legal smegal,
what's BAD here, is NORMAL elsewhere,
I'd rather you be paranoid (stoned ) while driving,
then drunk and think you can.

Rika

Give me a break. The "shocked" reaction is either incredibly naive.....or dishonest. With just a few exceptions, we all did drugs back in the day. Many of us were fairly aggressive about it. The list of drugs I did not use......is very short indeed.

Most folks are fairly honest and realistic about what we did when we were young. Those who cop a shocked attitude......I would stay away from them. Who are they trying to kid?

Give me a break. The "shocked" reaction is either incredibly naive.....or dishonest. With just a few exceptions, we all did drugs back in the day. Many of us were fairly aggressive about it. The list of drugs I did not use......is very short indeed.

Most folks are fairly honest and realistic about what we did when we were young. Those who cop a shocked attitude......I would stay away from them. Who are they trying to fool?

Where is Stjin on this subject? How is it in a world where it is legal?

What about your kids? Do you tell them about your past drug use or lie through your teeth? I've been having this discussion with my wife expecting to be asked by my kids any day now. I'm on the side of truth.

Depends on the situation. I'm pretty open about my "lost years" - if nothing else to serve as an example that you can get your ***** together. If they don't like it, that's their issue, not mine.

I'm probably going to tell my son. Not like he couldn't figure out that I had a past...

A licensed, registered, honorary Vietnam Vet....bonfide 60's long haired hippie and prior drug user speaks...................

First......Lovely subject.

Back in the early days when most of you were younger sibblings, perhaps just a zygot or not yet born for another decade or two the drugs in that era were pure (marijauna and acid). Few ventured into the "forbidden zone" of cocaine, heroine or the PCP, industrial varieties (can sniffing) types.

In Nam where most smoked marijuana it was an introduction or exposure to some of the finest, purist cannibis grown on the planet!! Sure in the heck beat that stuff from Mexico. Sort of similar in quality to Juan Valdez's mountain grownColumbian coffee! In Nam in most locations the local momason sold it inbags for less than five bucks. It was cheap and plentiful and knocked you on your ass!!!

As the movie Platoon portrays the cultural division between the "bud drinking crowd" and the "dope smokin crowd", it was all true. BUT, we did maintain a mutual respect for each other because we were all brothers in a foreign land and relied on each other. The majority in my opinion were grasss users. So the grass in southeast Asia was powerful and often the envy of friends back home. You almost had to build up an immunity to it. It was the fortunate few back in the early days of Nam where whole baggage sent home was not sniffed by dogs or x-rayed for contriband. Hundreds of pounds if not thousands must have made their way back home. After all, grass was as much a part of the culture as love beads, the Beatles, Timothy Leary and Alan Ginsburg in Golden Gate Park.

Movin on we were warned back then after chimps in lab settings smoked the equivalent of 50 joints an hour or were shot up with 10,000 cc's of LSD a day, that our offspring would be deformed, our brains fried and the planet doomed from a generation of degenerative hippies! Wow! Some really freaked out about that. They still pace back and forth on the 4th floor of institutions to this day!

Well I am here to tell you that my three grown children are rather normal with no observed residual affects, unless of course they have been faking it for so many years. But as for me, I think sometimes that with all the money I have dumped in my Porsches my brain must be fried! Gee was it the drugs? Through it all I will just accept that euphoria must equate to Porsche. Its a natural high to head on down the highway in my 911, but occasionally, stationary objects do wobble!! Far out man...............:D

Bob

I never exhaled. lol

Like the military, don't ask - don't tell works for me. I confide in close friends, but it's not a dinner topic with guests.

My wife never touched anything illicit in her life(well, maybe second hand reefer) and she prefers I don't relate my stories to others at all.

Don't really know why it happened, but while I was with my 15 year-old daughter driving in the car the subject of smoking pot came up. I decided to take honest route concerning my usage.

To say she was shocked is an understatement...she is rarely without words:)

It was important for her to hear from me why I did it and, more importantly, why I stopped.

It was also a excellent time to point out to her that with my experiences should she think to try...

My wife, otoh, has never used any illegal drug.

Indeed. I have decided to lie.

My parents made light of their drug use during the 60's in front of my sister and I. It was an error, because it gave tacit approval to using drugs.

No, I'm going to lie, and I'm going to aggressively intervene if I think my kid is up to something.

I had some great experiences on drugs, buy I also put myself in some bad situations, and took some stupid risks. Can't say it helped my grades in college either....

Not in my case...in fact I was very stern in my appraisal of how pot handicapped me in certain aspects of my life, that I was lucky to be where I am today.

I would tell the truth, your children finding out you did after telling them you didn't would be much worse.

What was the question?:D

I didn't do it! Nobody saw me! You can't prove anything!
Bart Simpson

agree with Hawk,
kids need to be told ,
they will choose something..
so you either help them with your 'experience' and hope they learn something. Or pretend all is well out there.

Rika

Ditto. Being sober for only 2.5 months now, my "past" isn't long ago at all. I talk about it openly if it comes up, and my kids saw me going through it. It is what it is.

Certainly an issue I need to consider more. I have a few years.

I dunno. Perhaps it was the way my parents went about telling us. They told us about it as part of a larger discussion about the 1960s. They almost glamorized it. Not good parenting. They both admit it now as well.

Totally agree. I can go into detail about the last few months of my lost years and talk about being propped up so I could breathe (don't remember that), not being able to stand up, and losing xmas. I don't think that's going to give him "tacit approval"...

Less than Keith Richards.

But not by much. God knows how much pot and hashish. Maybe 400 hits of acid alone, psilocybin and other psychedelics. I joined the army to get away from drugs. Wrong place to go. Amsterdam was very close by. Then when I got out the champagne of drugs was just getting started. Cocaine. LOTS of cocaine. Cocaine could still tempt me.

I'm always truthful about it- I haven't imbibed in probably twenty years and I hold a clearance.

I beleive the majority of drugs should be legal. We lost the "war" on them years ago. Tax them and pay off the deficit in two years.

Quit when you were 25?

Pfft... ROOKIE!

I agree that talking about it has it's time and place... especially when letting young people know you have BTDT AND be sure to emphasize what waste of time, money, and health it was.

I don't think the issue here is drug use at all.

The issue is whether you should tell people about your past history.

No you should not. You should be discrete. People with low self esteem tend to blab away all of their mistakes because they are afraid that strangers won't accept them.

The truth is, nothing about your life is any business of a complete stranger. If on the other hand, the other person is an employer, a friend, a family member, girlfriend, etc, then there is an obligation to be truthful depending on the relationshiip and how much trust they need to have in you, even if the truth is painful.

I don't feel that most people have any business knowing much about me or my past. If they ask, I have no obligation to respond. If they persist, I have no obligation to respond truthfully. In practice, no-one asks, its just not a topic of interest in my social circles.

On a job application, etc, that's probably different. I've never faced it, since in my industry no-one asks or cares.