Growing drug use in my generation.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 02-02-2014 08:32AM

Talking about soft drugs what's the difference between smoking Cannabis and rolled loose Tobacco? Both are plants which users inhale to their lungs. There's conflicting data that's put out there, some say that Cannabis use over time can lead to the same problems in the esophageal and lung department. Ziggy Marley, Bob's son has recently spoken against using ganga by this method.

But then you've people advocating it for cancer sufferers?

It provides relief obviously, but unless your heading towards palliative care where even pure form heroin (UK) can be used in the end what's the point.

If you're fighting a battle and winning why would you engage in it.

whirlpool · 02-02-2014 08:56AM

I haven't read through the thread so just responding to the OP. OP, I too have felt really surprised by how common drug use is amongst people I never would have thought would take drugs.

No judgement. Just surprise. So I understand.

drunkmonkey · 02-02-2014 09:18AM

This was 21 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts15HoRXWHQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts15HoRXWHQ&sns=em

XsApollo · 02-02-2014 09:24AM

I don't think the amount of people using it has changed.
But what people are takin has.
When I was a heavy weed smoker 15 years ago, that was about all you could get. Pills were just starting to take hold too.
Every few months some LSD might come around, same with speed and skunk too.
I never saw anybody with crack ,heroine or coke it was never even thought of.
Now crack heroine and coke are everywhere and that's the worrying thing
Not the amount of people taking drugs, but what they are taking is.

Route1 · 02-02-2014 10:02AM

I think a lot of people are getting far too fixated by the premise that I think my generation are the first to really start to see a large proportion of the age group use them, I clearly did not say that I am of course aware that drugs have been part and parcel with young culture for decades. I just wasn't aware was the epidemic as great. The smug, sarcastic attitudes on here are pitiful, acting the big man over a keyboard.

zcorpian88 · 02-02-2014 10:13AM

There is a definite rise in drug taking in our generation. I remember before I and my friends hit our teens we were fairly active and outgoing. We lived for going cycling, it was our thing. We'd get up in the morning, cycle about 15-20 miles, come back home for dinner, then go back out again and do another 10 miles before coming back when it was dark.

Then we got to secondary school everything changed, seen my first joint at 13, my mate who was with me takes a puff and he became fond of it...then soon after 2 of my other friends got into it. They became very unmotivated to do anything really but smoke then on the weekends off from school, the weekend would be dedicated to ringing every dealer in town to get some, and say if the town was going through a "hash/weed drought" the boys would have this attitude that the weekend was pointless without it and you'd struggle to get a word out of any of them. It became the thing for a couple of years with these lads. They lost a lot of time in their lives to be doing more enjoyable things, like you're only young once, no point in polluting yourself with this stuff and losing what should be the best years of your life.

I was offered magic mushrooms one time too, disgusting looking things. To me it just looked like a pile of s**t in a bag, I faked an important phone call and got the f**k out of there as 2 of my mates were going to take them with a bunch of strangers I didn't know or like the look of for that matter.

I have a mate from primary/early secondary school who overdosed on heroin when I was 17, he was the same age. Great guy I had all the time in the world for him. Swapped video games with him many a time. His use of it caught me by surprise, by my and other peoples knowledge it was his first time to take it. No idea if it's true but I do remember in the news then, there was some super potent batches going around, it may have made it to him.

Was also offered speed another night after a night out. My mate asked me to come up for an hour so he could get some weed I said no about 20 times because I knew this guy was dodgy the last time I was up in the house the guy that lives there was in and out of consciousness on his couch after taking some sort of pill/pills and I was like "F**k I'm not going up there again!" but he twisted my arm because he didn't want to walk home on his own, we arrive at the house anyway and there was like 12 people up in the house waiting on a dealer to come down at 4 in the morning! Some scumbag arrives then, takes the money and heads off. Next thing you know this hipster gay guy is in my ear all night "D'ya want a line?? D'ya want a line?? Go-on sure have a line" Everyone taking lines off the coffee table and I sitting there out of place, thinking if I slip out will anyone notice, and if I attempted to leave will somebody think I'm an "uptight up on a high horse prick" and start some sort of argument. So I stuck around till must have been dawn, the dudes in the house wanted us to go fishing right afterwards, and the eyes hanging out of my head to go home and get some sleep. They were all f**king cracked!

I also had the piss taken out of me on many occasions in school for abstaining from cigarettes/weed and skanger drinking in some field at the weekend. F**k that, where do they get the money is what I would have liked to know. The odd weekend if I had money I did get beer and head to my mates house to watch movies or UFC when I was like 16-18 but never came home hammered. The "in a field" thing just didn't appeal to me, especially if they would rip the piss out of me because I didn't smoke anything. One thing I hated about school was you could never be individual from anyone else or you would never belong. And f**k it, I'd rather not belong.

I grew up in a working class family, I'm 25 years of age now, my early childhood especially was tough going, not a lot of money floating about, anyone my age or older can remember before the celtic tiger illusion took off, I think most of Ireland was a more innocent place, can't imagine a lot of drugs being as easily available or affordable then. The lads that went cycling back when I was younger grew up in the same way before we had even seen weed/speed/mushrooms. It just angered me that they were willing to spend whatever little money they got off their hard working parents on such stupid things and lining the pocket of some delinquent rather than putting it to a more healthy use. I just don't like how gritty the place is with it around and how reliant people are on certain drugs, like if you can't be in a happy content place without it, I think you have to analyze your life a bit. There is days where being in reality sucks but that's life, no point in contaminating your body and damaging your mental health over it.

I don't want to sound like a preacher or whatever but it's just my perspective. (Sorry for the post is so long by the way)

02-02-2014 11:02AM

I used to be dead set against drugs up until I went to oz and had a horrid time...my core group of friends were heavy drug users and by the time I returned from oz the problem got worse.

I have taken, pills, acid. Coke, speed and MDMA...I have mixed them all at some occasion... It has gotten to the stage where I can't go for a drink without it at least thinkin about drugs... I have a job and maintain it very well, I still play football and go gym regularly,so most of my life remains fine with the exception of Friday nights...

I'm just worried what the next craze is, what started of as a bit of harmless fun smoking weed has gotten to pretty heavy and frequent class a usage

tomwaterford · 02-02-2014 11:16AM

Im suprised so many people are giving out saying it happens in there 20s
in my between half and three quarters of people in my year in school were smoking weed regulary from 15/16..and taking pills with frightening regularity by leaving cert..i meet some serious messes now by age of 25 though!!

rustedtrumpet · 02-02-2014 06:08PM

Zcorpian88 this isn't your bloody diary. You and your friends went cycling, "it was your thing", "then you got to secondary school and every thing changed..." What? Come off it mate, yous were obviously -13 years of age... just children.

Youre only 25 now, not bloody 85 writing a memoir about how violated you feel because you were offered drugs at a party one time or of other people's choices. People grow up! Horizons broaden. Shocker!

thegreatgonzo · 02-02-2014 06:17PM

padma wrote: »

. Even in the farmer places.

Marts???

thegreatgonzo · 02-02-2014 06:40PM

I'm a mature student and if anything where I am there doesn't seem to be much of a drug culture but the change I notice is the drink pattern. When I started drinking I loved to get hammered as much as my classmates do now but it was a longer slower process involving mainly beer with only a few shorts because they were way more expensive. People can get drunker faster and more cheaply now with cheap supermarket spirits and stuff.

zcorpian88 · 02-02-2014 07:38PM

rustedtrumpet wrote: »

Zcorpian88 this isn't your bloody diary. You and your friends went cycling, "it was your thing", "then you got to secondary school and every thing changed..." What? Come off it mate, yous were obviously -13 years of age... just children.

Youre only 25 now, not bloody 85 writing a memoir about how violated you feel because you were offered drugs at a party one time or of other people's choices. People grow up! Horizons broaden. Shocker!

Some horizon, where you feel the need to giggle using some plant, overall damaging your physical or mental well being in the long term. So what if I was 13, doesn't mean things have to change to this extent, obviously we would become more educated and maybe hang out less even. Doesn't mean they had to waste money and more importantly time they would never get back doing what? Spending a Friday night and Saturday looking for some degenerate dealer, probably claiming dole and every benefit out there and they want to line their pocket even further.

If that's a broadened horizon, youth has really gone to s**t.

pragmatic1 · 02-02-2014 07:56PM

Route1 wrote: »

I am aware that drugs have been around and in use for a lot longer than me, it's just how widespread they have become in recent years I'm referring to.

That isn't a recent thing. Every little town and village in Ireland has drug use. I actually think it's less widespread now than it was a few years ago.

amorphous · 02-02-2014 08:19PM

Nothing new about generation after generation doing drugs.

Frank Sinatra made a movie in 1955 about heroin addiction.

The man with the golden arm

The 19th century saw wars over Opium.

Opium Wars

Temptamperu · 02-02-2014 09:24PM

There has always been drugs and there will always be drugs.

renegademaster · 02-02-2014 09:28PM

amorphous wrote: »

The 19th century saw wars over Opium.

Opium Wars

You really don't need to go that far back to speak of an opium war

Fox_In_Socks · 02-02-2014 09:38PM

renegademaster wrote: »

You really don't need to go that far back to speak of an opium war

Popeye Doyle?

super_furry · 02-02-2014 09:40PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXCN1DhHTZA

That used to be cool. You can't tell me we weren't all on drugs back then.

renegademaster · 03-02-2014 03:26AM

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

Popeye Doyle?

no, the yanks and their partners have been guarding the poppies in afghanistan for over 10 years now, supply has gone through the roof and everytime someone of us suffers at the hands of a junky, the smack they're on has a 95% chance it originated from yanky protected "interests"

SPS1 · 03-02-2014 12:31PM

People often forget to look at the head-shops business before it was banned. You had plenty of people who otherwise wouldn't be interested in using drugs outside of alcohol/tobacco, taking faux cannabis pills & hallucinogens. The business was growing rapidly. Now they are banned, a fair amount of these people who used to use legal highs, do not use their illegal equivilant now.

Would that have occured 30 or 20 years ago in Ireland if they were around? (not a rhetorical question)

Ray Palmer · 03-02-2014 02:03PM

Route1 wrote: »

Of course but thats a very selective statement. I've never heard of overdosing from alcohol, I don't think the late Katie French and Gerry Ryan were having a few cans of Dutch.

How incredibly ridiculous. There is one in the headlines today. There are usually a few a year that make the papers. Then there are all the others not in the papers and the people who die of liver failure.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/heed-our-message-on-neknomination-it-has-destroyed-our-family-29974236.html

Says I To Bridey · 03-02-2014 06:00PM

I think it may be that you just notice it more op, although there are a lot more people who take drugs than you'd realise. Some people I never thought would have take them, especially ecstasy.

Maximus Alexander · 03-02-2014 06:02PM

OP, did you find less people were doing drugs the last time you were 20?

jimgoose · 03-02-2014 06:04PM

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

wow
this definitely never happened in the 80's, 90's or 00's

i think we're in some serious moral decline

Sure don't you know, about every twenty years or so teenagers invent sex, drugs and acting the langer with cars. :pac::pac::pac:

ScumLord · 03-02-2014 06:53PM

SPS1 wrote: »

The business was growing rapidly. Now they are banned, a fair amount of these people who used to use legal highs, do not use their illegal equivilant now.

How do you know that? I would have said that the people that went to the headshop were people that did buy illegal drugs but moved to the legal option as soon as it became available and despite the legal drugs being a very poor imitation of the real things.

Most people I know either went back to illegal drugs or bought the headshop drugs through illegal sources.

SPS1 · 03-02-2014 07:57PM

ScumLord wrote: »

How do you know that? I would have said that the people that went to the headshop were people that did buy illegal drugs but moved to the legal option as soon as it became available and despite the legal drugs being a very poor imitation of the real things.

Most people I know either went back to illegal drugs or bought the headshop drugs through illegal sources.

IIRC, there was 1 head shop opening per month around the country at their peak & they were pulling profits. This was reported in papers due to it becoming a focal point of debate.

I should clarify in my above post, that i'm merely speaking from a subjective perspective. I knew many people who started using them, who otherwise had no interest in illegal drugs & once they were banned stopped using these kind of highs. Others turned to illegal sources.
I'd hazard a guess it was due to their legality giving some impression of them being "safe", coupled with irish folks tendency to go overboard with consumption of drugs.

Growing drug use in my generation.

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