How old were you when you first smoked dope?

[Clodfobble]

Big nerd here, never done any illegal substances (except underage alcohol, I suppose.) I made up for it by being very promiscuous.

[Pie]

Still don't know what the damn stuff smells like.

[Radar]

When I got divorced, I got on a slightly self-destructive cycle and tried pretty much everything but crack and heroin and even made a few thousand bucks at raves.

More than my share of Weed
Some Coke
A bit of Tweek
My share of Acid
A whole LOT of E
A little bit of K
A little bit of G

And I did all of this while keeping my full-time job, paying my bills, and without harming or endangering any non-consenting others. Nobody got hurt. Everyone had fun.

Then I got a bit older and my body took a lot longer to recover, so I stopped all but weed when I was living in California because I had a card and could buy it legally. It really helps out with the back and shoulder pain.

I've never done mushrooms or peyote, though I'd still try them if I had the chance.


All my life I was a teetotaler and thought drugs were horrible. Then when I tried them I found that they weren't such a scary thing and a lot of what was being said about them was lies. Then one day, I had... for lack of a better term...a religious experience. Something that brought crystal clarity to my life and the world around me and made me a better person. I feel fortunate that this happened for me. I know a lot of people who are born, live 90 years and die who aren't lucky enough to find the peace I found that day... December 26, 2000. I feel bad that it took drugs for me to have this enlightenment or moment of clarity or whatever else you want to call it, but it helped me break through the walls I had put up for myself, and allowed me to drop the burden of the garbage I had been carrying around for a long time from being abused as a kid and having several relationships with women who treated me like crap. I realized it was all my own fault. And my parents or women had treated me badly because I allowed them to.

On that day I decided that while I want everyone to be happy, the only person whose happiness I have any control over is my own and no matter what happens, I'm going to make myself happy. Other people are attracted to happy people.

After that day, my family said there was something different about me, and I look happier, and healthier. It was really a life-altering crossroads for me and I have drugs to thank for it.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Radar

When I got divorced, I got on a slightly self-destructive cycle and tried pretty much everything but crack and heroin and even made a few thousand bucks at raves.

More than my share of Weed
Some Coke
A bit of Tweek
My share of Acid
A whole LOT of E
A little bit of K
A little bit of G

And I did all of this while keeping my full-time job, paying my bills, and without harming or endangering any non-consenting others. Nobody got hurt. Everyone had fun.

Then I got a bit older and my body took a lot longer to recover, so I stopped all but weed when I was living in California because I had a card and could buy it legally. It really helps out with the back and shoulder pain.

[Radar]

I didn't do them all at once Merc! And I usually only did anything on the weekends.

[Sundae]

16. And I puked up all over the outside steps of the pub I was in. My friends had to wash them down (humiliating at the time, makes perfect sense to me now.)

Put me off for a long while (I will suffer for hours rather than throw up - I have an extreme aversion to it.) It was more because I was not a smoker and because I was thin as a stick and had had lord knows how many brany & Babychams... Yeah - 16. That's village pubs for you.

The next time I tried it, I was in my 20s. I told the guys I was with about my previous experience (we'd done E together, so I trusted them) and they thought it was cute. I learned then that my real reaction was to get sleepy and cuddly - which was much appreciated by them. Good job I fancied them! FTR - nothing untoward happened there & then, we just cuddled & kissed a bit. I had a thing with one of them for a long time afterwards though.

This aspect of Cherry stoned was used by my ex-housemate's BF years later. I was sposed to be packing to move out (took me two months in the end) and he'd knock on the door in the afternoon, invite me downstairs to partake. He had a foot fetish - I assume - at any rate I'd get cabbaged (doesn't take much) and he'd end up massaging my feet/ painting my toenails/ sucking my toes... I didn't fancy him, but I admit I never learned to turn him down either.

[Undertoad]

That last line turns a good story into a great one, SG!

[Aliantha]

Thanks for your honesty ladies and gents.

I should probably say I was about 19 when I first tried it. My then b/f gave me a cone laced with hash and I was off my face to the point where I couldn't walk or talk. All I could do was slump over the toilet bowl and barf my guts up. It was a long time before I tried it again after that, and it was just on a social basis. I've only ever bought it once or twice.

Just FYI, I started this poll because Aden came home stoned last Friday night. I wanted to get a bit of a feel for what the 'norm' is to be doing it.

He's only just turned 13. Apparently he's been getting stoned with the local gang for the last 6 months or so on a semi-regular basis. We knew something was going on, but wanted to wait and catch him red handed (eyed) so to speak.

Anyway, I might post more about that situation if anyone's interested. Needless to say, the end result is that he's grounded for a substantial period of time.

[capnhowdy]

What's dope?

[piercehawkeye45]

18. I used to smoke almost everyday and I've dropped acid.

I got permanent visuals (trails behind moving objects) last summer so I quit hallucinogenics all together. I will occasionally smoke weed but that is only for a good occasion since my vision will be crazy for the next week or so.

[morethanpretty]

I only have a couple of friends who smoke, I've tried it twice with them in the past year. I've had so many breathing problems lately I should really stay away even if they offer again.

[Juniper]

15. I had a boyfriend I adored, and when I found out he did that stuff, decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." From then till I was 22, I was pretty much a pothead, everyday. Did plenty of other things too - acid, coke, pills, shrooms a few times.

Then I turned 22 and suddenly it just felt different. Felt like I needed to be responsible, stop taking chances with my brain. I quit everything except drinking. I don't regret it, but I sure don't regret quitting either.

I have a 13 year old too, Ali. She has acquaintances (not friends) who drink, and a friend whose other friends smoke pot - but my girl would SO not do that stuff. Sure, you think I just believe that because it's my little girl -- but you'd have to know her. She's Ms. Dedicated Wholesome Girl, won't even kiss a boy, gets uncomfy when they put their arm around her and calls them clingy. Never been in trouble - I mean NEVER, at school anyhow. She's an athlete (cheer, gymnastics), can't stand smoke of any kind. She has however expressed a taste for the communion wine.

My 11 year old son, OTOH, I'd expect this from him. Not yet, but in a couple years maybe. Good thing we've BTDT. My parents were pretty clueless.

[Aliantha]

I get where you're coming from Juni. My younger boy who is 12 I'm almost certain wouldn't do that. He's right into sport and fitness and doesn't have time for doing stupid stuff like dope and like your daughter, he's really not interested in the opposite sex either. I'm thankful for that right now. Aden is far too interested in girls and other things that're likely to get him into trouble.

I think he's going to try really hard not to be following the other kids from now on though. Quite a few of them have stopped by since he's been grounded and so we've all had an opportunity to talk the situation over. Some of them are suggesting that they're going to not do it anymore either and so we've put the offer out for them to hang out here any time they like if the others would rather get stoned. I figure if I can encourage a few of them to kick the habit and support each other in their efforts then they might be able to deal with the peer pressure a bit better.

Who knows though. Maybe I'm fooling myself. I hope not though, and I can't afford to think like that. I have to be positive about it and work on getting the relationship between Aden and us (his family) back on the rails because it has suffered over the last bit of a while and we take some of the responsibility for that on ourselves. I think maybe we expected too much from him (and his brother), but hindsight is always 20/20 vision.

eta: The kids all keep asking me how i knew and I suggested to them that I'd been around the block a thousand times more than they had so far. You can't kid a kidder kind of thing I guess. It's just a case of BTDT as you said Juni. My parents like yours were clueless. Specially my Mum. THe whole drug scene hasn't really changed much since I was younger though, so it's pretty easy to keep up.

Back to the drawing board with the whole drug education stuff though. Here was me living in a dreamland thinking I'd got my kids covered and loe and behold, I was delusional. Such is life though. Even parents don't always get it right the first time.

[Radar]

I won't lie to my daughter. I'll tell her I've tried a lot of things. I'll tell her the real dangers, and what's been lied about like weed. I'll tell her that I know these things first hand and she should be honest with me because I will always be honest with her.

It's like of like Steve Martin in the movie Leap of Faith, when he's confronted with all of the crimes he's done by the police....

He says...

Everything you said is true; absolutely true. Yes I was born to lowly circumstances. Yes, I ran with a bad crowd that taught me to smoke weed and steal. I hung out in bars and I hotwired cars. I grew up mistreated, so I lied and I cheated. I learned hard crime, and I served hard time. I have walked that crooked road, and I have danced with the demon Satan.

I've been face down in the gutter and looked up into the face of God. And I say to you tonight, if you want to give up the bottle, who you gonna talk to? Someone whose never touched a drop? And if you wanna give up womanizing, who you gonna talk to? Some pale-skinned virgin priest? If you wanna give up sin, and I believe everyone here tonight wants to give up sin, who can lead you off that crooked road?

You need a real sinner people. A sinner of such monumental proportions that all your sins wrapped up in one, couldn't possibly equal the sin of this king of sin. Because you know, if he can walk that straight and righteous path, if he can go from grit to grace, from sin to sanctity, from lowliness to holiness, that you with all your every day sins, can rise up like an Angel and ride that golden elevator to God's own penthouse in the sky.

[Sundae]

Ow, Ali! I think you're handling this extremely well.
Despite my memories of things I'd never have let the 'rents know when I was growing up, this seems way too adult for your little boy to handle. Yes, I know he's not a little boy, but this person halfway round the world remembers him in your wedding photos...

Good for you for talking and trying to sort things out. Maybe it's even better at this age? Just because it's less about becoming an adult and more about sensual pleasure? Meh - what do I know. You know ankle biters aren't my thing. Just good luck and I hope your boy's intelligence wins out. I'm not suggesting dope makes you stoopid, but dope too young has to have an effect on your ambition and the crowd you hang out with.

FTR (and ETA as it happens) the only person I knew who started smoking young was a chap called Simon. Two years younger than me - we had an odd group of friends caused by proximity on school buses - 15 and 17 with no in betweens. He lived in a HUGE house. His Dad was somehow connected with a nearby American base. He was amazingly confident, sexually active, had tried pretty much every drug I'd ever heard of at that time and made me very uncomfortable. I remember a time round a friend's house, when his parents were away. Simon crashed the party, then we all got snowed in (really, I was homesick for normality by the time I escaped.) It was like Martin Amis' Dead Babies, if you've ever read that. He made my life a misery over those few days - the only break I got was when he took acid and spent all afternoon in the bath with two girls of his own age.

Wouldn't you know - years later someone told me he fancied the pants off me. He was intimidated by the way I talked about books & poetry (I was pretty up-myself back then) and did everything he could to try & impress me. Hmmm. I still think he was a shit.

Anyway, he was expelled halfway through his A Levels (16-18 year old education) and I grinned. Didn't know him by then, but I am a champion grudge-bearer. Truth is, he probably "made it". Much as he pissed me off, he had the chutzpah to succeed.