It just kind of rubs me in the wrong way to see such a cavalier attitude to something so potentially dangerous. Even with what I classified as "as needed" I wound up on a constant 10mg+/day habit of alprazolam blotters because as you described I just didn't care because the drug was making it nearly impossible for me to due so. The withdrawals from that were like no other and I now respect the entire spectrum of benzos as a result, it's incredibly rare for me to actually require the drug to keep myself from having panic attacks.
Which points to you lacking in the second essential part in the equation to responsible drug use: knowing your own personal limits/self. That first part, if you don't remember, is sensible moderation, which is done through knowing as much as possible about the substance you're consuming and actively using that knowledge to control your habit to a minimally adverse level.
Having gone through the seizures, irritability, sweating, lack of sleep, nausea etc that the potential withdrawals can bring upon someone so easily I find myself trying to encourage people to not travel the same path as often as possible.
Your concern is touching. People need to lead their own lives, though. The best we can do is teach and encourage, and hope that others make the right choices. That's not the
only thing by any means, but it is best.
Harm reduction is ineffective when you have to wish withdrawals on a person for them to appreciate the power of a mind-altering drug. That's going to get shrugged off as an eloquently-put but very deliberate "fuck you, buddy." That's how I would take it, anyways, if someone even implied I should experience severe w/d's.
If you wanted to encourage him off your traveled path, you should've explained that in detail. What you went through, and why. Honest explanations work much better than versions of "Trust me, bro, I know these things."
[EDIT: Though I do agree with the disagreement about how.... cavalier, you said? How cavalier a young person could be about something so different than what this forum is designed to discuss. No drug should be idolized, ever. That's, like.... fuck, I'm actually at a loss of words.... That's just bad. The first bad domino in a long line of progressively worse and worse dominoes.]
On-topic: Started smoking when I was 13, got expelled/arrested in the same incident my freshman year, labeled a pothead and just went with it. Daily smoking since I could afford it.... maybe 15 or 16 or so, though back then I was a much more social smoker.
I still smoke with other people, I just always have a large stash on hand these days, compared to the days of four guys coming together off the schoolbus with 5 bucks each to go share a bag of weed. Back then I was kind of forced to smoke with other people more often than not. That situation's been totally reversed nowadays, though.