To ask the truth about your drug use?

[CantStopTheBeat]

This may seem a silly question but since it’s an anonymous forum I’ll ask anyway. I’ve NC.

If you ever experimented or used drugs, what did you use and what made you choose that drug? I want to have an open conversation with my teenage child about why people may use certain drugs and what situations they will come up in but I don’t have a huge amount of experience on it. I know the internet has information but would like some realistic stories from the ladies of MN.

Smoked weed for years and i hate it now. I cant smoke it without feeling bad. Think i must have a stigma attached.

I believe it gave me paranoia and anxiety and killed some brain cells.

Didn't realise what a sheltered life I've led until I read this thread.

No drugs at all, the most I've done is alcohol, many times pissed in my 20's and 30's. Now a bit of a gin snob and know my limits/ can't do hangovers.

I think twice before a paracetamol. God, I'm boring.

@MissLanesAmericanCousin thanks for the tip on codeine not being like other prescription drugs.

None of the prescription drugs really appeal to me tbh, maybe I just never came across enough of them. When I had to use codeine for a raging toothache it took 600 miligrams in an afternoon to have any effect. Just seemed pointless, and the constipation was a bastard

I did a lot of pills when I was 18. Good Times. Chasing that mega buzzy high.... The come downs were atrocious 😦😨.
I'm so sensible now and despise drugs. But no regrets.
Just booze now. And the odd paracetamol.

I started smoking weed from the age of 13.
Got in to free parties/raves at 17.
Took lots of pills mostly. Also cocaine, speed, acid, ket and mushrooms.

Stopped in my early 20s.

I generally managed to moderate myself so that I was in control of what I was taking. While I wasn’t addicted to the drugs themselves, it can be hard to leave the lifestyle when you’ve had enough.

Various opioids.

Never taken any drugs even though many of my friends and family did. I just didn't fancy it. I've drunk much either.

I used to love clubbing but didn't need to take drugs to have fun. My friends took drugs but didn't care that I didn't so peer pressure did t come into it. I was always happy to do my own thing.

I saw a few people have really really bad experiences on drugs. They were scary.

I was also aound drugs and drug dealers as a child which probably took the 'glamour' out of it. They were all big time losers.

I also passionately hate the drug trade.

I know drugs can be good fun so I concentrated on making sure my kids were aware of the brutalities and horrors of the drug trade.

Never liked alcohol - made me sick and didn’t like the drunk out of control feeling.

Never liked weed - made me sick and didn’t like the forgetfulness and like I didn’t know what was going on. Also the only drug I’ve ever been paranoid on. Also hate smoking.

Was given a pill at a party when I was early twenties and had the BEST night of my life. So much energy, so much love, so much fun.

Habitually took mdma, pills, and coke for years at parties. We used to party most weekends in our twenties. Oh, also NOS in balloons.

Dabbled in ket and mushrooms which I love but only in certain exact circumstances with certain people. An incredibly spiritual cleansing experience.

From this I became close with and amazing group of super sorted friends who liked to work hard and play hard.

Now mainly people don’t take drugs. We don’t go to techno nights every weekend. Because, well, responsibilities and desires change. Recovery is longer. Health is more important.

I wouldn’t change anything that I did. Take drugs changed my life for the better in every way and motivated me in my life. I always had rules that I couldn’t go out and play unless I had done my essay or smashed my work that week. Being around a group of high achieving clever people pushed me forwards.

I also don’t actually want to go back to how we did live. The thought of partying for 48 hours fills me with dread now!

Drugs aren’t for everyone, but for those people who they do suit - they are fucking amazing.

You’d be surprised who you meet in your life that is taking or has taken a lot of drugs. Lots of very responsible and high achieving people.

It’s wrong to peddle the drug takers are losers myth because if they find out that’s a myth all the other drug education gets labels bullshit too.

There obviously are dangers, but don’t overlook the fact most people take drugs is because they are fun.

I’ve always been lucky that I don’t like taking drugs on my own. For me it’s all about the interaction with other people. Some people do enjoy taking coke on their own at home, and that for me seems a slippery slope.

I can also go out and sober rave when taking drugs isn’t appropriate eg because of work or a sport event or just because I don’t want to. For me it’s worth it and I still get a buzz just being in a club and dancing with friends.

The drug that scare me the most (from the ones I have experience in) is weed. It’s IMO the most habitually addictive, the most dangerous with potential to fuck people’s minds up and the one that changes people’s personalities the most. It also seems to be the drug that people who are a bit fucked up anyway, gravitate to.

I honestly don’t see why weed is seen on places like MN as quite acceptable, but doing a line of coke is tantamount to child murder. And don’t give me the supply chain argument - unless you’re growing your own you’re involved in human trafficking and human misery in the cannabis trade.

Would I want a child of mine to do the amount of drugs I did? Probably not. There is a huge potential for things to go wrong along the way. But like I say, one of the best thing that ever happened to me was taking that pill. Opened up a whole new world to me.

Somebody else had some and offered it round, mostly. Spliffs made with solid, as the people smoking them were pretty relaxed and friendly at work. Didn't fancy trying anything else at the time because the people offering were generally dicks - if an utter dickhead and his dickhead mates were doing lines in the bog and thought they were oh-so-big and clever, it wasn't going to ever appeal to me, as it made them even more unbearable than usual.

Didn't ever want to try smack or ketamine because I'd had the latter as anaesthetic and diamorphine due to surgery when I was 17 and realised I'd had the highest quality, perfectly calibrated dose tailormade for me and there wasn't the slightest chance I'd ever get to feel like that with some random shit from a dealer. However, the last time I had some of a spliff, it felt 'wrong' and I gave it back, saying I didn't fancy it anymore. Turns out that the dealer had taken to adding a bit of heroin to it to encourage people to buy from him and probably be more likely to accept an 'upgrade' having already liked the feeling of having smoked a small amount. Once even that was being messed with, I wasn't interested any more.

Speed and E was tried under duress from an ex - he'd decided he was going to take them and said if I didn't, he'd abandon me in a strange place with no way of getting home because I wasn't being fun like he wanted me to be and I'd be showing him up if I refused to take what he had 'shared' (sold) to his mates. Speed felt good, as I had energy (until Sunday teatime, when I felt like shit but couldn't sleep and had the 'Nobody loves me, I'm going to die alone' feeling).

E was crap because I was concentrating upon regulating my temperature and fluid intake, rather than getting off my tits and dancing until I dropped dead.

Never tried any hallucinogens. I had enough of an imagination to work out that it probably wasn't a good idea to let it appear to be reality to me. And the only people who had access to things like meth were fucking lunatics.

Skunk just smells bad. There's no mellowness about it, it's all about getting so mashed you can't function, rather than a gentle mmm, that's nice. But people have it because they can't get solid anymore.

I also had drinks spiked on a couple of occasions. The advantage (if any) of having tried some drugs previously was that I instantly realised something was wrong, rather than innocently continuing to drink until I was vulnerable and in serious trouble.

My attitude is that I am more than capable of fucking up my own life without having expensive substances involved. So I'll do it my way, thanks. It's cheaper.

Lots. Everything. All of it. Had a smashing time. Fabulous (and hazy) memories of my youth. I quit while I was ahead because I didn't want to carry on and have something bad happen and I already felt I was pushing my luck. Plus I'd finished uni/education and it was time to grow up. I barely even drink alcohol now all these years later. I'd smoke weed if I could be bothered to source it/buy a vapouriser etc etc. But I can't. Plus I can't risk the knock to my already feeble memory.

Oh yeah, also MCat and Valium. Probably lucky that MCat became illegal and the pure stuff became hard to find because I was quite partial to that. Valium is fun but only if you’ve nothing to do for the next week. Good holiday drug.

Actually I def wouldn’t want a child of mine to do the drugs I did. How hypocritical is that?!?

I think I recognise that I had an unusually good experience with a super amazing core group of friends who were trustworthy and sensible.

None of the prescription drugs really appeal to me tbh, maybe I just never came across enough of them. When I had to use codeine for a raging toothache it took 600 miligrams in an afternoon to have any effect. Just seemed pointless, and the constipation was a bastard

Prescription drugs don’t really have the same effect on you when you take them for pain management, and when you take them for fun. Not exactly sure why.

I smoked weed and took a a lot of speed when I was a teenager, I was heavily into goth culture and they were everywhere, I did a bit of dealing too to pay for my nights out. I tried ecstasy but wasn’t keen.
My BF committed suicide when I was 19 when she was having a bad comedown from a dodgy speedbomb and I’ve never touched them since.

I never fancied acid. I always felt like I was a little bit worried I would have a bad trip, and decided that if I thought that then I was probably guaranteed a bad trip.

I've tried most drugs, but not heroine, crack or the new ones. I only took them occasionally, on average 3 or 4 times a year for about 12 years. I haven't taken anything for 14 years, I don't even drink alcohol.

I didn't like smoking any kind of marijuana but I did enjoy other drugs, especially MDMA and LSD. I never felt that I would become addicted and never felt that they were damaging my health or life in any way, in lots of ways they made life better. I think the only substances I've ever felt I was addicted to were cigarettes and food. I haven't smoked for 14 years, I am a little bit addicted to food still. I wouldn't want to take any kind of drugs now but I don't regret having tried them in my past.

We took a lot of risks with the illegality, but pretty safe with the actual substances.

Advance purchases and we tested pills. Had some home testing kits but later moved to sending samples off as more comprehensive.

Once had a batch that was super strong and a few times had batches without much of anything - but never had anything untoward turn up.

The illegality puts people at risk - the PMA (note I mean PMA not MDMA) deaths are on the governments hands.

i have once smoked cannabis resin in a cigarette when in the throes of the worst head cold.
never had anything what so ever before or since. im nearly 50.

Weed, habitually for many, many years, lots of speed for going out in late teens and early twenties and then a fairly long love affair with MDMA til I finally settled down in my late twenties. Weed is the only one I regret, because that became about habit rather than enjoyment, the other stuff was pure fun.

I smoked weed a handful of times from the age of 17-26, mainly because I didn't consider it hugely risky. I drank alcohol from the age of 14 ish but never to enough excess I required medical help, again because I didn't think it was socially unacceptable. I was brought up to consider drug taking to be extremely risky and just not really worth it.

Now, after 15 years in frontline emergency work I can tell you I am of the same opinion. It really isn't worth the risk.

I have used mushrooms, coke, ecstasy, poppers and weed, all while young (13-15), all because it was available at various house parties and I was a massive twat who wanted to look cool. Stopped originally because I found out I was pregnant, then my friend bought some E's off a different guy to usual, ended up in A&E having stopped breathing, scared the hell out of me (this was a guy who knew what he was doing, they had just been cut with God knows what) so I've always said no since, apart from one shared joint at a party when I was 25 and reminiscing with old friends, I was drunk and puked quite spectacularly made a fool of myself and felt the roughest I have ever felt, friends wonderful wife propped me up with a bucket while I sat crying and apologising, it was not a pretty sight.

I’ve tried almost everything and I still take coke, pills and MDMA occasionally. My husband has tried crack and heroin in his youth.

I’m a solicitor and husband is a high earning manager. We earn 90k plus a year so we are competent parents.

I am also a mum so I’ll probably get banished for this.

I don’t take things regularly but I’m not overly bothered about my daughter taking them. I think it’s a right of passage.

She will try them.

Everyone I know has and I’d rather her be able to come to me if she freaked out. Drugs enhance certain things; I’ve had many a good night off my head.

The Loop is a brilliant charity that test drugs at festivals.

Check them out on FB and Insta

They save lives. They also put out plenty of info on safe drug use.

I can't stop my DS from taking them when he's older. But I can at least arm him with knowledge to minimise the risks.

Having witnessed drug-induced psychosis first hand, I have not the slightest desire ever to take something that could fuck with my mental health. Plus the issue of wondering how many Columbian farmers have to die so a Westerner can have a line of coke (and the smell of weed makes me feel sick anyway).

I was completely irresponsible with alcohol in my teens though. I’m kind of glad it’s harder for young teenagers to get hold of it now (we were never ever ID’ed, I’ve been asked for ID more after turning 18 when the rules changed).

Was off my face on gas and air for about 24hrs after my son was born and ended up in a hospital room for one with free access to it. That was fun, but not fun enough to make up for the postnatal complications that got me there.

OP how to you want the conversation to go? I mean, are you trying to put them off ever doing drugs or giving advice on how to stay safe if they do?

I took a shit load of pretty much everything when I was younger, and less regularly since then. When I was a teen my parents tried to come down really heavily and ‘ban’ me from doing it, but it had the opposite effect. Teenagers can be quite determined like that.

Do you have reason to think your teenager is taking drugs? If so, I would advise telling them to be moderate, always let friends know what they’ve taken, sip water, don’t drink booze and make sure they are in a safe place when they do it. And that they can always call you if things have gone a bit sideways for them. A lot of clubs/festivals have places where you can take drugs to have them tested, without any risk of getting handcuffed, so that’s a way of staying safe and finding out if you’re about to take anything dodgy.

Do they have friends who seem like druggies? If not, you probably don’t even need to have a conversation about drugs - it’s very unlikely your kid will do them if their mates aren’t. And a lot of young people today really aren’t interested at all. So could be a non issue.

Anecdotally, over 20 years on from our ‘hay day’, me and the majority of friends I have who took a lot of drugs back then turned out just fine - careers, families etc. For some that’s all completely in the past, others still dabble occasionally. The odds are very good that it won’t wreck their lives, so try not to freak out if they have been experimenting. Of course, it would be better if they didn’t do drugs but it’s not necessarily a huge deal. If you can, be non judgemental with them, and let them know they can always be honest with you about their drug use. That way you’ll know if things are getting out of control.