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Drug Perspectives

Baker

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 20, 2004
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I'm planning to research how drug education effects someones perspective of drugs. Usually you go through primary school seeing older people doing drugs (celebrities, family, TV etc) but you listen to what your told in primary school mostly that drugs are generally bad (at least thats what I thought...I was never gonna touch drugs). Then you hit high school and there seems to be different crowds some choosing to do drugs others despising it. Where the drug users considred popular, drop-outs or what? Everyone has their own perspective and I want to find out what peoples perspectives were before drug education, after drug education and
Also expectations of drugs and how these expectations were met.
How did you percieve drug users before you entered their world?
Also if can tell me whether your initial introduction to drugs through education from a zero tolerance, or harm minimization perspective.

When I was growing up and hit high school year seven was spent getting used to school. The popular group all smoked weed. Started drinking near the end and began to understood the reason people enjoyed the intoxication rather then it just being described as bad for health. Then I changed to a private school in year 8 where there was a completely different perspective on drugs. Drugs were discouraged a lot with a zero tolerance take on the school and people wern't proud to do drugs. Stoners were paid out etc. I always thought ecstasy as being a crazy drug comparable to heroin until I later had some research before eventually trying it in yr 11. My perspective I think was dramatically changed when i first got stoned in about year 9 and realized that these illicit drugs wern't nearly as bad as I had percieved and I also was able to devalue the myths about how bad drugs were for your health (They are but media exaggerates it). I think drug education sort of inspired me to experiment more as it introduced me to many drugs I had never even heard of as well.

When I was really young I honestly thought drugs just killed braincells and couldn't understand why people would do it. Then I saw movies where people were intoxicated acting stupid and stumbling around looking sick and wondered why people would want to get sick from drinking poison (Alcahol). Although I still don't hold too much respect for alcahol its interesting.

Basically any info on views before drug education and after. Greatly appreciated, there has been a similar topic i found about drugs in school at http://www.bluelight.ru/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=101128&highlight=drug+education
that discussed drug use in their school but I want to focus more around perspectives and drug education :\ Any views and feedback appreciated :)
 
I was very anti-drug right through my schooling. I swallowed the "drugs are bad" campaign hook, line & sinker. I don't think anyone in my small primary school did anything, though I once remember going to play at a friend's house one day and her Mum being out cold on the couch all day. When my Mum came to get me she was very upset, told me my friends' mother was a druggie and never allowed me to go there again.

Even in high school I was very uptight. We had our school stoners, but they weren't popular or unpopular. Thinking back, it was the Gold Coast and I now know pot use is rife, so I don't think anyone cared except for a few teachers.

I didn't much care what anyone else did except for my friends. At 16 I still got upset if I saw my friends drunk (history of alcoholism in my family). I probably would have lost the plot if I saw them do anything else!

At 17 I went overseas for a year and met some people who made me realise what an uptight git I was. When i got back to Aus I learned one of my mates was a stoner, and although I was disappointed in him, I dealt with it. I still thought drugs were bad and that you'd ruin your life though, and this was confirmed by watching said friend go through a major downwards spiral with pot.

The big change in my thinking came when I went to uni. I lived on campus, so got to see people i knew were bright, fulfilled, happy and succeeding in life use drugs recreationally. This majorly changed my opinions. I used to sit in on their smoking sessions just to watch, because now I was curious. Maybe the things I'd been told weren't the entire truth...

After this I started to do a little personal research (studying science came in very handy) and learnt a lot. Combined with what I was seeing with my own eyes I realised I hadn't been getting the whole truth about drugs. So I was happy for others to do them, so long as they knew what they were doing, but I wasn't much interested myself. I tried pot a couple of times and found it just sent me to sleep and I couldn't see the point.

After 3 years of straight raving my partenr, whom I trust very much, was interested in trying MDMA. After obtaining some from a trusted source (we didn't know about testing or anything back then) he asked me to please try it with him as he wanted it to be a shared experience. Eventually I decided to give it a go, but not without reservations (the media fear-campaings had made an impact). Well, finally I had tried a drug that I actually enjoyed! Now I saw the point to the whole thing, and the next day I felt absolutley fantastic! No suicidal tendancies, nada. What was going on here? It was about then that we discovered Bluelight and Erowid and I finally learnt the other side of the drug story. It ws a long, slow journey for me, as I am a naturally cautious person and had been raised in a reasonably conservative home.

So yeah, the anti-drug campaigns worked on me until my 20's really. Now I realise what bollocks it all is and wish they'd teach realistic risks and harm minimisation instead :\

:)Smiley
 
Up until about yr 8 or 9 i was very anti drug and bought into all the bullshit i was taught by school and the media. I believed all drugs were bad for you, pretty much thought the devil of meth, E and heroin. I also believed the whole Es are made of pesticides and shite and weed is always laced with other drugs,

yes i was quite the naive little youngster. then in yr 9 i tried weed and loved it, though for quite some time thought E's and meth etc would kill me and promised to myself id never do them.

in school every one was anti drugs and stoners would get paid out on. only now are ppl just starting to come around to the idea of drinking.

Now i am yr 11 and have tried nangs, weed and E's. i have enjoyed all of these and use on a semi regular basis. i can see myself trying meth in the near future and in the long term i look forward to trying acid, shrooms and a few others.

I think that all the scare tactics etc will only stop people from using drugs when they are young and naive. Alot of people will eventually realise they are being fed bullshit and the government, teachers etc lose all credibility. this makes people think they told me weed was bad and weed is awesome, they said speed was bad, maybe speed is awesome, i'll try that.
this is just a thought, not really a theory.

Anyway learnings about some drugs in school has made me want to try them such as acid and mushies. though learning about speed and the like, made me (temporarily) want to steer clear of those.
 
Drugs were never even thought of by me until about year 5 or 6 when my brother brought pot home with one of his friends and sold me some. That went on for about a month til he didnt have pot and I automatically stopped.

After that, drugs were just BAD. I thought *ALL* drug users were morons who wanted to die. I heard the rumours about the clubs charging $20 for a bottle of water so people would not drink it and die; about the DJ's making music that slowed your heardbeat down so you died; all the dumb ones. And of course, I believed them.

Though highschool, I hated drug users and at one stage wanted to mix up some drugs that would kill you, just to get the users off the streets (an idea I do not perscribe to today). It was my belief that all drugs users, no matter what the drug, were just people who were going to steal your telly.

Not til the end of year 11 did I smoke pot again... It was a wierd experience. Being offered pot at my ex's sisters place and being worried I'd fuck the bong up and spray water everywhere.

Still after that, I thought drug users were idiots and they would all die. Until after year 12. I'd heard a bit about ecstasy and speed, so I did a little tiny bit of research from people I knew. My girlfriend at the time was VERY anti drugs. Even though she smoked pot on ocassion. After my gf dumped me, I decided she wasnt holding me back, so I tried pills. Loved them.

Now, only 12 months later, I know more about drugs then I would have ever imagined; and have tried things that one day, I would have thought I was a dead man.

recently, my brother and I decided to tell mum about drugs. She wasn't happy. But she was glad we were being as safe as we could. Though, I doubt we'll see mum doing lines of pill off a mirror.

The only drug education I got, was the 10 minutes dabbled in PE. It wasnt until just before I started using drugs that I began to get real education. Thats what made me want to take drugs. The knowledge they wernt all just cyanide pills.

I cant remember any of the ant-drug campagins, just what mum and dad told me. Which was "keep the fuck away".

Now the only affect anti-drug campagins have on me now, is pissing me off.

Yeah, it wasnt formal education that made me want to try drugs. It was finding out myself through the internet and knowledgeable friends.
 
Jimity said:

Though highschool, I hated drug users and at one stage wanted to mix up some drugs that would kill you, just to get the users off the streets (an idea I do not perscribe to today). It was my belief that all drugs users, no matter what the drug, were just people who were going to steal your telly.


^^ i think its sad that rumours and media crap can warp someones mind that badly. im glad you have come around jimity
 
I was never introduced to drug or alcohol campaigns until after trying the drugs! I have a dim recognition of wanting to drink because the "grown ups" did it. Parents never minded me sharing a wine with them at a young age grade 5?

I started drinking on weekends in about year 7, this continued until about year 11. Every weekend we would go camping I would drink around 1 bottle of spirits over the night. I never considered the drug campaigns as being relevent. I was introduced to pot in grade 5 when a friends brother drove a stollen truck into some guys house and raided it. I recieved some of the benefits.... initial I was reluctant to try it but started out by just burning leaves and smelling them. They didnt seem poisonous like we had been told in school so we smoked them. Then I found that a friends father grew pot and we started sneaking that stuff and smoking it. Once again the drug campaigns never came to mind.

In year 7 my friends older sister gave us some acid and we had a nice weekend triping and loved it. I didnt go insane or think I was a giant OJ so once again I decided that the drug campaigns where a load of shit. From there I went on to get speed, MDMA, Opium, Datura, Scoplomine (sp?), Atropine, Petrol, Glue etc etc. This was all while in high school. I was facinated and had convinced myself that the government was full of shit regarding drugs and didnt beleive a word of it. Strangly though my friends and I promised each other we would never inject, use coke/crack or heroin. Interestingly this was probably due to percieved effect that media/drug ed. gave us.

Coming to uni I continued my forays and tried N2O, DMT, Mushrooms, Mescaline etc etc. cant even list them all. I rationalised all this at a deap level by saying Im a successfull student studying Telecommunications Engineering with a sizeable scholarship and have no detrimental effects. To and extent I still believe this.....
 
Great answers people :D
I was also thinking what kind of drugs do people consider hardcore.
The drugs that i percieved as hard were the ones I knew very little about and were hardly talked about. Slang such as ICE, smack, and coke just made the whole drug scene look crazy. Coke was shown as the drug for rich people who were "addicted" and "miserable". Heroin was commonly referred to as the "Junkie" drug with needles etc and ICE had thte extremely addictive side that dealers gave away free 4-Methylaminorex to get their users addicted. And Meth or crystal meth just sounded plain scary. If anyone was using these when I were young and mentioned it. I picture came up in my head of a hardcore junkie...
What drugs were percieved as hardcore and which ones are soft, in your opinion? Now and before?
Now I think i percieve dissociatives and alcahol as being the hard drugs as it is only on those that I feel truly fucked up, they make me feel sort of cold and numb in a bad way... but they are still fun. Getting shitfaced at a pub, party or wherever never really appealed to me as that much fun. Losing inhibitions, throwing up and looking stupid was never really my thing.
Don't get me wrong I still dont mind getting drunk and being social, just its not my favorite dru, but at least society accepts it.

Also how was your drug use perceived by others, was it cool or were you a try hard, drop-kick, addict or whatever? Do you think it was because drug education (especially zero tolerance prospect) puts this image on drug users?
Alcaholics are almost never percieved as junkies, just because its a legal intoxicant
 
Strangely for the first few years of high school I (and my using friends) where all unpopular and considered "drugos". However in year 11 this changed when I began working out and involving myself in track/field events. The popular crowd embraced me as one of them regardless of my drug use. Other members of my group dispersed to other less popular subcultures of the school mainly due to personal choices. I was still know to use hard drugs but people seemed to accept it more at that age. Some even where curious.....
 
I remember being interested in drugs from a relatively young age. It was at about the age of 12, 13 I had really always wanted to see exactly what pot would do to me.

I was always under the misconception that after smoking a joint of weed, you would just simply feel "automatically happy" and you would see things like little cartoon characters (why my perception was so over-exaggerated is beyond me) in the corner of your vision or something.

I never knew that it was completely different and getting stoned was merely more of a "feeling", then a visual thing.

Anyways, years passed and I had heard all of these wonderful stories of getting high off drugs, but I never really got the chance to try any until about the age of 15 when I had first smoked pot down this little creek we used to hang out.

Before I tried it, my main objective was to smoke up almost the whole mix and get as stoned as I possibly could... and this took a turn for the worst.
I had what one could describe as a "bad trip" off weed due to the fact I had probably smoked too much of the substance and didn't know what to expect.

After that experience, I had made a solemn romise to myself "Never to touch drugs again" and just enjoy being a "fitness freak".
This completely changed when one of my best mates of the time had just found out that his Mum was a rampant pot dealer and we had ridiculously easy access to the drug.

After this the "fad" of pot had sorta died out until VCE hit and the pressures of Academia had really made a presence in my life.

After high school, I found myself working with a bunch of big time "stoners" in Melbourne city and before I knew it I was hitting the pipe all night, every night... and noticed a certain shift in my general perception.

For some reason it made me a more "easy-going" person (cliche` I know).
But my first "hard drug" experience was with e, then shrooms and finally graduating to Speed and H (non-IV).

That brings me to now, where I haven't really had any problems with drugs at all apart from the ocassional 3 day hangover after a bit of a binge.

...And that's my rather boring story. :)
 
So guys,

Just reading your posts, there seems to be some discrepancies between your experiences and the messages given at school. Just to throw out a few questions:

1) Did the poor information of smome messages make you disbelieve all messages (eg if people said ecstasy kills you, but obviously your friends weren;t dying, did it make you think the people delivering the message had no idea and therefore EVERYTHING they said was untrue?)

2) If you could design the message to go to high school kids (which obviously can;t be "HEY take lots of drugs") what do you think people in authority could say that would actually be credible?

3) Does the hard massage of abstinance mean people rebel against it on purpose? Because all of your authority figures are saying "drugs are bad" does that stop people calling ambulances and the like because the tone of the prevention message creates expectations of the tone taken if you try and report something? (eg Do you think that because your parents and teachers are saying "Drugs are Illegal" that they won;t turn around and say "you did the right thing calling an ambulance" and focus more on the fact you were doing the "wrong" thing?)

Just thoughts!

Buck
 
I used to think even people that smoked pot were "just another druggie scumbag"

until I started working with a few nice guys that smoked everyday and I came around to the fact that drugs aren't no where near as bad as I had come to hear about.

this was when I was 18, mind you, so only 3 years ago - now look at me, I post on bluelight... (would never of even thought of doing something 3 years ago like this)

but I love how I've seen the light and am no longer in some fake views of people and drug use. I'm glad I am where I am now. and that is open to all kinds of people and i wont judge something until I know about it....
 
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Thanks buck_reed you pretty much summarized what i was trying to ask :)
 
There is no "light" to be seen from using drugs. Either it fucks you, or it doesn't. Either you have fun, or you don't.
Actually, many would agree with me if I were to say that using drugs under any circumstance could be a very dark and bleak road to destruction. (not all cases)
 
buck_reed I agree with your 1. point. The fact that during school we were taught that drugs were really dangerous and will cause death etc completely discredits itself. Because quite obviously there weren't hundreds of of people dying yet there are thousands taking drugs. And yes I would say it was hard to belive anything else they said on the matter from there onwards even if it was true.
I started smoking pot in year 9. By about year 10 I was keen to try speed, in year 11 I did. Once I had tried speed and been to a couple of raves I wanted to try ecstasy. Which I did in year 12. I'd say that by year 10 I knew that all the drug education in high school was a load of shit. I couldn't prove it at the time, but I think I could now.

As for the influence the media influence:p I think i'd grown wise to the fact that they reported drug stories unfairly by about year 10 also. But until I joined bluelight and learnt some truths I would sit there watching drugs stories with fascination and disbelief. Now I feel like climbing in to my telly and punching the today tonight and aca lot out!
One point I will make is that a couple of years ago I remember watching a report on some "crazy new drug" called "fantasy" or "liquid e" At the time all I could think was wow that sounds like the shit! It didn't matter that they said it was dangerous. They said ecstasy pills would give you brain damage too! I had just used mdma for the first time and as you can imagine had a fairly open mind to drugs. So I rang an older mate that new some dealers and I asked him if he could get me any. Luckily for me he explained to me what ghb is. This is one of the reasons it makes my blood boil everytime I hear the media spouting shit about ghb. Cause I think of all the other people out there that may be as stupid or ignorant as I was. Then they make that phone call to a dealer. And you how the story (can) ends: The media get something else to spout more shit on.8(
 
Looking back, I don't think I made any real judgments about drug users. Well except for the crowd at school who thought they were soooooooooo cool because they smoked marijuana (brought it to school camps and the like and got caught). I thought they were wankers then and I still think they're wankers now! I think it's more because of their attitude towards drug use as opposed to the act of drug use.

I also remember Anna Wood's dad coming to my school and making a speech and thinking he wasn't telling the entire truth of why Anna died (wasn't a drug user at the time but I had read about the water intoxication).
 
i was never even vaguely interested in drugs til about 16 when i first tried pot.

my parents always told me that if i was ever gonna take drugs, do it with them so that at least i'll be safe. so there never was that urge to take them cos i wasnt allowed to.

throughout grade 11 & 12 I smoked a little pot but living in tassie it never even crossed my mind that "harder" drugs like ecstacy were even available. then i met this guy in a club at 18 and i asked him if he smoked weed....he replied "no i prefer pills"
naturally i was a bit shocked and i thought that was a bit full on. eventually he convinced me to have one after explaining to me that i wont die if i have just one. he was a little educated about things and that fuelled my desire to learn more about what i was putting up my nose.

we later broke up and i ended up learning more. now i know more about drugs than he does.
i've also told my parents the variety of chems i've taken. we've had a long discussion about it. they seem to be reassured in the fact that i can tell them exactly what everything's doing to me. and both the good and bad sides of each drug. also cos i've been doing it for more than 2 years now and i've still got my life under control.

i've also taken it as my responsibilty to educate my younger brother. i thought that i should tell him everything i know before his friends who know jack shit will. the last thing i want is him losing it and me knowing it could have been prevented.

but back to my perspective...i never had a full on "drugs are bad" stance. i never really thought about them until the opportunity came up.
 
I fell for all sorts of shit, smoking is bad, drugs are bad etc etc etc...

I still to this day wouldnt have taken drugs if it hadnt been for one drunken moment when I was 20 and a friend said to me, try this pill! You can have half and it will only cost this.... and you spend about 4 times as much on alcohol but you will be up all night!!! The rest is history.. ;)

So, I would say, all the education tactics worked on me, but they were washed away while i was plastered on something the government makes legal....

I would say honestly i feared drugs cause of advertising and cause of how people looked high. I feared all the outcomes. I remember i really like this guy once and he took me out with some friends and they were organising pills and i freaked out , left the club crying and went home! It was a tragic! mwahahahaha

The way ppl look when they are really high still to this day freaks me out cause its a terrible thing to look at i swear, ppl just dont know how fucked up they look.... ekk !
 
Wow!! This thread is UNBELIEVABLE!!! I can't believe there are so many of us out there... I was so so anti-drug whilst growing only because I wanted to be different or prove to everyone that I could enjoy myself with out being "off my face". I was so uptight about it. I left one of my boyfriends cos he "occasionally" smoked a joint!! i know I know...what a loser hey?? I think that my fear of drugs would come first from the way its portrayed in films. Every drug movie i saw ALWAYS showed overdoses & people partying without realising that they werent immortal. Second of all the media played an important role. Funny how alcohol & tabbaco are the main killers in the drug world yearly but u just never know it. funny how when someone dies of alcohol poisoning U never hear of that either. But as soon as someone dies from XTC (or what they think is MDMA but turns out to be something else) Its allover the news & papers. And it gets magnified too. My current boyfriend who has a degree in bio-chemistry & is 19 yrs my senior ended up showing me how good mdma can be....I had my first drink at 21 & my 1st pill at 23!! I think thats pretty good. And he is such an intelligent man that he convinced me,. I had a pannic attack & still do as i always feel so guilty & all that when we do it. I do the "what if" this or that happens... Its quite funny. But now i LOVE it. I think everyone should know what its really like if u plan & do it properly not do too much not get addicetd & all of that other stuff...
 
i started smoking weed at 14. i didnt think it was so bad because of how it comes from the ground. u know.. all natural n shit. but i promiced myself i would never try anything else. the scare tactics that the schools taught me had me preaching

" why do anything harder than weed, its so easy to overdose, why risk it "

movies like Pulp Fiction, where that chick ODs on John Travoltas smack. that shit scared me hardcore and i didnt even realise it until i watched it this year. my idea of cocaine was someone whos rich, but will just overdose at any point without warning and die and leave everyone scratching there heads. the heroin image was just homeless bums living in alleyways shooting up. advertising made it out to be a drug that without choice, if u tried the shit, u were fuked. 1 dose and ur hooked.. next thing you know ur on the streets, no job, no friends. just you and your needle. ecstacy was the drug that puts holes in your brain and drains spinal fluid until u suffer extreme spinal damage. lsd made your brain bleed. speed turned you into a psyco (does to some extent :p depending on person lol) "ice" i thought was slang for crystal meth and just listen to that name. as someone already said. its just scary!!

just before my 19th bday (a tad over a year ago) i finally gave into my friends positive promotions for ecstacy. i still went a few months vowing to never ever touch anything besides Es. then one day while checking pillreports i came across the link for this wonderfull site. everything changed :p soon enough i started to really learn some truth about a lot of things that i would have otherwise stayed closed minded and preached negatively about for years to come. i have since become a much more accepting, open minded person. nothing is ever fact for me until i have heard the other side, regarding a wide range of topics.. not just drugs. since drugs i think as a person i have become more of a more model human being in the sense of "live and let live".

as for all the shit we have been taught and if i think it should be changed??

NO

if they didnt teach that shit to us when we were young and dumb enough to believe it then we would see high schoolers on heroin, cocaine and meth and you and i both know that school + those drugs would not go down well. as teenagers most ppl are not strong minded enough to make the right decisions regarding drugs. hell even at 20 i can think of a few times where i reallllly realllllly realllly shouldnt have picked up that pipe. fortunately i have learned from mistakes, where as if i was 16 and at this stage in drug use i dont think i would be smart enough to learn from mistakes and think my life would be very very different right now.
 
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