How old were you when you first smoked dope?

[Stormieweather]

I was about 15. I'd already started smoking and drinking a year or two earlier. My first drug was pot, but I was also given mescaline, heroin, and amphetamines. I didn't use regularly, but I did start selling various types of speed in school in return for a "commission" in the form of some for me. I did cocaine for the first time at approximately 17yrs old. I continued to use occasionally until I was in my mid-20's. Drinking and smoking cigarettes continued much, MUCH longer.

Amazingly enough, this was in spite of (or as a result of?) being very protected growing up. I was raised in a fundamental Christian home, went to private church schools, had no television or secular reading material and was extremely isolated until I was a teenager.

I finally quit drug usage when I noticed I was losing some mental capacity - memory, comprehension, analytical abilities. Three times since my 20's, I've done some type of drug on a single occasion, but the risk is simply not worth it, to me. My children, my life, my freedom, my mind, are much more important.