Teens and drugs

[Redballjets88]

Originally posted by Ellyllions
I was fortunate enough to spend the whole day out with my 17 year old son yesterday. It was a good day. He's got a job, a girlfriend, and going into his senior year in high school; so naturally my time with him is minimal. Conversations have never been a problem for us as I've always kept an open mind with him and tried not to judge him and let him make decisions with as much candor as I can muster.

We had a very interesting conversation in reference to drugs that surprised me enough to want to tell other parents about it.

I had no idea how prevalent cocaine was amongst teens. I went into the conversation thinking that he'd say pot, ecstatsy, maybe even meth. But that wasn't the information I got at all. Well, not entirely anyway.

According to him, pot is so commonplace that he (and most of the teens he knows) believes that the teachers know that most kids smoke it on the school grounds. He told me that he's seen teachers watching or even walking by kids with lit joints in their hands and chose not to do anything about it.

But the drug that is the most prevalent on his school campus is cocaine. That shocked me because cocaine is so expensive. But according to him, if a kid at his school is doing anything it's most likely cocaine.

Yeah, I'm writing the school aministration about it, but I'm waiting until he graduates. Why? Well, in this school system the kids who have parents who try to make a difference are the ones who are punished, made examples of, interrogated, and ostracised. No joke. I had an issue a while back and had a Principal say to me, "If I punish these kids for this, they get nothing more than some extra time on the street. However, if I punish your child, you'll actually teach him something."

It might be differenet where you are from, but, as a 19 year old that just graduated Coke is around and many still see it as being a "hard drug". Pot is very common and 90% of teens would say it's not that big of a deal. The things that scare me the most are people that use meth or abuse pills. I have had a personal friend throw his life away over meth, and just last week another friend overdosed on a mix of quad bars (xanax) and alcohol. stuff like this is totally ridiclous and I hate it. I have smoked before and I don't see me doing it as a big deal because I'm resonsible enough to not let it affect my life other than at the moment, while at the same time I stopped because I don't see it as a smart thing to be doing since I will be starting college this month. As stupid as it sounds I know people that have let pot change their lives, it is sad to see. Since my friends funeral myself and my close friends that knew him have stopped drinking and things of that sort because the cons out weigh the pros ten fold. It just sucks that it takes someone dying for some people to change, myself and my close friend have never been hard into anything, just a few beers here and there, but a lot of people I know need to change their ways or else they will be the next statistic. Ecstasy is big in some crowds, coke is big in some, and pills are big in others, it just depends on what group and where the location is. In general drugs aren't worth the time or risk involved.

[BALLYJUNKIE]

NOBODY SAYS " I WANT TO BE A JUNKIE ,WHEN I GROW UP " !!!

[Nitro Express]

One thing that kept me away from hard drugs is I knew the scum of the earth ran the black market that sold them. I didn't want to give them my business and secondly, I saw what they did to people. If you died early on you suffered less.

You mentioned Marajuana not being a big deal. Here's the problem with pot. It's illegal in the US. That means the scum of the earth take over the trade. Scum that want you to be an addicted customer. Don't tell me they don't lace the pot with stronger drugs to keep you comming back. It's a money thing.

If we made pot legal and regulated it there would be good quality safe pot available to smoke at lower prices.

We tried making alcohol illegal and that was a dissaster creating huge gang wars and putting rich mobsters in control.

Maybe if people could get their pot fix legally they wouldn't be introduced to the harder stuff.

[svrwthr]

$100.00 for an 8-ball in 83 and we cut it with not meth but baking soda. The hopped up fucks didn't know what pure coke was. They already thought they were getting that. Easily sell 2-3 lines wrapped in nice square paper at $10 a line and easily make back that hundred without denting that 8-ball. Baking soda a whole lot cheaper than adding additional drugs like meth and teenagers didn't and still don't know the difference. Watch your kids mom. look for small squares of paper thrown away. As a father and a clean ex-user for 16 years, I keep my eyes open. Daughter is 12 and already telling me who the kids are selling pot and I will be hunting them down this up coming school year. That is the age I started on pot btw.

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by svrwthr
$100.00 for an 8-ball in 83 and we cut it with not meth but baking soda. The hopped up fucks didn't know what pure coke was. They already thought they were getting that. Easily sell 2-3 lines wrapped in nice square paper at $10 a line and easily make back that hundred without denting that 8-ball. Baking soda a whole lot cheaper than adding additional drugs like meth and teenagers didn't and still don't know the difference. Watch your kids mom. look for small squares of paper thrown away. As a father and a clean ex-user for 16 years, I keep my eyes open. Daughter is 12 and already telling me who the kids are selling pot and I will be hunting them down this up coming school year. That is the age I started on pot btw.

Shit. Mix a few cents of coke or meth into some baking soda and you can sell Arm and Hammer for a fortune! No wonder Scarface lived so well in that movie!

[Nitro Express]

The thing about those kids selling pot. They have their supplier and there's always something else the industry wants you kid to be hopped up on.

I don't by my liquor from some moonshiner that has dead rats and rat shit in the mash and the still has lead solder joints in it. Nope, I would rather buy from a reputable supplier and pay my taxes.

Why not do it for pot? Heck, sell cheeba at the liquor store. LOL! Tax it and use the proceeds to run rehab centers for the addicts. People are going to smoke it.

[binnie]

Originally posted by Ellyllions
Nitro, I've taken the same approach. I've told my boy that he should do NOTHING in life without understanding the cause and effect. I told him that if I find out that he's tried anything before he moves out of this house, we (meaning he and I) shall be visiting the local AA or Al-non chapter just to sit in on meetings.

It's just education. Ya know?

That's a really good approach. I especially like you focus on AA.

I think we need to remember that although it's legal, alcohol can fuck you up beyond belief. The advertising around it today hides that fact - the physical and mental effects of alcoholism aren't stressed enough.

[rocknrolldork]

Originally posted by binnie
That's a really good approach. I especially like you focus on AA.

I think we need to remember that although it's legal, alcohol can fuck you up beyond belief. The advertising around it today hides that fact - the physical and mental effects of alcoholism aren't stressed enough.

Alcohol fucked up my favorite band for 22 years.

[Ellyllions]

I feel that alcohol is the real gateway drug.

When you talk to an addict (of anything) most of them start the addiction conversation with "I started drinking when I was XX years old", don't they?

I guess because drinking is eventually legal for us, it is the easiest place to start.

[Angel]

I think cigarettes are the first gateway, then alcohol.

I did my first hit of acid before I smoked pot, but I'd already been drinking for awhile.

Alcohol destroyed my marriage, and I've seen too many lives that it has ruined. I hate the shit, so does my son.

My mother is 72 years old today and she's the first one to say that they fucked up and that alcohol should be illegal, and weed should be legal. She won't stand having my brother around if he's drinking, but she has no problem watching me head outside to smoke a joint with her grandson (my son, who is 23 before you freak)

I'm amazed, Elly that you weren't more aware...

[Ellyllions]

I just didn't expect it to be Cocaine that is so prevalent.

Cocaine is expensive and considered a "designer drug".
I'm getting more aware from this thread though.

[Redballjets88]

Originally posted by Angel
I think cigarettes are the first gateway, then alcohol.

I did my first hit of acid before I smoked pot, but I'd already been drinking for awhile.

Alcohol destroyed my marriage, and I've seen too many lives that it has ruined. I hate the shit, so does my son.

My mother is 72 years old today and she's the first one to say that they fucked up and that alcohol should be illegal, and weed should be legal. She won't stand having my brother around if he's drinking, but she has no problem watching me head outside to smoke a joint with her grandson (my son, who is 23 before you freak)

I'm amazed, Elly that you weren't more aware...

I don't see how you can condone your son using a mind altering substance that isn't good for him in general.

[Ellyllions]

One joint has the toxins and tar of 3 cigarettes.

[katie]

Originally posted by Angel
I think cigarettes are the first gateway, then alcohol.

I did my first hit of acid before I smoked pot, but I'd already been drinking for awhile.

Alcohol destroyed my marriage, and I've seen too many lives that it
has ruined. I hate the shit, so does my son.

My mother is 72 years old today and she's the first one to say that they fucked up and that alcohol should be illegal, and weed should be legal. She won't stand having my brother around if he's drinking, but she has no problem watching me head outside to smoke a joint with her grandson (my son, who is 23 before you freak)

I'm amazed, Elly that you weren't more aware...

Welcome to Angel's world

[binnie]

Originally posted by Ellyllions
I feel that alcohol is the real gateway drug.

When you talk to an addict (of anything) most of them start the addiction conversation with "I started drinking when I was XX years old", don't they?

I guess because drinking is eventually legal for us, it is the easiest place to start.

From the people I've known who've become addicts, it was never the booze that really hooked them. Over here (where the legal age of drinking is 18) I'd say that regualr drinking is a part of most teens from the ages of 15-16: I remember at my school we used to go out to bars several nights a week and just get hammered, but no-one became an addict.

Those people I've known who did get hooked started on pot, I mean heavy use of pot. It wasn't that they NEEDED something harder, it was that the dealers they hung around with offered them something harder, and once you are already under the influence of one drug, you are more likely to try another. For some people, that's when the downward spiral begins. What I'm trying to say is, becoming addicted was a product of their environment, and the company they kept rather than their first experience of a given drug.

Having said that in my late teens/early 20s I tried a lot of drugs (never heroin, crack or meth), but only ever recreationally. It was only ever an "added extra" to a night, rather than an end in itself, and I could never have imagined taking drugs during my college/work day just as I could never imagine drinking during thoses times either.

And let me assure anyone who has never taken cocaine: it's overrated. In fact, I found that most drugs are. But that's just my opinion, and it's probably because I need to be in control all of the time.

Haven't taken an illegal drug for four years. And, with the odd exception, I've pretty much quit drinking for two years as well. Like I said, I need to be in control and I'd rather spend my money on other things.