teens and drugs

Bazey

Robin_TBW wrote: »

Smoke it all while she's out.

or

Lie to her and tell her one of the younger kids found it and ate it. Get her feeling guilty.

I'd go for both options, just for a laugh.

kaya

glitter_fairy wrote: »

I have a criminal record, I suffer from mental health problems which has been linked back to my drug use. I have 2 friends who eneded up in mental health facilities and are still there from their drug use. I had to change careaers due to my convictions, i got beaten up so badly I had a miscarriage after I had stopped taking drugs by my ex dealer because i wouldnt take the any more.

Thats the sort of thing I dont want happening to her

Sounds like something a tad more serious than weed ?
On the flip side I have smoked weed every day for 30 years( decided to stop smoking it a few months back as I'm going to be a daddy soon) , taken huge amounts of coke, speed, LSD,, MDMA, ecstasy, ketamine , prescription Valium, fentanyl, OxyContin, morphine, buprenorphine ( prescribed drugs were all for chronic and acute pain) , by far the worse of all the drugs I ever took was tobacco and it had me hooked for 25 years , everything else I dropped when I felt like it , no repercussions , no mental health issues etc. , to date 3 of my friends have committed suicide and they were all on prescribed drugs not illegal ones , you sound like you have had a colourful and eventfull journey through life so please use your valuable and hard earned experience and knowledge to try to guide your stepdaughter in the right direction
, I'm sure when you were her age if somebody had tried to lay down the law you would have told the, exactly where to go? I know I would have

valk_scot

I remember my mum finding what she thought was cannabis resin in my room when I was a teen. I told her I would have had to rob a bank to afford a piece that size, it was a block of henna. I don't think she was entirely convinced until I started plastering it on my hair.

Dried henna smells exactly like weed btw. Yes, I tried it at uni, just like most of my generation. That was about as far as it went though for the vast majority of us, I certainly never tried anything stronger and the last time I had any was in 1981. It's not inevitable that smoking weed leads you straight onto harder drugs.

I do agree though that any drugs (including cigarettes, alcohol and medicinal drugs) shouldn't be left around where younger children can get their hands on them.

Gavin83

From about the ages of 18 to 24 I took a wide range of drugs on a regular basis. To be honest I don't regret it for a second. I had some great times, made many good friends and generally enjoyed the whole experience. I never really had any problems and neither did any close friends. However you do have to show some restraint. I do know of people who died from drugs because they simply took it too far. It's like anything, some people seem to have a naturally addictive personality and these people can fall into problems. Still the same could be said for legal things such as drinking and gambling too. The problem is you don't know what group you'll fall into until you try it.

I would probably approach it from the 'young children in the house' angle as thats completely reasonable and she should understand. You can discuss your own experiences if you wish but essentially she'll make her own choices. If you shout and scream at her about it she'll just do it behind your backs.

dibuzz

Judi wrote: »

I don't know what weed smells like

Me neither, when people say "can you smell weed?" I feel a bit of a wimp saying that I don't know what it smells like so I usually just say I've got a blocked nose

thorsoak

I too have known people like Kaya (post #23) and Gavin 83 (post #25) who have had absolutely no problems when they've given up - and for quite a few years later.

Sadly I lost four friends last year to COPD/lung canccer - none of them smoked anything but weed (for 10+ years - but who had given up more than 20 years ago). Their marijuana habits of all that time ago had caused their deaths in their 50s.

My children are late 30s/early 40s - and amongst their old school friends there are far more who have mental health problems than I would have expected - far more than amongst my school friends at the same age.

Taking any mind-changing substances - drugs or alcohol - is akin to walking in a minefield - no-one knows just how they will affect an individual, nor when

lostinrates

I too have lost friends from smoking weed. Two. One was already suffereing depression, the other only "lost it' after smoking. He had a rapid and extreme reaction, I am CERTaIN he only used cannabis, and I am sure his effects were extreme and rare. Losing a friend who went from gorgeous to looking dreadful (serious physical changes) and then dead in under a year was life changing for me. Like smoking and alcohol, I consider weed a greatly underrated drug in terms of damage it can do.

Lots of our friends still smoke, and are grounded people, ranging from the ' normal' to those we but they cannot see run 'slower' than they used to. These include truely brilliant men and women, who have had options to do anything, but coast along the middle, saying how great their lives are and not realising how much slower they are to talk to. Fine, nice, we still care for them, but no longer the cuttingly sharp minds they had with relaxed but very much their ambition. In our personal circle I would say the extreme effects are rare, the absolutely no effect that we can see are rare and the 'slight dulling of wit' but remaining so far 'healthy' is most common. We are in our mid thirties. I am both interested and hopeful that it will look similar, or better, in twenty years. Our older family friends from the Beat Generation don't instil us with hope though.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Simple - what you do outside the house is your business, but I don't want it in the house. Deal? (And if not, it gets chucked out).



Quite frankly, it doesn't matter how many times somebody recounts their unpleasant experiences or how tabloid like they are; much like hearing a 12 stepper recount their story, it's really not interesting to anybody else, no matter how desperately important it is to the people telling it. That isn't meant directly at you, but anybody who believes that the other person will listen if they're told exactly how bad things were five, ten, twenty or forty years ago.

peachyprice

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Quite frankly, it doesn't matter how many times somebody recounts their unpleasant experiences or how tabloid like they are; much like hearing a 12 stepper recount their story, it's really not interesting to anybody else, no matter how desperately important it is to the people telling it. That isn't meant directly at you, but anybody who believes that the other person will listen if they're told exactly how bad things were five, ten, twenty or forty years ago.

I don't agree with that at all, it's far too much of a generalisation.

It depends on how you speak to the other person. If you go all guns ablazing forbidding a 19yo to do something and telling them that this it what will happen and generally treating them like a naughty child, then yes, they're not going to listen and are going to do it all the more.

If you speak to them as an adult, tell them this is what could happen, to enjoy but be careful, they're far more likely to think about what you have told them, perhaps not immediately, but certainly at some point.

Carl31

I spent the best part of the age 17 - 25 completely off my tits. I know the appeal of drugs, and i do believe that with some common sense and making sure infomation that is available is understood, you can mitigate some of the risk of drug use

I would mention to your daughter that you are aware of the situation, state your view and why, but also do not victimise her, if she knows things are cool at home, she might be more open and you can monitor the situation better.

Teens take drugs its part of life, more so nowdays due to the expense of fags and alcohol. The drugs to worry about are these new synthetic substances from china, the legal ones, at least old school drugs have some research and experience of them