our eyes open. No distinction at all between alcohol and recreational drugs and I only hope for a future government who will put in place a sensible regulated system (as works so well in Portugal).

(Name changed btw)

they look at me as if I'm an addict who needs help

Where some people are seeing their reaction as judgemental pearl-clutching, others are seeing it as boredom.

The asumption that doing Es is the best time wore thin for many of us in the 90s - we don't want to have to still carry on pretending that tedious, sweaty and self-absorbed ravers are the coolest.

Couldn't care less what risks people choose to take, just don't expect me to be jealous or excited for you! Yawn

Haven't RTFT. We are everywhere, and oscillate between absolutely not wanting anyone to ever think we did that and being mildly annoyed that people don't realise that we did. :)

I took a fair amount of drugs (E, speed and weed) in the 90s. Had a fabulous time, and certainly have no regrets.

Now in my 40s and a responsible mum of 2. My circle from back then are all the same.

I've never really talked about it with anyone who wasn't my friend back then, but on the rare occasion that it's come up, it has been met with judgemental comments

We were at a friends house once and it was mentioned that I'm not a very big drinker - to which I replied that I didn't really like it and never had been. They were surprised that I hadn't spent my youth on the piss and DH (who was my boyfriend back then) made some quip about all the drugs I took. Friends were very judgemental and quite shitty about it.

I was at a Halloween party a few weeks later and they were all completely pissed, playing drinking games that involved eating dog food off the kitchen floor. I was a bit

Another one here.

I'm 42 now. In my twenties spent every Saturday night at the Ministry of Sound taking v strong es. Back when the MoS was good. Spent my thirties going to Ibiza every few months spending the whole week off my tits.

Fast forward to now, I look ten years younger than most of my friends who have never touched anything in their lives, I'm very fit and healthy and my mind is sharp. I hold down a v responsible job. I go to Ibiza every year and go clubs like DC10. Loads of my friends still go clubbing now and then, some of them still take class As. They also hold down responsible jobs.

But yeah, some people are ignorant about drugs and v judgy. So I'm v selective about who I discuss any of the above with. And you would never know about my 'wild' side to look at me !

I used to work in substance misuse, and it infuriates me when people trot out a load of ill informed pious bullshit. The vast majority of people who have used recreational drugs at some point do not die as a result, suffer or cause lasting harm to others as a result, or descend into a life of miserable addiction as a result. The best drug workers I know are people who went through addiction and recovery themselves. They have lived it. None of them, NONE of them, take the aforementioned approach. They're far more realistic than that.

Yes, the recreational drug trade is very much linked to organised crime and all the misery that entails. You know what the answer to that is? Legalisation. Legalise it, tax it, regulate it. Take it out of the hands of criminal gangs, ensure the substances are being produced properly and rigorously tested, spend the taxes raised wisely, relieve the burdens on the CJS. It's so obvious.

i lived in Essex in a lorry (i've had an interesting life!) and was a member of protest groups against the CJA and the M11 link road/Claremont Road demolition in Leyton. those were the days...

Me! Not pills, to be fair, but dope, cocaine, acid and I smoked opium once because I thought it made me look cool.

I've got mixed feelings about it now. Most of my friends are all grown up and well adjusted now, but two died from heroin overdoses, one spent time in prison for dealing and I spent time in a psych ward which wasn't totally drugs related but didn't help. So there were casualties. I think of the two who died a lot.

I sort of suspect my kids will experiment one day but dread it totally. Odds are they will be fine but...