To think there's an unfair stigma around recreational drug use?

[janef001]

I have a female friend who recreationally uses weed, ecstasy and xanax from time to time. They live in a houseshare with two other women.

Last week one roommate couldn't find an Apple Watch and asked my friend if they've seen it. They said no. My friend went to sleep later during the day and overheard the other two downstairs saying "I think x must have taken it for cash, you know she does drugs all the time."

My friend was upset to say the least and especially when the roommate later found it in the next day at the bottom of her clothes hamper near the washing machine.

I know these attitudes aren't uncommon and I've heard my own family who are quite educated express them. I understand the devastation addiction causes but many people take drugs apart from weed and alcohol and don't end up stealing from friends/family/roommates.

I wonder why there's still such a strong stigma

Of course weed is addictive FFS. Can we please not pretend narcotics aren’t addictive

Isn't weed typically thought of as a hallucinogenic rather than a narcotic? I know the definitions vary.

And addictive varies as well. Habit forming, or psychologically addictive? Well biting your nails or cleaning the house can be that. Physically addictive? Cocaine isn't. Caffeine is.

Weed is addictive if you smoke a joint or 12 a day as it’s habit forming. It’s not psychically addictive. Depends on your routine x

Darling I’ve tried and it’s not addictive- it’s habitual. Caffeine is, cocaine is, but only idiots do those.

Unfortunately for a lot of drugs it mean that people who use those drugs are helping support a really evil and dangerous industry that's violent and caused untold misery to all sorts of people but particularly the most vulnerable. Grow a bit of weed for yourself if you insist but only scummy people take coke etc. If you are immoral enough to think your desire to have some fun is more important than the lives of the people the drug trade effects then my guess is your moral compass is fucked.

So what drugs have you taken to come to this conclusion? Just out of interest…no one got hurt from the pills my friend pressed himself…but coke heads have a lot to think about. Genuinely interested in your thoughts x

I think the main point in the op is that op says ‘time to time’ and the people who live with her, disagree it’s ‘time to time’.

That same judgement would be made if the ops friend drank a lot, beyond their means. Or gambled or smoked.

I would suggest that Op actually had very little knowledge on what’s it like to live with her friend and the ‘taking drugs from time to time’ may not be accurate.

its entirely possible that the house mates wouldn’t have made the judgement if she actually only did so drugs from time to time.

Because the side of 'drugs' people see.. is criminal, scum, addicts who will sell their own grandma for a hit and the occasional recreational non-addict who takes a bad pill and ends up dead or a vegetable.

What they don't see is the millions of happy, healthy, full time job (and often highly professional jobs) recreational users doing their thing and getting shitfaced on a weekend.

Because you don't see that, because those people aren't causing anyone* a real problem, nor are they interesting to feature in documentarys, make hard hitting films about, put in reality tv or stick in newspapers.

Addiction isn't just about the substance, there needs to be context - someone with a lovely live, no worries, everything they need, is unlikely to be hooked on smack after a couple of goes at it.

Someone with fuck all to live for, a shitty life in a shitty area with no prospects of anything improving, barely any of what they need and none of what they want.. is highly likely to become addicted, fast.

The other aspect of course is this - no one WANTS you to know that people can use various drugs recreationally and still maintain a normal lifestyle. The idea is drugs are painted as AWFUL BAD DIRTY WRONG DEFINITELY GOING TO BE AN ADDICT... so no one will touch them.

It doesn't work... but thats the official position.

*Of course all illegal drugs are hurting someone because they're illegal and thus the only way to get them is to buy them from a drug dealer. The solution to the criminal element of drugs.. is making them legal.

A small % of people who take recreational drugs are addicted, its no different to Alcohol.

You might not be addicted to booze but no doubt tesco sells to people who ARE.

Absolute bollocks

Well said, @luxxlisbon ! So little domestic or social violence/verbal or physical from weed users compared to alcohol

Ahh yes, lock them up where drug use is rife, life prospects diminish greatly leading to re offending and thus creating far more crime. Florenz for justice minister

if alcohol and tobacco had been discovered recently, they would certainly NOT be legal. They are so ingrained into Western culture that no party who proposed to ban them would get elected - unfair, but true.

Absolutely this.

I don't think all drugs should be legal, but I do think that that drug laws should be reviewed and rationalised based on science.

Legalising (some drugs) does not make it a free for all; I would assume that like alcohol, there would be a lot of restrictions around its manufacture, especially more dangerous ones (spirits) - you're not allowed to set up a distillery without a lot of paperwork. You can’t sell alcohol without a license. You can’t buy it if you're under 18. You can’t do things like drive if you've been drinking (not legally, at least; obviously it does happen.) Being drunk on duty would be gross misconduct in every job I've ever had.

If drug control laws were changed, I would expect them to be similarly controlled and restricted, and alcohol and tobacco should be part of it all. I'd be happier to consume drugs that I knew had been through some control process and that I knew the strength of, like you see on beer and cider and wine and spirits labels. It wouldn't eliminate under-age use (many of us will have sneaked a fag round the back of school and been drinking before we were 28.) It wouldn't eliminate crime (there's plenty of that around alcohol and tobacco still,) but there's already a lot of time and money spent on fighting drug-related crime (and smuggling of otherwise legal alcohol and tobacco,) but it would reduce it, and would generate tax income. It wouldn't eliminate all harms and addiction, but we already have a lot of support for addicts who want help, drugs and alcohol, and going back my alcoholic mother, if they don't want help, it won't matter how much is out there.

Lots of people go out at weekends and have a few drinks without becoming addicted; others wreck their own lives and those of other people. Same happens with illegal drugs. Legality doesn't change this. (Same with abortion, as someone said upthread. You don't stop them, you just stop them being safe and legal.)

I wouldn't expect every drug to be legalised. I would expect some to be strictly controlled within medical settings, as is currently the case - opiates have always been massive important in pain management, for example. It's ridiculous that medical research into drugs like cannabis wasn't allowed for so long. And decisions around legality should be based on actual research into known risks, not on whether it's a vote-winner or not, but no political party will go for that,because they want votes more.

Any habit that is purely hedonistic, potentially addictive, and relatively costly is going to attract some stigma, particularly if indulged in on a regular basis, likely to make the person indulging in it less in control of their faculties, potentially hazardous to their health, and illegal. Not everyone approves of alcohol consumption, either.

"addiction, not recreational use"?
The way I see it, it's just verbal acrobatics to mean "these addicts still have some control over their addiction".
I can't see anything "unfair" about out being cautious when dealing with addicts be them plain addicts or "addicts-light".
Although, to be fair, dishonesty and short-term thinking is far from being the reserve of drug addicts.

If you take drugs with weeks, months or even years in between, I'd say that's definitely recreational not addicted. Not just verbal acrobatics.

Is everyone who drinks only at weekends addicted to alcohol?

ZOMBIE THREAD

This explains it very well.

It might not be fair to assume she would steal, but she can’t expect people to not bother about her drug use.

How muchalcohol are you drinking on a night out!

I probably wrote the same earlier in the thread lol, but I think there should be more of a widespread stigma about it.

I've read through this whole thread. And im now thinking most mumsnet members have no idea about the real world.
I know drug takers. I know alcoholics.i know addicts. And I also know recreational drug takers.
Most comments here have no idea. At all.
My friend that is the best social worker you could ever meet. Has a blow out maybe 4 times a year. Cocaine. So what? Her kids aint about. She's amazing.
My god friend smokes weed daily. The best dad you'll ever meet.
My brother, a hereon addict for years. Pdf it now. But never stole in his life.
Some of you need to live in the real world.

@Clarissa111 You do you but I will never, ever have a close friend who does any drugs again.

It's not a lack of awareness of the world, I know there are a fair few people who use drugs to some extent. But they will never, ever be in my life to any serious extent for long.

Just because there are people who do it doesn't make it ok to me.

I tell you what carries an unfair stigma. Schizophrenia. Induced by smoking weed. Repeated sectioning, psychosis, not being able to hold down a job or live independently. There is a mental health crisis in this country because a significant number of young people are genetically predisposed to developing psychosis. Through smoking weed.