Drug use- what do you find acceptable?

[Rachmumoftwo]

There is a thread that has touched on this already. What is acceptable drug use in your eyes? Is it OK to smoke a little weed when the children are in bed, or take cocaine on weekends or holidays, or is it totally irresponsible to even entertain the idea of drug taking if you are a parent (or if you are planning to be)?

The problem is that it so often DOES go hand in hand with lies, deceit, pain etc etc etc. You could go on forever.

I think I hate them so much for the reasons you've given here beanie.

DSM

Why do I need to be educated? Is witnessing first hand the devestating consequences drug taking can bring not enough?!!

I will never forget the impact on so many peoples lives ONE persons addiction had!

TBH, Though I do think the risk of taking a drug that is a potential cocktail of goodness knows what is selfish and irresponsible thing for a parent to do, with no benefits that I can see, I hate cocaine because of the people it turned my friends into, because of the parents it turned them into.
Cocaine changes people, for the worst and that is worse than taking a pill IMO.

Strangely enough the only hard drug I have taken in the last 7years as a parent is ecstasy, at that moment in time I was being a twat, and not putting my children first.

Shame my dh's mate didn't take notice of the Government's scaremongering. Went into heart failure after taking Ecstacy and was lucky to survive.

I'm very anti-drugs.

cazcaz: I think it's reasonable to say that any addiction will have devastating effects on the the person, their family and their friends.

umberella: it certainly does, but again, so does any addiction, believe me. If you don't believe me, look at any of sites for alcohol and gambling addiction support. In the case of drugs it is arguably made worse by the fact that it is illegal so people will even more secretive and deceitful than they would be in any other addiction.

My sister lost her job, house, husband and child through a gambling addiction.

I would never say other people should not gamble, or that gambling is evil.

cestlavie, of course your right about any addiction, who is saying that other addictions aren't devestating. I wouldn't be happy if fastforward a decade my PFB was spending all his time in the bookies and stealing from his family who love him dearly to fund it!

Addiction is bad, terribly bad.

Safe, educated and enlightened drug use is not.

It's really that simple. Though I can understand why those who have lived with or had Addicts in their family may have very serious issues with drugs. However most people who take illegal drugs in the UK do so recreationally and with an understanding of what they do.

Even I, someone who is prone to worry about other people's drug choices, know that drugs are being consumed safely all over the country every day and that the scare stories are just that - SCARE stories.

VictorianSqualor - are these people, or were these people, using coke daily, weekly?

'recreationally' apparently.
Mostly friday/saturday nights.
I had enough when I had a BBQ, children there too, and though we all had a few beers I wasn't expecting to overhear someone talking about going to get some coke and come back to my house.
These people are no longer my friends.

See, VS that would bug me too. I have made it clear that I don't want that sort of thing happening in my house. Though I am not going to try to restrict what my friends and family do outside my house.

Wherever they take it coke turns people into twats!

Nothing more boring than someone gurning and disappearing to the toilet every so often and thinking they are oh so cool.

I'd like to think most people would grow up and realise it's shit and makes them look like cocks, I did, which is why I find it hard to understand anyone who still does it.

my acceptable drug use is half a joint once every 5 years or more

i have never considered it before - but going to aMN xmas meet up - slightly stoned would be great

I don't see anyone here saying it is OK to be under the influence when in charge of, or even around, children.

Two sets of opinions that I could see are:

(a) No amount of any drug is OK, ever.

(b) Infrequent use of most drugs is OK when not around children

i dont agree with drug taking whilst looking after children and if a parent is an addict they can get help if they want to and if they dont want the help they shouldnt become parents or find somewhere else that is safe and free of drugs for the children to live. how many times has there been cases in the paper where kids find their parents "stash" and copy what they have seen mummy or daddy doing. sorry im on my high horse!!!!

NEarly everyone is stupid about drugs. Whether it's the 'Waaah! I once stood next to someone smoking cocaine and my ringpiece fell off, drugs are eeeeevil' level of stupidity or the 'I take everything I can get my hands on before the school run and it doesn't do the kids any harm' most people would benefit from a few facts and a bit of perspective. Most of the problems associated with drug use stem from the illegaility of the drugs trade: decriminalisation with sensible information would fix a lot of this.
Those of you who think it's wrong for parents to take recreational drugs in case they drop dead on the spot: would you also forbid parents from potholing, parachute jumps, abseiling or hang-gliding? No on needs to do any of these things and you might die if you make a mistake with them...
Finally, are there really that many stupid people out there who want to teach their kids that you must Always Obey The Law rather than considering and questioning it? There have been many unethical and unworkable laws over the years that have only been changed by people willing to break them in large numbers.

I wouldn't bungee jump in case I died of fear, so no, I probably wouldn't take drugs now I'm a mum. I would not like to make my girls orphans through my own behaviour. Accidents happen, but let's not go looking for trouble.

Very good post Madamez.

Rach - life is about taking risks. Please don't let your children grow up to be so scared of everything that they never take risks, or chances, or try anything exciting.

Noone needs to go parachuting. But people do. You wouldn't want to not teach kids how to work the parachute, and hope they never try it?

Risk of death with most drugs (except heroin etc) is so low as to be essentially zero. Less than dying in a plane crash (1/1,000,000), much less than dying in a car crash (1/5,000).

The argument 'don't do drugs lest you kill yourself and what about your child then?' doesn't work because we all drive, fly on planes, etc - all activities with a much higher mortality rate than using drugs.

I've just read the first page, I agree mostly with VS. Personally I have never smoked a cigarette, I don't get drunk and I only drink a rare occasion anyway.

I agree with the Russian Roulette line from VS. Life can be like that, but it would be like playing Russian Roulette with two bullets - one is life one is drugs.

That's my personal decision, I'm not going to tell someone they shouldn't be doing drugs just because I don't do them. I don't have enough time or energy to worry about what other people put in their own bodies.

I said on the other thread (which I've put on hide because it's gone silly) most of the parents I know don't do drugs, but I do know some that do through my brother and they aren't people I would want to be friends with. Not because of their drug taking but because they're not nice people anyway. Most of the people I know are church friends or from support groups. People who wouldn't be afraid to talk about where they've been.

Now this one is going on hide too cause I really don't want to get into debating it.