Survey - Addiction.

I would just like to survey the board on the cycle of addiction.
With all the riff raff about soft drugs leading to harder drugs, I would like to know if everyone here started of with Pot??
After pot did you get into Wizz then E’s etc maybe a bit of Ghb etc and most or if not all of you will try anything, but draw the line at “H”?
I am also curious if those of you who started on pot still keep it as your bread and butter? You can live without pills etc, but if the mix is gone, then god help all around you and if you came home after a big night, you would gladly forfeit your first born son for a bong?
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In complete darkness, we are all the same, only knowledge sets us apart.

ok i'll start it off... i never was a dope smoker until i started using acid and e, which i didnt start using till i was about 20. pot has just never done it for me by itself, i really only use it now in combination with other drugs. i also never smoke tobacco, which probably has a lot to do with it.
im guessing by the title of this thread you are asking about peoples idea on marijuana as being a bridging drug, or whatever the social worker term is. personally i think it has nothing to do with the durg at all, but everything to do with the person. this i guess comes from my persona; experience but i do strongly feel that if you want to take drugs you will and it is always a personal decision, no one is ever forced into anything by the drugs themselves...
the opening up of the so called "club drug" scene is making more exotic drugs available for the average user. i admit i am curious about many of these sunstances and are tring them, but ultimately it comes down to personal taste, i will try these things but wont get addicted, unless i like them and choose to. but i dont think i have an addictive personality at all, i couldnt even get a meth habit going...
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"i think i'll stick to drugs to get me thru the long, dark night of late-capitalism..."
Irvine Welsh

True RE: Smoking JB.. That should be added, as most I know who don't smoke 'baccy didn't start with pot either but use pot to put a different spin on things toward the end of a night.
And yes, this post is aimed to gague opinions of if POT leads to harder drugs... E.G if you never knew how good being stoned made you feel, would you have been curious about E's etc?
I feel that pot leads to curiosity about other drugs, but it is the individuals personality that will determine if they only experiment or take it on as a lifestyle choice.
But also of note, many people I speak to, say that they could live without everything except the bong.

Yes, I started with the bong.
Yes, I then moved to acid, wizz, e's and coke.
Yes, I do draw the line at hammer.
and Yes,
If I could only have one drug in the world it would be weed, beautiful weed.
NB: 1. I smoke tobacco
2. I did not write this sarcastically, no matter how much of a cliche it may sound.
3. I started with alcohol WAY before any of the above. And we are talking in VERY dangerous levels at a very young age - yet I rarely drink these days.

I have to say i started with alcohol and pot. I have a very non-addictive personality, so i used to hit the bong alot, but only coz my mates were there, i never felt the temptation to get stoned on my own, it was very much a social thing.
As far as pot leading to harder drugs, of course it does, i beleive it's most peoples initiation into mind and perception altering _illegal_ substances (as opposed to alcohol which is legal and seen as "ok" by the wider public). Pot is the widely accepted as doing the least long term damage and is not seen by most to be an evil substance. So it's the obvious starter, before you jump in head first into drugs, you usually start by experimenting with pot.
As far as still using, it's a very rare thing, i don't buy it or look for it, but i do like 1 or 2 when i'm coming down when i get home, almost as an anaesthetic. and very very occassionally me and my old mates will get really drunk and stoned, for old times sake more than anything, god those nights are funny shit hehehe.
The road of experimentation went for me like this
alcohol-pot-e's-acid-wizz
can't think of any other substances, i'm gonna try some mushies in the next week or so as well
Hope that's useful

well personally i am not a big pot fan.....occasionally i will have some on the comedown but even then pretty rarely, i am a non-smoker and started with alcohol before taking my first e last september, so e was pretty much my first drug, my next was speed followed by acid then g and wippets (both togethor) i am yet to try coke but will probably have a crack at it sometime soon ....

I started on pot VERY early (say 13) but never actually got into it as such. But by about year 10, wheneva we would go out, we would make sure we had some gear.
Anyways, started smoking ciggies then took some cid then 7 months later had my furst pill, and another 6 months later I had speed, nitrous and GHB. I am a firm believer that pot is a gateway drug simply because of the fact that it is more socially acceptable. I never drank (only been pissed once, and I hated it) but yeah. There it is.
I now very rarely have bongs (perhaps once every three weeks) and everything else even less. cid I hardly touch, maybe once or twice a year. I don't smoke ciggies anymore and I love MDMA. Hmmmm, I think I am psychologically addicted to MDMA. If only all the pills I actually take were 160mg. Oh well.
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"There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference."
- William James, American philosopher

Just a point of trivia,,,barbituates are the only truely addictive drugs. The rest is called a dependance, even H is not considered addictive in the strictest sence of the word.
My drug growth has been such
pot-end of year 10 getting heavier and heavier till it was everyday about 3 weeks ago now I've stopped for a bit
alcohol- half way through yr 11 and remaining
E - start of year 12 (this year)
K - accidental (dodgy e) early feb
speed - accidental (dodgy e) march
Pot didn't cause me to go on to other drugs ...sorta.
I could have started with any of these drugs (except alcohol which has a different social stance than any other drug) and i would have moved onto others. It did happen to be pot that led me onto e but it could have just as easily been E that led me on to pot.
If they wanted to stop pot being a gateway drug they should just make it legal like alcohol,,,the main reason alcohol isn't a gateway drug (opinion here) is that it's legal,,,one of the govt's arguement for the legalisation of pot is that if it's legal it gets seperates from other far harsher drugs like speed/coke/herion and it removes that gateway aspect.
and yes i would forfeit my son for a bong after a big night

Mona's drug diary,
Alcohol - like Lulu very young, big doses, stupid behaviour. The norm where I grew up (or at least for my group of friends)
Pot - I started around the same time I started drinking alcohol, but where alcohol was pretty much every few weeks pot was occasionally like only once every couple of months maybe but as a social thing, never by myself. Since I started pills (actually it was since I met apples), I started smoking once a week, and now... *cringe* it's everyday.
Pills - HEAPS after i started drinking (i was extremely anti chem for a while). I've pretty much stopped drinking since i started pills. I enjoy a beer every now and then, but it's because I enjoy a beer, not because i want to get wasted...but yeah I had my first pill when I was 18.
Speed - same night as pills, more regular than pills.
Ethyl - my one time love affair with ethyl ended when I realised you had to buy it from porn shops (just like amyl) and I'm too shy to go in ... (hehehee yeeeaaahh)
Coke - same year as pills, nowhere near as often as pills.
Nitrous - ummm..I remember the night distinctly, in fact there's a post around here somewhere about it sometime last year..
Amyl - only done it a couple of times.
GHB - around the same time as nitrous
Acid - December 4th last year Camp Bluelight. only done it once since... I want to again, just can't get my hands on any!
and that's it!
I guess you could say I've had a long and detailed history of substance abuse.
Hi Mum!!!
there are many more that are on my list to 'try' , whether I will or not remains to be seen... access ius a big problem.
Anyway, to answer...I would say that not pills nor pot were a gateway drug for me. I did them both fpor a while before being tempted to do anything else..
Bluelight was my gateway drug Teehee
ps. oh yeah..somwhere in there I went on a little codeine experimentation trip for a while... got me some filters the other day, gonna try and extract some pure..
pps. I don't smoke cigarettes on a daily basis, more when I'm under the influence of something else.
[This message has been edited by mona (edited 30 May 2000).]

Every kid in Australia would have started, like me, getting hammered withe their mates on alcohol every so often. Remember scraping your coins for a cask of goon? 16
Onto Pot, but only a small amount of times for me. I'm REALLY intolerant to drugs so Pot ussually wipes me out after about 1 cone. I steer clear of the stuff.17
Onto acid - didn't seem as daunting as acid, maybe as it was so cheep! Soon got fucked with the stuff. 17
Onto Pills at 19, doing them for about 3 years now, love them. Like I said I'm intolerant to all drugs but this is good with pills. Tried metho and coke but try to steer clear because of the addiction thing. I' loved coke so much that it scared me.
cheers!

goon... my god, i havent heard that term in years *has horrible flashbacks to growing up in canberra*
ever buy your goon and drink it on the back oval out of an empty lunchbox?
*shudder*

My first drug experience started in England where I had my first illict ciggie at 9, yes it sounds awful but I was influencable and under pressure to fit in, being an aussie over there was a bit of a hassle sometimes.
Then came weed at 12, that was normal where I lived in Queensland, the stuff grew everywhere and it didn't do anything for me for a while. I tried some codeine this year too but it didn't really impress me.
Soon after turning 14 we began to source magic mushrooms to make tea, *yick* but I enjoyed the nice mild visual effects.
Then I moved to NZ where the acid is expensive ($40!) but plentiful. I used to trip occaisionally, I was 14 or 15 at the time.
After moving back to Australia Jan last year I tried e, speed and coke, I have only had coke twice but what a lovely experience it was. I've had whippets a few times too but I don't really enjoy that 20 seconds of hollow-headedness.
Now I'm nearly 17, I don't regret these experiences despite the risks involved.
....and i'm not addicted to any substance, I'm still in school achieving excellent results and I also have a demanding job.
I quit pot becuase it had turned me into a lazy, boring introvert. Pot combined with social influences, curiousity and self-destructivness led me to experiment with other drugs.
I would like to try H. I used to be friends with Australia's youngest methadone patient and that definitly deterred me but I'm still curious, to smoke it anyway, I wouldn't inject. I'd also like to try G some day too but I'm not in any hurry to experiment anymore.
[This message has been edited by enchanted (edited 30 May 2000).]

hmmmmm no
I didn't start with weed
or did I
I smoked alot for a while there
"I think I'm starting feel straight, better go have a few more cones"
"yeah I know the house stinks Mum, I'll blow it out the window"
I think maybe I had a few cones before wizz.
Had lotsa wizz for a few months when I was a little boy, cones started in there somewhere and went for a while, actually they're still going now Used some low grade coke around that time.
Acid started a year after the wizz stopped (stopped regular use anyway) I was 14/15 then and in the summer just after I turned 15 did heaps of acid.
Used acid the last time when I was 17 or maybe just 18 and I'm quite sure I'll never do it again.
Got back into wizz in a occaisional manner in 96. Its my best friend still.
Started pilling nye 96/97. Couldn't afford them often for around a year then started abusing them too. Got into good coke at this point. Calmed down last year, only had two pills and a bity bit of coke until november, then got back into them
Now Perth is just crap for pills and I haven't been in coke available circles so I stick to wizz, with the rare decent pill.
I'll try anything once
no wait, I'll try anything that comes from a natural source once, I don't think their are any synthetics left in which I'm interested. I don't like pharmaceuticals.
I started smoking...... at some point
heehee nah I started before anything
ciggarettes were my gateway drug
hahahahaha
I stopped smoking 6 months after starting, for 6 months or so, been smoking on and off since then.
Alcohol....... first experience was Smirnoff Vodka, I didn't know how much to drink to get drunk so I drank half a bottle Sick little entropope was the result. That was at the age of 13, I'd had wizz and I think....YEAH!! I had had a few cones before then.
No GHB.... I probably will try this
No nitrous.... I will never try this
Valium and the like ..... yeah but never again, don't like that shyte.
No H ..... but someday if the mood strikes me, no time in the near future mind.
My baby ...... the perfect drug
anything else that is not readily available I've never tried
Pink Champagne is something I've been looking for for I think 4 years now. Someday... someday...
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ultimately, we just want to be happy

Well I see some patterns emmerging now..
anyway this is my story -
Started with tobacco around drinking a fair ammount at a fairly young age, although not as young as some..
Then moved onto pot and smoked too much looking back on it..
But my curiosity from acid / e's only started after attending my first rave! I looked at everyone and the vibe generated and felt an urge to join them. So I tried it at my next rave and had the time of my life.
I barely ever drink now, and smoke only on rare occasions and comming down..
I also would draw the line at H, due to the faceless bums I nudge out the way with my foot while trying to walk the streets of Melbourne's CBD.. I would never go that low.
I now smoke tobacco far too much, and pop now and then on school holidays.. I will only stop this when I see it influencing my school life and thats when things would change.
But until then, I am happy to go out, meet some awesome people, and have a fantastic time!

Firstly about pot being a a drug that leads to experiments with other drugs, of course it is! I think the fact that we initialy showed a willingness to experiment with an illegal drug in the first place shows' a predispostion that we are going to try others in the future. Especially once we start to educate ourselves and realise all the lies and misinformation out there. Where the majority of the public choose alcohol as their release from the stress of everyday life I give myself the option of a plethora of chemicals ,some of which do a lot more than numb and stupify you like alcohol!
OK my list 15-alcohol(cont.occassional use)
17-pot(cont. semi frequent use)
20-speed(cont infrequent use)
21-Meth(cont infrequent use)
Mushrooms(cont.infrequent use)
Acid(cont. infrequent use)
Nitrous(cont. ocassional use)
Opium(not used for 7 yrs)
Poppers(infrequent use)
22-MDMA(cont. semi frequent use)
-Cocaine(Very infrequent use)
-variuous presciption drugs
Valium, sanarex, mogadon
rohypnol,cerapax,hypnodorm,
tamazapam, ritalin, ephedrine
and dexies(very occassional
use).
26-Ketamine(Infrequent use)
-2cb(very infrequent use)
-Heroin (very infrequent use)
-Morphine(very infrequent use)
27-Combinations!
As you can see yes I show the classic escalation from soft to hard drug use but with one big difference. In the clasiic media story I would now be a smack addict, I am not! I am a recreational drug user, some of the drugs I use infrequently are by choice(Heroin , Morphine, )some because of cost(cocaine)_some because of availabilty(2cb, ketamine,Meth,opium ).
Being a frequent pill popper the mind boggles at how many other analoges of the MDX group I have inadvertantly taken over the years as well as god knows what nasties.
Then there is the wish list
-Mescaline(synthetic and peyote)
-DMT ( and its various analoges)
-GHB(When I find a supply I trust)
-A large percentage of the drugs descibed in PIHKAL and TIHKAL.
-What ever else I discover and educate myself on, then decide to use over the course
of my life.
Like someone else said I am lucky and have a non-adictive personallity which means I have been able to casualy flirt with some drugs that over the years have destroyed many close friends.Remember becareful kiddies! You can never know to much about a drug ,educate yourselves and make wise decisions.
And I almost forgot. Yes I would definately give away my first born for a bong when I get home from a big roll, or at least for a valium or a Tamazepan
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flip
[This message has been edited by flip (edited 30 May 2000).]

entropope: I noticed you said you'll never try nitrous...any particular reason?

Started off on Dak at 13, with the influence and protection of older siblings. Smoked it regularly from 13 to 23, during my prime teenage years i.e 16-19, every day.
Now I only use it to come down off Whizz and E. I find it doesn't help to come down off acid or mushies, rather brings it back on. I no longer enjoy dak on its own, which is weird considering how much I have had in my life.
I don't smoke tobacco except when dropping (where I can sometimes chainsmoke), and never get the urge to smoke when straight, in fact, can't stand the smell.
Did pot intro me to the other drugs? Yes, it made me curious about them, but it took years before I tried them, and only cos of my siblings offering again and again.

FLIP: I've said this once before - to you I think...
re: trying H. I too like you believe that I have a non-addictive personality. I've smoked cigarettes on and off since I was about 14, for the past say, 3 years it's only been a weekend/pills made me do it kind of thing. I've never been addicted. The fact that I've always been able to stop one of the most addictive drugs known to man, just because basically i don't *want* to smoke all the time (I enjoy the actual smoking process, so it's not because I can't stand the taste etc) BLAH, back to my point... I've always said that if i try H it'd be one time only. One time that's it. End of story. Then I wonder how many other people started like that. Then I look at members of my own family who have fallen ill to the drug and I guess that gives me enough determination to prove myself right that I am strong enough to have complete control over what I do. Never to let something else have control.. and then I think about my motivations...
if I try it because I'm curious - curiosity killed the cat? what if I enjoy waaaaaaay too much? it won't matter because it's "just one time"??
if i try it because I want to test myself - what if i decided to see how many times I can do it before I start to feel like I 'need' it, or at least 'want' it very often.
and i think I would enjoy it.. very much. that's what worries me. then I think that 'if i have worries, I definitely shouldn't be trying it' so I don't.. i don't think I will until I can definitely say that there will be no chance of me wanting to do it again or but how will i know? see it's a like a big fat circle...
I want to try it. I do. I guess I need to do a little more thinking (as if I havent enough).
something my mum brought up (an approximation): "..if you try heroin once (i never told her I wanted to try it) and you decide to never go back - but you really enjoyed it - what if something happens in your life? what if you're struck with the most gut wrenching pain and tragedy and there's only one way you can think to escape it all - heroin - would you do it? you might think you're strong enough to resist it, but when someone you love dies (for example) and all you want to do is get away... you're not yourself, you're not thinking of being strong all self control and will power flies out the window and you find yourself presented with an attractive escape route - heroin - exactly what would help... just until the pain goes away"
i refuted and refuted (i was trying to make her understand that there ARE occassional heroin users out there - but we don't hear about them because they're not a statistic) and told her that "well that person just isn't string enough, and they should be able to recognise that in themselves from the start and never tried it" I didn't believe myself... like she said (and she knows having lost my father when she was 21, her mother a couple of years later and her best friend the same year..) ans she would know...i think she'd know how easy it would be to slip into a habit that formed an easy way out of such intense pain...
so that's another thing that makes me stop and think - i don't deal with 'stuff' extremely well.. say I try it once... who's to say.. and this is where I say "I'm strong I could resist" and this where i stop - because you just never know.
As you can tell, i think about this pretty often. I just want to know Flip - what terms did you set yourself? Did you? Or did you just not find it THAT fantastic? (and there is one person I know who tried it and didn't think it was all that great, it's a possibility)Can you see the logic in what my mum was saying? Do you see it as a possibility?
If you don't want to continue this here - email me. I'm just really curious.
PS. and then I think to myself - it's only a drug. physical addiction isn't an instantaneous thing. it starts in the head and then progresses, if i believe i'm strong enough to stop the mental thing or at least be able to stop myself when i think about it as more than a 'one time thing'(which in my opinion is the easy bit)thwn it'll all be cool. then i think - is it really worth the hassle? and if it is worth the hassle, then it'll be worth the hassle to try it again..BLAAAAAAAH!
... sorry for that babble.
bab.ble.
babble. baaabbbble. babb. ble.
if this makes no sense whatsooever and i'm repeating myself blame entropope.

Thank you to everyone for your input! It is great to get an idea of patterns and I think some are quite clear. E.G people who smoke ciggies are predisposition to smoke pot more regularly.
I have a similar pattern to most of you out there
Ciggies (On and off for years)
Grog started around the same time, did that for a few years but very infrequent now.
Pot.. Started, had a big problem before I knew it due to where I worked and the availability of it etc... Went on every day for 4yrs till I was just a shell with no real thoughts or feeling and if there were some, I'd just be too stoned to act on them.
Acid, pills, wizz during the same time as pot but less frequent (Each, twice a month or so)
Quit the lot for 6mths - just had to get the fuck out. Did so and then returned to a social pill or line for a night out(Today), but everything is sooooo much more enjoyable without pot. I used to go out and have pills and find myself not enjoying the night, but looking forward to going home so I could chop up and spin out.. Now I don't want to go home.
Oh and there was a period of Rohypnol addiction in there for a year or so. Sooooooo many boxes and so so cheap. But that’s another story
I asked this to gauge what most people follow.. As I have a friend who I started taking pot with whom is now a junkie, didn't get out when I did. What was the difference (We still talk about it) did almost everything together but he just had to go one step too far and is having trouble coming back. I guess it all comes down to personality and will power. A very interesting point, is when I stopped for 6mths it became very clear who your friends really were.. The phone just stops ringing when you’re not coming over to chop up.. Eye opener, even my friend (who was very close to me) just dropped off.
Of BTW Mona, I identify with your story and position on "H" completely.
Any way thanks again

I took a different road to my mates. I started with pot, the alcohol, but when my mates started to take trips and speed, I wouldn't touch the stuff. I was scared shitless to take a these drugs until recently. Last year I took my first E, and have since been heaps more relaxed towards other drugs. Since my first E I have taken trips, whizz and also mushies.
Compared to some of the other posts here, I'm amateur.