Kids and drugs

I don't care if i sound like a twilight years, grandpa that can't get a grip on the "youth of today," but seriously, i'm absolutely shocked by the use of drugs by pre-teen and early teenage kids. And i'm not pining about experimentation with cannabis, alcohol or cigs. I'm talking about 12yo's popping pills and dumping acid. When i was at high school (which was not THAT long ago), the "druggie cliche" emerged somewhere during year 8 (so about 14yo's). But this was mainly confined to pot and alcohol, certainly no eccy consumption. I think at about 16-17, people began playing around with e's, lsd, speed.
However, now i'm hearing ever increasing reports of drug use filtering through to upper primary school. On a recent visit back to my old high school, i was approached by the younger sibling (in year 7) of one of my HS friends, asking whether i would sell him some "meth". And i can assure you that the older sibling was not responsible for introducing this kid to drugs. I don't think i even knew what meth was when i was in year 7.
I don't know if many on this board will agree with me, but i think there is something drastically wrong with dabbling with drugs at what i consider to be a very young age. For starters i think its dangerous to the extent that i'd assume many of these youths don't know much about what it is they are ingesting or supposedly ingesting. Also, at that age i don't think i could deal with the emotional comedown. Finally, i think its sad that kids at that age feel that they need to supplement their lives with drugs.
I donno, maybe i'm just old fashioned, but i think there is definate danger in playing with drugs during the early stages of the formative years of your life.
What does everyone else think? What would you consider to be an acceptable age to experiment with drugs? Am i over-reacting, or have others noticed a trend for drug use to filter down to the younger age brackets? Should harm minimisation/drug education be introduced at an earlier age?

I think you are ight on target here. I think kids of today should stick to drinking and pot. That way they can get fucked up in the (safe?) kind of way. And when they get a bit older, they will have some idea of moderation.
I started on pills when I was 22. Only 23 now.

I took acid for the first time at 16, and only had a 2 more times after that until I turned 21, then I started taking pills. At 12-13 their bodies are still growing, it's gona do alot of damage to them. It's sad, but how can we change it? Sites like this are the only option to try and educate people I think.

Exactly.
I don't think its just on a physical level though. As porn* said, 12-13 yr old kids are NOT mature enough to handle the emotional and psychological load these drugs bring.
A 12 yr old on LSD? That is a scary thought. I'm still afraid of hallucinogens cos i don't know what may be in my brain and these kids probably don't have the slightest idea what it actually does, apart from "make me see shit!"
I think 12-13 is too young to be using any drug, perhaps at 14, depending on the maturity of the child, occasional alcohol and weed use wouldn't be THAT harmful. But you can't really generalize to a specific age because everyones different, and some can handle it, some can't.
But yeah, people shouldn't be taking pills or that kinda stuff till at least 15. Once again, depending on the maturity of the person.
Adikkal

Agree with you 100% Porn*
I myself am only 17, and in highschool and im pretty shocked by little yr 8's (no yr 7's yet) telling me about their weekends, how they dropped etc. I think its way to young.
I might sound like a hypocrite having dumped for the first time jsut after my 17th b-day (july last yr) but i only did so because i read up about it and felt physically and mentally cable to cope with it. And i have only dumpoed 5 more times since that (and i aint gonna be dumping this year due to HSC)
However on the terms of pot i think this drug is way way underestimated. There is a group of yr 8's 9's and 10's who are complete pot heads, half of which were bright eyed cheerfull nice to be around kids back when they were in years 7-8. But now they are addicts, and i dont care what ppl say about pot not being addictive, bs, these kids are addicts, the only thing they talk about is getting "buds" and smoking "buds", i myself never touch the stuff, it makes me sleeping and lethargic (not my cup'o'tea thanku) but these guys will rip through the stuff. They are constantly "bent" at school, during classes etc. a few of them have been expelled, the cops have come to the school numerous times due to them being caught with it or smoking it. Its sad, because nearly all of them now have deep seeded issues, depression, paranoia, addiction etc. Wherre as some bong heads i know who are 19 and have been smoking for 2 years dont seem to have as many issues, is this because they started older and can mentally handle it better?? I think so.
Pre teens shouldnt be doing any sort of drug related activity, 13-15's sure might have a drink or 2 and get pissed a few times, maybe have a j once or somthing, but not the amount kids are doing it at my school, its fucked and very very sad
My 2c (looking at the size of that maybe 3 :D )
[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: boom ]

They need to learn thier minds bfore they start fucking with them

Im 17, and i have had one pill, and i dont know what the hell im doing! It was only last weekend that i did it, but i have been thinking about doing it ever since utopia May 5th 2001! People are starting it young, and i hate to think 12 year olds are doing acid. But what can you do? This is their choice! So what u should do is post more things about what are the affects of taking it first go, i mean i was told ur pupils grow larger, mine went smaller. i had head spins, was a little more energtic then normal. But i wasnt thirsty or anything.. and i was wondering if this is normal. 8)

if you think back to when you first smoked dope, or got drunk why did you choose that drug over e? i know in my case (it's was a good 10 years ago or so), i first smoked dope because it was easily accessable, and my friends were doing it. i first got drunk not long after on strongbow, because they didn't taste like alcohol and I had a friend who could get it for me. if I had a friend at the time who could get e then i probably would have done e aswell. the fact was i didn't know there was a wonder drug called "ecstacy", at that time it wasn't so prevalent. i did my first e 2 years ago when i was 23, and by that stage i was concerned about what it might do to my brain. when i was younger i probably wouldn't have given it another thought.
i have 2 younger brothers, one of them is now 19 and did his first pill at new years. i didn't encourage him, nor did i introduce him to drugs. all i did was welcome him to the community, and try to impress on him the importance of moderation. as with my other younger brother, i will let him discover it for himself also.
so what's the moral of the story? i think that as you get older you get wiser (or stupider depending on the toxins put in your body when younger ). e is easily available, and if all the cool kids are doing it of course the year 7's are going to have a go - the same reason why some many kids take up smoking. the worst thing you can do is turn into the old add campaign that went along the lines of "say no to drugs"... they were funny then and achieved nothing, and probably still don't. telling someone they're too young to do something is not the way to prevent it happening, because it's going to happen anyway. all you can do is try to educate about safe use...and harm minimization.
Remember kids, "SAY NO TO DRUGS".

here fucking here.
agree 100%, and its one of the main reasons why i will not goto 'all ages' events.. the crowds keep on getting younger and younger every event.. its just not what you want to see

Say Know to Drugs
That should be everyone's motto.
Boom - It's a sad tale. And you're right, there is the potential in weed to fuck you up. But the simple fact is, it is NOT addictive.
Not in a physical sense.
It is however, psychologically addictive. And many people form a strong dependancy on weed which is very sad, because as you said, people can change dramatically because of it. But this is THEIR OWN FAULT. They started smoking, and they can stop. There is no physical barrier. It's all in the head.
Personally, i'm a weekend smoker. But in the hols i've been smoking nearly everyday. And i gots to say, the novelty of it wears off...
Stick to weekend smoking, you get more ripped off less weed, and it feels fresh and new.
Adikkal

I think it comes down to the fact that at such a young age their minds are still developing. Their brain chemistry is not yet determined and already they start to fuck with it.
I'm sure we all know of someone from school who hit it too hard too early. I can think of a few I know and their social skills are FUCKED, their minds are messed and they've short cut their future. Hypocritical of me I know, but I tend to agree; if kids who are really that young are mindlessly consuming even stronger drugs then its bad for everyone. Bad for them for obvious reasons, and bad for us because 12 year olds on crack shocks everyone including ourselves, giving drugs a very bad name.
[ 18 January 2002: Message edited by: Plague Bearer ]

Russ: No-one of the age in question should be getting 'fucked up', not with any drug...
Monie: What can we do? We can show people that they're making the wrong choice if they choose to take drugs when they're that young and immature...
As adikkal said, education is the key, we need to make people aware of the potential for abuse all drugs have, and we obviously need to do so from an early age...
Some people say that education would make some people aware of drugs who otherwise wouldn't be, and while this is true to some extent, those who aren't in the social circles to be exposed to drugs would more often than not be the kind of people who wouldn't experiment with drugs anyway... The uneducated 'rebellious' youth are those who are more likely to hurt themselves (and others) with their ignorance...
Fuck prohibition, fuck pussyfooting around trying to protect the poor innocent kiddies... They're going to kill themselves or leave the world with a sector of this generation who are burnt out little-less-than-vegetable sub-humans...
Meh... Come visit me in jail in a few years m'kay?

I have to disagree. I am 14 and have done weed(when I was 12), speed(13), salvia(14), xtc(14) and coke(14) and so have a lot of my friends who are of the same age. Before any of us do anything new we research it to the extreme, weigh out the pros and cons and make sure that we buy off a 'trusted' person. We all know our shit and don't do anything we are not 100% sure of and educated about. Im sure that there are a lot of people my age out there who are not doing things carefully and safely but I believe that could be said about any age group. I think that if someone has the maturity and knowledge to make a good descision(spelling) of when to say yes and when to say no that that is what their ability to handle and control their drug use should be based on.

Sowle: You are an exception. It's good that you follow the whole research policy. It's very heartening to know that you're not just takin anythin without knowing what it does. But the fact is, most people your age wouldn't be as responsible as you. And therefore fuck themselves up.
Personally i still think 14 is too young to be doin all the drugs that you are, because as has been mentioned, you're still maturing physically and mentally. But i can't stop you, and if you are going to do them, at least your doing it the right way.
Adikkal

the whole 'be educated' thing is nice, but no matter how educated u are, taking drugs is gonna fuck u up a bit/do damage. and anyway, reading, for example, that pills can harm your short term memory, and actually not being able to remember shit, are two very different things.
with the whole young kids thing, yea, its kinda hiporcitical (sp) to say 'i'm old enough to fuck with my head but your not', but what else can u do? if i had a young kid who was gonna take drugs, i'd be a fucking bastard if i had to to stop them.

Yeah, it's a scary thought that upper-primary school kids have access to 'harder' drugs like coke and pills, but what I want to know is where does a 13 yr old get $200 for a gram of Charlie, and what kind of asshole sells pills to kids who don't even have hair on their balls?

Sowle, you sound like one of the few who is mentally prepared for drug use at an early age. The problem is, you could seriously damage your body doind drugs @ 14. You are still in your major formative years, and you could cause yourself serious damage now, and in later life, by using drugs at this age.
If you MUST do drugs, and you are as smart as you sound, I hope you're keeping it to an absolute minimum (and no, I'm not talking about once a month here, more like once a year).
Remember, you can enjoy drugs later on in your life, but you'll never be able to enjoy being 14 again. (and trust me, there's so much stuff you can do @ 14 and just blame it on being young and stupid )

I think it is sad that childhood is so much shorter than it used to be. Being exposed to drugs, and all the highs and lows that go along with it is serious shit at any age. I think there is a loss of innocence that comes form using drugs, catapulting you out of childhood. I remember what it was like wanting to grow up quick, but nowadays I remember how naive I was as a child, and how blissful that could be.
I don't believe there is an age where you can say a person is ready to experiment with drugs - some 18 year olds can't handle alcohol, let alone drugs. But I firmly believe that using drugs while your brain and body is still developing is unhealthy. This includes the prescription drugs we pump into kids these days (such as Ritalin and SSRI's). What message does this give to young people?
I agree that it appears younger people are using drugs, certainly moreso than when I was in high school. I was really scared a few years ago, when heroin was cheap in Melbourne, by how many yong people thought it was cool to dabble with heroin. The scary thing was that it was cheaper and easier for an under 18 to get than alcohol!
I can fully understand why kids try drugs. I am glad that the only drug that was easy to get at my high school was pot, as I would have tried other stuff if it had been easy to get. (I doubt many people had heard of ecsatasy back then). What I don't get is how kids can afford to use drugs.

Porn I agree with u 100% with what u say!!
I'll say more about this topic in a couple of days.

14 is too young to be taking pills and coke. i don't care how mature you *think* you are, i don't know any 14 year old who i would consider mature enough to take drugs. i've been to a few all-ages events and i've seen some fucked-up kiddies and that is probably the one thing that turns me off parties more than anything else. you're 14 years old, you should be at home playing playstation, not railing cocaine in the toilets at some big event.
ant to the person who said they had their first pill and it made you energetic but your pupils got small instead of big: get hold of a testing kit! what you had was almost certainly NOT mdma.
i reckon that pills are best left for once you've left school, but being under the guidance of someone older and more knowledgable helps... and i just don't think a 14 year old has access to people with the knowledge i'm talking about.