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How Young is too Young?

R

Russ

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 14, 2001
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How Young is to Young?

I was just wondering, at what age do you think it is to young for people to be talking pills?
We all go to raves, and sometimes you see someone who is trashed out of their head, and you know they are just to young.
My little brother had his first pill last weekend. He just turned 17. My big brother (26) took him to a rave and supervised him. Gave him a 1/4 of a pill at a time and told him to drink water.
I thik this is a good age to start. Any age younger, should just not be on.
So, what does everyone think? How young is to young?
 
Ive seen kids as young as 12 at events on pills. Im sorry but that is just wrong. ive mates who started that young too. I think FUCK!!!!!! I didnt even try pot til i was like 18. But seriously if your under 15 your still a kid really.
But saying that I no some 18yrs who think turning 18 is being given a licence to over push their limits time and time again. Then 6 months later they wondering why they have such high tolarence!
 
Depends on the person. I think the two factors that should be satisfied are full physical development (ie, they're not still growing), and a reasonable level of maturity. For most people this will be between 17-20, with a few exceptions falling outside that range.
Basically, I think children shouldn't use drugs - but in this situation my definition of a child differs from the standard legal one. I don't like the way that you're a kid at 17 years 11 months and 31 days, and then overnight you're an adult, but I also know there's no better system. So really, it depends on the person... :)
 
I pondered this question myself recently because i have a little cousin who i was thinking 'hmm this one needs to be corrupted' about, but she is only 14. I decided that 14 was deffinitly to young for even the likes to me to think about corrupting, and decided i would wait until she was 16. I think 16 is probably old enuff. Its really a matter of the person in question tho, and how old they have to be before you can make them understand that its not something to be taken lightly and they need to be smart and responsible about it.
 
On par with Pleo's comments, its important to determine how old the person is in mind rather in phsyical age.
I've met some 16 year olds that are by far more together than some 25 year old's I know, whether this is an excuse to take drugs at a younger age well.. I'll leave your ethics to decide.
 
Originally posted by Russ:
My little brother had his first pill last weekend. He just turned 17. My big brother (26) took him to a rave and supervised him. Gave him a 1/4 of a pill at a time and told him to drink water.
I thik this is a good age to start. Any age younger, should just not be on.

Personally, I'm appalled at the way this is worded. I don't think there's any good age to start. This will probably not be looked at as a very popular opinion, but if I had things my way there'd be no age to start. I look at my little brother, and he's 17 like yours, and I can't imagine thinking that he's the "right age" to be taking pills. I know he has no desire to (he's a huge pothead and that suits him fine), which is comforting, but bloody hell. My little sister is 14, and seeing kids (KIDS) her age at parties rolling off their nut is terrifying.
We (the human race) simply don't know enough about the way the brain works to be able to allocate any "right age" for us to start taking illicit drugs. Until we have a thorough understanding of what chemical and biological changes occur when under the effect of such substances, no one should be taking them.
Especially not teenagers. Hypocritical, yes, but I've learned a lot in the past year and we simply have too much living to do to risk fucking it all up. It's not fair on ourselves or on the people who know us.
There IS NO RIGHT AGE.
Click to expand...
 
^^^^^
That's interesting, and I'd be inclined to agree with that point. My sister is having her 17th birthday in a month, but I can't imagine her taking illicits now, or any time soon. She doesn't know that I've taken them in the past, and as far as I'm concerned she won't know unless she happens to stumble across them herself with her own friends. If that happened then I'd step in and tell her what I know about being safe and stuff, but there's no way I'd introduce her (or anyone) to drugs unless they approached me with a curiosity that they developed all on their own...
Drugs might be considered fun and all, but people that don't try them aren't missing out. That would be like saying that baseball is fun, so everyone that doesn't play is "missing out". Sure, they might be missing that particular fun activity, but there are other fun activities that they could do that might be equally rewarding. And honestly, if they can be avoided, drugs probably should be.
Personally I take a reactionary stance to people with drugs - if they're gunna do them then that's all well and good and I'll help them be safe - but if they're not going to do them then as far as I'm concerned they're being safer than any drug user could ever be, and I can't argue with that... :)
 
^^^^
I agree
Given I am a bit of a fringe dweller and see drugs as a means to an end (more energy for dancing)...but... knowing what I know now I would never encourage a non drug taker to try them....
<insert a few more sentences where I say almost exactly the same thing as Pleo, but without the little sister>
 
i agree wif pleo.. my bro (14) & sis (16) don't know nething about my taking drugs.
my 14 y o brother saw a man smoking a pipe on tv.. and said.. is that a BONG?
i larfed and was DAMN glad he didn't know what it was. :p
i think if they ever started showing an "interest" in wanting to take anything.. i'd deter them.. but like pleo said.. if they're going to do it.. at least help and make sure they're not going to do nething stupid! :)
i think drugs can sometimes help mature a peron, depending on the person :p
i've seen younger friends who are in the same "social groups" but not taking drugs become more mature as they watch their peers. Maybe that's just becoz they're socialising with older people though? At least then, they make their own decisions of if they want to / when they want to and how much they want to enter the "drug world" .. :)
on the topic of "how young is too young?"
yes.. maturity is different to physical time on the earth.. but i think in "general" around 17 - 18 :) would b the youngest age i'd think of as being "OK" to be taking drugs. Always exceptions though..
it's a bit like.. how old is too old? is there a limit? can our old aged bodies cope with the same abuse? ;)
 
^^^^^^^^^
Definitly agree.
I don't think there is any good reason to introduce drugs into anyones life. You never know where it could lead them. On the other hand if someone close to me had the desire to take drugs themselves, I feel I would be obliged to teach them to use drugs safely and responsibly.
My 2c.
 
I think further to what I said before, saying that there is a "good age to start" implies to me that everyone should or is going to take drugs at some time or another in their life. Like, well, you're going to do drugs sooner or later, so 17 is a pretty good age to start doing it.
What is the rationale for having 17 as a good age to start (if there us such a thing)? At 17 do you magically understand yourself better and can hence deal with drug use emotionally? If you were 16 and 364 days old, would you be too young to use drugs? Is there any real reasoning behind the age that we start to do drugs, or is it just because when you're 17 you're still a teenager so can "still have fun", but you're not old enough to have huge amounts of responsibily?
And on that train of thought, are there different circumstances for which the age should differ? If you have a small child and debt and you're on welfare at 17, is it less of a good age to start than a 17 year old who lives at home and works part-time and basically has no responsibility. If you're 17 and in your VCE/HSC/SACE/etc year, is it less of a good age to start?
Also, and I know you only mentioned pills, but are there better ages to start for different drugs? Is it more readily accepted to start smoking pot when you're, say, 14, but not to do coke until you're 18 and heroin until you're 20?
Should we be encouraging our younger brothers/sisters/friends to be taking various sorts of drugs once they reach the allocated ages?
Basically, what's the big idea?
 
I'd like to hear from Russ before he gets crucified any more - I know what it's like to make a comment on bluelight and have half the members yell at you for it (rat poison, heheeh)...
Anyway, some clarification on the "good time to start" comment would help here, as I'm sure it's not as sinister as it might seem. The comment might have been refering to the fact that if someone is going to start anyway, then 17 would be a good age (as opposed to 16 or younger). It doesn't necessaraly have to mean that everyone who reaches 17 should start drugs.
Then again, it might have been... in which case that's a bit dodgy... ;)
[ 25 September 2002: Message edited by: Pleonastic ]
 
Sorry Pleo, this is a topic I get a bit defensive about :p
 
We all like to think of ourselves as wonderfully responsible and incredibly mature for our ages (for the most part)
What a crock of shit, get off your high horses.
Kids/people will experiment no matter what environment they're presented with. Its not up to us to say yes or no, its up to us to offer advice and guidance.
If Russ' bro wanted to try it, then he was going to do it anyway. Good on him for giving him guidance and looking after him. This is the most responsible thing he could have done bar locking him up in a room until his 25th birthday.
It amazes me how self righteous so many people on this board are!
 
I'll say 18. If you're old enough to be legally able to destroy yourself on alcohol (which IMHO has more negative effects than almost any drug) then you're probably also old enough to handle others.
 
Horsey: Out of interest, who are you refering to? Because the line you wrote - "Kids/people will experiment no matter what environment they're presented with. Its not up to us to say yes or no, its up to us to offer advice and guidance" - was exactly the angle I was going for...
Email me if you'd like... :)
[ 25 September 2002: Message edited by: Pleonastic ]
 
Originally posted by Mr. Horse:
Kids/people will experiment no matter what environment they're presented with. Its not up to us to say yes or no, its up to us to offer advice and guidance.
If Russ' bro wanted to try it, then he was going to do it anyway. Good on him for giving him guidance and looking after him. This is the most responsible thing he could have done bar locking him up in a room until his 25th birthday.
I agree totally...i find it interesting that there are people saying "no time is a good time to take drugs on a message board that concerns itself with harm reduction
I say good on Russ's brother for caring enough to look after his little brother, giving him only 1/4 pills at a time, making sure he's doing all he should.
To the people giving russ shit: I seriously doubt that russ's brother said "ok ____, you've turned 17 now, i think it's a good time for you to start taking drugs"... 8) . What would you rather he have done? Said "no, you're too young, you're not doing drugs, f**k off", which then leads to the brother a) possibly deciding not to take drugs or b) going to the rave alone, taking numerous pills and assorted party favours, dancing his ass off all night with no breaks, possibly suffering from overheating or worse???
To answer the topic at hand...each person is individual, one person at 16 can be more mature in ways to someone who's 30, there is no "average" age, i believe, to start taking drugs...having said that, i don't believe anyone who is still going through puberty should be taking anything. During puberty, your body and mind are making you crazy enough...adding psychedelics and other drugs to the mix is just asking for trouble.
[ 25 September 2002: Message edited by: samadhi ]
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Originally posted by anna!:
Should we be encouraging our younger brothers/sisters/friends to be taking various sorts of drugs once they reach the allocated ages?
I know this doesnt really apply to you personally anna, but given that a large majority of people on this site probably users of illicit drugs, their very behaviour condones the use of drugs. There are very few people who post on this site who are in any position to be telling people not to encourage drugs use (and yes you are one of them :p).
Perhaps labeling an age to the suitablity is wrong, but its more or less the same as saying people under the age of 18 arent allowed to drink alcohol. There are plenty of people over the age of 18 who really shouldnt be allowed to consume alcohol, and there are probably quite a few people under that age with enuff sense to be able to handle the responsibility and understand the risks.
Age is by no means any indication of maturity or level headedness. Asking 'how old is old enuff' is then probably a pointless question, because a persons age really says nothing about what kind of mental state they are in, whether they have put enuff thought into the matter and are capable of understanding the risks involved. If there is 'a right time to start taking drugs' its when a person has enuff mental capacity to understand those risks and be responsible about their use. But then, who am I or you or anyone else to be the judge of when a person is at such a stage? Or for that matter, who are we or anyone else to tell a person what they can and cannot do with their own bodies? The government deems fit to make such laws for their own agendas, but since the very act of taking illicit drugs is illegal, that seems to suggest they believe you are NEVER old enuff to be taking them. Which is i guess the crux of anna's point, but people take them regardless, and the point of this site being to promote harm reduction, i think its valid to ask when is reaosnable time for a person to begin using drugs, given that they are going to anyway? The answer however is not one that can be applied blanketly, it really depends on the person.
Click to expand...
 
I think the issue here is whether Russ' big brother approached his little brother and said "here's a pill, you're old enough to try it", or whether his little brother was interested anyway and his big brother helped him do it safely. Until we know that, try not to judge either side.
This is an excelent discussion however, keep it up... :)
 
Yeah, my point wasn't really that we have the right to go and tell people that they shouldn't be doing drugs because drugs are bad, etc. I mean obviously on a site like bluelight it’s a bit hard to go preaching about that. What I was trying to get across is that yes, there is a reason illicit substances are illegal and yes, drugs are dangerous things if they’re not used safely (and even when they are), and that in my opinion age has nothing to do with when people should or shouldn’t take them. I think there are much more important things to take into consideration: family history of drug abuse and addiction, mental health of taker, susceptibility to mental illness and so on and so forth. Age really shouldn’t be the issue we focus on.
Having said that, someone’s age can reflect a lot on how well-educated they are and how much life-experience they have. I think it’s important to be a reasonably educated person before indulging in such substances so as to properly understand exactly what’s going on. And that said, I’m not suggesting that a thirty year old is better educated in a way that will help harm minimisation than a twelve year old or a twenty year old. But obviously there is some discrimination between the amount a child knows and the amount an “adult” knows about illicit drugs and how to use them as safely as possible.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that we should examine and understand exactly why they are illegal and understand that there is no real age factor to say when we should or should not partake in such activities. In my opinion, it has a lot more to do with the factors I mentioned above. And like I said, no one should be encouraged to start doing drugs, but I wholeheartedly agree that if they do, they should be watched and taught by those who have done the same things.
And honestly, I’m not talking about Russ’ particular circumstance and whether what he did was right or wrong, I’m just speaking in general. People shouldn’t take drugs at any age unless they know EXACTLY what they’re doing, and that they’re doing it for reasons that could be considered right (I’m not exactly sure what those are..).
 
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