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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Are you Generation X? Come here a minute...

125 replies

HennyPennyHorror · 19/09/2019 10:29

Do you find that a lot of our generation are still taking drugs at our age?

Or not?

I was part of the rave scene...got out of it aged 23. Left all that behind...but a LOT of people I know of my age or thereabouts (late 40s) are still taking drugs on a regular basis.

I emigrated 4 years ago but have friends in the UK still and see and hear what they get up to on the phone and social media. Here in Oz, my Aussie DH's mates are all still at it too.

We have numerous acquaintances (not mates) who even take things like meth...these are professional people!

AIBU to think it's all going to come to a head at some point? Like...tonnes of them will die young...people back home still taking coke and Es and all that.

It's not right is it?

OP posts:
Lillyhatesjaz · 19/09/2019 23:22

I'm generation x but have never taken drugs and to my knowledge neither did my friends when we were younger. Quite a few of my current friends drink loads though I think to an extent where it effects their health. I am mostly teetotal.

ermwhatda · 19/09/2019 23:33

gen X here. Everyone I know, more or less, still does drugs. They smoke weed, pop pills, sniff Charlie, and some of them even smoke crack. I've even got older friends, in their early 50's, still sniffing the Ajax and kidding themselves they're cool.

Most of them look like shite, and their brains are pretty scrambled. They're all on 'medication', for something or other, usually 'depression'.

I like vegetables, but not as friends.

maddening · 19/09/2019 23:37

How old is a gen x today and how old is a milenial today? Trying to work out which one I am.

hussandchips56 · 19/09/2019 23:59

I went to a festival this summer where Judge Jules and Dave Pearce did a set each, someone commented on the FB group that times have changed and he took drugs after the night out co codamol and naproxen!

I'm of the generation before, (yes drugs were around then) and never took any but have seen people from my generation who carried on, they are not doing well.

shivermetimbers77 · 20/09/2019 00:06

Everyone I know stopped all that by their late 20s..We all used to do drink, smoke and do all sorts.. Now we are early 40s and everyone is running/doing yoga/drinking kale smoothies instead! I feel much better!

Purpletigers · 20/09/2019 00:07

I don’t know anyone who takes illegal drugs. Surely It’s not something intelligent people do . Natural selection at its finest . I don’t have a lot of sympathy for drug takers or addicts tbh . If they’re stupid enough to tempt fate then let them get on with it .

LemonPrism · 20/09/2019 00:13

As a 24 year old I can confirm this. Lots of 40+ at raves. It's weird

ICantBelieveIDidThis · 20/09/2019 00:22

I'm stunned at the number of drug addicted, habitual criminals reported in our local paper who are my age.

40, 50 and even 60 year old crims who prey on older and more vulnerable people cash or routinely go shoplifting.

It is pitiful.

Nirex · 20/09/2019 00:24

I’m late 40s. Sister did drugs until recently. Her bf still does and has had long term MH problems (which he blames on other things obvs). Otherwise no friends do it AFAIK. Now my own DC are coming across stuff (weed, MDMA etc) and dabbling a bit and I want us all to go and live on a island far away from the whole sickening scene.

Chienloup · 20/09/2019 00:41

I'm Gen X and most people I know gave up drugs in our early 30s -around the time we settled down, married, and/or had kids. I think my gay friends went for a bit longer, maybe mid-30s, but my friends and I talk about the Class A days as being well in the past now.
I do have a friend who carried on using drugs (mostly coke) well into his 40s, but it all came crashing down in a really awful and irreversible way, which was incredibly sad.
An ex of mine was a baby boomer and he and his friends were still using drugs well into their 40s and 50s, though almost exclusively weed.

The Verve said it - the drugs don't work. Not long-term, and not when you have greater responsibilities.

tvdinnertracks · 20/09/2019 00:41

As a 24 year old I can confirm this. Lots of 40+ at raves. It's weird

I'm glad when I went to raves as a youngster I didn't judge the same way. Hmm

Fuma · 20/09/2019 00:57

I know a fair few dabblers and a smaller amount who never stopped caning it and are now, consequently, fucked. I don't myself any more as worry about what physical strain it would put on my body now plus cba with and frankly don't have time for comedowns. I'd say the overall attitude among people who have got out of "the lifestyle" is that it didn't kill them and they enjoy it now and again. They fail to realise that doing it at pushing 50 is risky though, as proved quite starkly by an old boyfriend who had a heart attack and died last year after one such occasional night.

GothMummy · 20/09/2019 01:17

No I don't know anyone who does now. We are all mid 40s.

getoutofthatgarden202 · 20/09/2019 08:13

I'm 30 and whenever we go to club nights I'm usually one of the youngest people there !!

Vinosaurus · 20/09/2019 08:22

Yep - I believe I'm classified as an Xennial (born in '78) but was heavily into drugs/clubbing/the rave scene from '92 until about '06 and the majority of my friends were/are older.

I've got a fair few good friends pushing 50 who are still popping pills and schnarfing g's of coke on a weekly basis, although many of them try to counteract it with a healthy diet and exercise - not that I believe it will.

I dread to think what effect this regular use in mid/late middle age will be doing to their cardiovascular and nervous systems, I worry enough about the effect years of drug use in my teens/20s has done to mine.

EBearhug · 20/09/2019 08:25

I only know one person who uses pot from time to time. I suspect I know others who do use, but I don't know, but most people are too busy with work and children. I don't really see the odd bit of weed as different from drinking, other than the legality. I much preferred being stoned to getting drunk, but I would rather have it as an edible than smoke it. I never did masses though.

I don't drink and increasingly cut down from my mid-20s, and was pretty much teetotal by my late 20s, and I think people probably assume I have no interest in drugs either, so just don't mention it. Mostly I don't have an interest, but I am not going to tell others what to do. I would be partivularly wary of cocaine, with its possible affects on the heart - I know quite a few people on blood pressure pills and statins these days, and they don't mention illegal drugs in the contraindications. I think it was Keith Richards who said the only reason he was still alive was because he could afford top quality drugs and top quality medical care. The trouble with most drugs is being illegal, there's no quality control. At least with alcohol, the strength is highly regulated and labelled, and it's not likely to be cut with anything.

I have never been one to drink if I'm just staying in for the evening, even when I did drink, but I have lots of friends who will have a glass of wine or a beer - or two. I think alcohol is far more of a problem, but my views are clouded by having had an alcoholic mother. I don't know many people who smoke theses days, either. Even most smokers at work have quit.

Cornettoninja · 20/09/2019 11:30

@maddening gen x is 1965-1980 and millennials are 1981-1996 according to my quick google..

I’m more distracted by what the generation after is going to be known as Grin!

kenandbarbie · 20/09/2019 11:34

I don't know anyone who takes drugs, I'm early 40s. Everyone seems to be into yoga, cycling, running and being teetotal and vegetarian or vegan. Rock on.

easyandy101 · 20/09/2019 11:42

Still take drugs fairly regularly, acid most frequently

Brittany2019 · 20/09/2019 11:49

God. I did a shitload of drugs in my early twenties, as did most of my friends, but I don’t think anyone I know does anything more than smoke a few joints now. I would be quite shocked if anyone of them were still taking E tbh.
That said, if it could be guaranteed that absolutely nothing bad would happen, I still would. I fucking loved E. But it can’t, so I don’t. Being a grownup is dull. Grin

Juanmorebeer · 20/09/2019 12:29

I know absolutely loads of people in this age group who take drugs all the time. One group are child free and relatively good earners, no ties etc so do lots of festivals, gigs, nights out at weekends and mdma or psychadelics often make an appearance. I don't touch any of it, never have don't get it.

The other group of people I know are all parents. Group of about 5 couples. Live in the best area of the city to get their kids into the right schools etc. Overstretched themselves massively to take on mortgages they can ill afford and the majority of them stuck in unhappy marriages. They spend each weekend partying at each others houses where they put all the children upstairs and ignore them as they start drinking prosecco and beer all day then the coke comes out at night. It is fucking pathetic and tragic, feel so sorry for their kids. All between late 30s and mid 40s people.

EBearhug · 20/09/2019 13:45

I’m more distracted by what the generation after is going to be known as

Isn't it Gen Z after Millenia?

EBearhug · 20/09/2019 13:46

Millenials

Cornettoninja · 20/09/2019 15:32

Sorry, I meant after millennials, so birth years 1997-2012 I think.

Cornettoninja · 20/09/2019 15:34

And again sorry for lack of comprehension! Are they really generation Z? How come they get the cool zombie name - that’s not fair!