When I was young, when other people were praising the joys of whatever drug they had just discovered, I would wonder why they were so desperate to escape their everyday reality for hours on end.
Yes, reality can be pretty grim, but I never had the wish to escape from it. I wanted to experience it and deal with it, however difficult it might be. Drugs seemed not so much an escape as running away.
I did try dope twice, and LSD twice, but they didn't do anything for me. As a result, I was put off drugs for good.
Apart from anything else, you don't know exactly what's being handed to you. The content of the drugs isn't verified and depending what's in them, they could be lethal. There are plenty of grieving parents out there wishing their dead daughter or dead son had never been tempted by someone's chance offering.
The only drugs I favour come over the pharmacy counter.
I never had a death wish, so not something I was ever interested in trying.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: I think a lot of young people simply can't envisage death and blithely assume that whatever they're being offered is harmless.
DeleteNick
ReplyDeleteEspecially in the cultural milieu and artistic world drugs have alwasy been a part of it. I'm not as optimistic as you concerning the pharmacy counter. I know what dramatic effects had Thaliodomide and do not forget that Fentanyl started behind the pharmacy counter, even if today produced illegally in Mexico by the drugs mafia. I took one or two drugs , but was never addict As a student in Paris in 1968 you couldn't escape.
Hannah
Hannah: Sure, some prescription drugs can turn out to be highly dangerous, but there are many life-saving drugs that benefit millions of people. Yes, I can imagine the pressure to take fashionable drugs in 1968.
DeleteI was of the right age at a turbulent time. I was definitely part of the "hippy" culture. I didn't touch cocaine or heroin. I have no regrets of those days. I came out of my shell during that time. I wouldn't do it now but we did have fun back in the day. It wasn't all about drugs. It was camaraderie.
ReplyDeleteSandra: True, we had fun back in the day. I was a lot more outgoing in the sixties. Great camaraderie indeed. And so much creativity and questioning.
DeleteI was a young married woman in the 1960s so our drug was alcohol. Never tried any of the other stuff.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: I cut right back on alcohol after a few shattering hangovers. It wasn't worth the inevitable morning-after suffering.
DeleteI only got drunk twice (neither time on purpose) and never had a hangover. I always figured if I was having a good time I wanted to be able to remember it. I don't drink at all now, though.
DeleteLinda
Linda: Good point about wanting to remember a good time. I remember being so drunk once that I remembered absolutely nothing for several hours. Luckily I never said anything reprehensible!
DeleteDo you mean the LSD didn't work, or that you simply didn't like the experience?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I got all my experimenting out of my system when I was very young.
Sx
Ms Scarlet: The first time I had a bad trip which was awful. The second time it didn't work. Maybe it wasn't pure LSD.
DeleteIn my case, for both drugs and alcohol, I had to keep from biting so I wouldn't be hooked. Nearly all my aunts and uncles, and nearly all my siblings, and both my parents, have had addictions.
ReplyDeleteHow bad? I remember my brother and I (as an adult he ended up getting arrested for driving drunk) saying to each other, "When we grow up, let's not have relatives."
Today most folks in AA meetings have drug issues too, but they try to keep the topic on alcohol.
Sean: I gather kicking an alcohol addiction is especially difficult, it has a much stronger hold on you than other drugs. Yes, let's not have relatives is an understandable sentiment. My own relatives have proved very difficult to get on with one way and another.
DeleteMy only experience was smoking a joint when in college and only a single evening. I felt so sick afterwards that trying it again was never on my agenda. I do not like any type of drugs, including the OTC variety and thankfully have not needed many of those over the years.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice: I've managed to avoid most prescription drugs except for one to keep my blood pressure down.
DeleteI've never done any illegal drugs. Never been tempted after having so many addicts in my family.
ReplyDeleteMary: A family full of addicts is a powerful incentive not to become the next one.
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