Poll: What was your exposure to drugs as a teen/young adult?

[Punchie]

The ubiquitous Other - military boarding school, it was there, but you had to know where to find it.

[Tap]

I graduated in 89. It was very prevalent. In fact I think more kids drank or did drugs that those who didn't in my high school. I was a heavy drinker in 11-12th grades (3+ days per week-often got drunk). I had several friends who were drug dealers. I had several friends in rehab. Ironically, the drug dealers were protective over me because I refused to take drugs. The highest peer pressure on harder drugs, came from my casual friends.

 

 

 

I have a friend who went to the same high school. She didn't take drugs or even drink until she was in her 20s. She was actively involved in Christian youth groups, varsity sports, and was valedictorian. She didn't have as much exposure to drugs as I did, be she says it was still very common among her friends and she would have had no problem getting what ever she wanted.

 

 

Due to this, I don't think it was just my 'perception' of ease, or the group of people I hung out with... It was the high school we went to.

[SKL]

I'm 45 and I honestly do not know what pot smells like. I went to a rural public high school. It would have been easy to find someone with it and probably easy to get it, but I was not willing to risk the consequences. I knew kids (even siblings) who did it, but never around me.

 

I have no idea what % of kids tried it, but I am sure there are plenty of kids who saw no point in it because we had better things to think about.

[Pamela H in Texas]

I went to a high school west of Houston. I was not exposed to pot until I was 18 though. I didn't know who were the kids doing or even trying drugs. I had *heard* there were drugs, but I wouldn't have even had a clue how to look for them.

 

Now that I think of it though, I was pretty oblivious to almost everything outside of "my world."

[Gailmegan]

Private, secular school late 1980's. There were groups of kids who did coke and some got caught with it on campus and got expelled. A good number smoked pot at parties, but I never went to those parties. So it wasn't exactly the norm, but it was there and we all knew about it.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I was offered pot at our bus stop. I knew which houses in our area dealt drugs. I lived in a upper-middle class neighborhood. When I was younger there was no low income or cost housing in our town, if fact there was no housing even affortable to any of the teachers at our school. When I was in highschool someone sued to have "low cost" housing forced in, but the drugs were around before that.

 

If you wanted drugs you had to look for them, but they were not hard to find.

[bettyandbob]

Mostly drinking. Once, in 10th grade, two kids took pills in the back of the room during drama, right beside me. Only pot once as a high school teen, when I visited my cousins and they smoked in front of me. In college, however, my roommate had home-grown in her dresser in our dorm room.

 

I don't think my experience is typical now in this area by any means. Pot, LSD, Ecstasy, Adderall abuse--it's all over the flippin' place. I know this to be a fact.

 

 

I believe I live in the same district. I also went to school in this district. My experience is that it's really not much different today than it was 35 years ago. My siblings did drugs (mostly alcohol and pot though). They had no trouble getting what they wanted. I wasn't interested so I didn't bother to find out where to get stuff and wouldn't have been able to tell anyone how to get drugs.

 

I know there are drugs present in the local high school. So far, my dc have not had the interest to find out where/how/etc. I pray my family's situation stays that way. I guess we've been lucky with the peer group they've attached to. I think there are some kids who want to seek out these things and there are some kids who if they are friends with the persons seeking out drugs then they will go along and get involved in the drug seen too. If a child isn't interested to begin with and has no friends who go that way, it's unlikely that child will know specific details of a schools underground drug scene. You can hope that by making sure your child is real busy they won't have the time or interest, but there is a real luck factor.

 

There are personality types like risk takers, for whom their personality is a great asset in many career. However, that same personality can really derail the teen years with drug use. The same is true for a disability like ADHD which has impulse control issues. Such a disability can be an asset at some point, but the person needs to learn how to make it an asset.

 

I think it's interesting that although there is a small sample of people who attended religious schools, it's clear a significant percent were aware of a drug scene.

[melbotoast]

I went to a large public high school in an affluent area in the early 2000s. I was never offered drugs or saw any drugs around. I'm sure you could find them if you really wanted but I wasn't in any of those groups. I did have a couple friends who I know drank or smoked cigarettes occasionally, but never around me.

 

And for college I went to BYU :001_smile:

[LibraryLover]

college

Edited May 11, 2012 by LibraryLover

[JennyD]

I went to a large NJ public high school in the late 1980s. I occasionally heard mention of drugs, and looking back now I am sure that there was rather more going than I knew about. At the time, though, I was entirely focused on my GPA (a.k.a. my ticket out) and various activities; everything else was pretty much just white noise.

 

In a weird coincidence, though, DH and I were just discussing our respective high school experiences a few days ago. He also went to a (different) large NJ public high school in the late 1980s, but according to him the main problem at his school was sports gambling. And apparently it was a substantial problem.

[gingersmom]

I went to fancy schmancy private school in Connecticut. Kids with lots of money and some uninvolved parents equals lots of marijuana and alcohol. I switched to public school and there was way less going on. I mean I am sure if you wanted drugs/alcohol there were plenty of people who could get it for you.

[chicagoshannon]

I went to a private Chriatian school and drugs were not there at all. I think some kids might have tried to smoke a cigarette and tried alcohol( and that was rare) but not drugs.

[danybug]

I went to a private religious high school in the suburbs and by junior and senior year weed smoking was extremely prevalent. And drinking was totally out of control.

[Joanne]

Public school. I'd say nearly a majority experimented with drugs/alcohol. Most, in terms of numbers, did not repeatedly mis-use it.

 

It was not "prevalent" but it was also not hard to find. ;)

 

I teach in a small private school populated by a mix, but a substantial number of former homeschoolers. Drugs can be found, typically centered on the former public school kids who had to seek an alternative for some reason.

[higginszoo]

I went to Catholic high school. Two actually. At the one I started and finished, it was there, but not prevalent. Still, I know what pot smells like because of the girls' room in the math/science building.

 

The other one had a much bigger drug culture. There were exchanges that went on right in religion class (the nun that they had teaching was 90 if she was a day and blind ... but when I reported it, the reaction was such that my parents believed the principal may have been in on it/getting a cut).

[Joanne]

I went to a large NJ public high school in the late 1980s. I occasionally heard mention of drugs, and looking back now I am sure that there was rather more going than I knew about. At the time, though, I was entirely focused on my GPA (a.k.a. my ticket out) and various activities; everything else was pretty much just white noise.

 

In a weird coincidence, though, DH and I were just discussing our respective high school experiences a few days ago. He also went to a (different) large NJ public high school in the late 1980s, but according to him the main problem at his school was sports gambling. And apparently it was a substantial problem.

 

I went to a large public high school in NJ in the 1980's. :) Central Morris County. I don't remember gambling at all. But that could be because of the partying. ;)

[Butter]

I was homeschooled. I had mostly public schooled friends. Several of them did drugs occasionally, though I never did. I was around them sometimes while they were on drugs (most often LSD or pot). I could not be around them when they were actively smoking pot because the smell/smoke made me cough and get sick. I was around them after they finished smoking it and were high.

 

I am 34 so was a teen in the 90s.

[ondreeuh]

I didn't really have any exposure to drugs until university. I think we were quite innocent really. You heard of people taking drugs but it wasn't people I knew or had contact with. A few people drank alcohol at 17 or 18 and a few people smoked but it wasn't too obvious.

 

Same here. I was never offered at school and I didn't go to parties so I have no idea what was common ... In school, though, it was underground. In my circle (the honors kids) it was not done. Dh went to a different high school in the same suburb and he was never around it either.

 

It's only as an adult have I found that ALL of my adult friends smoke weed on a casual basis. Everyone is shocked that I never have. It still weirdos me out. Where I live in Alaska you can get a contact high from walking down the street ... People lite up on their porches.

[MrsBear]

I graduated in '84 from a small NY public school that was very competitive academically - there was great stigma if you used drugs, the kids that did were the "druggies" - so while they were around, you had to go find it if you wanted to do that. There were only a handful of kids that smoked pot, the vast majority didn't and most of us had no interest. One kid, a grade ahead, was arrested for possession of cocaine and it was a huge scandal at the school, so I guess some did that too. I was never offered any type of drug when I was in high school, nor did I want to try any!

 

Alcohol was another story though, the majority would drink on weekends (starting in 11th grade, not really before that.....and this was when it was still 18 to drink in NY), but (shocker) there were always designated drivers - we were all scared to die in a car accident after one of our classmates was killed in a car accident (playing chicken, no alcohol or drugs involved, just stupidity).

[cindergretta]

I went to public school. I never saw any drugs. I was never offered any drugs. I didn't know anyone who used drugs. They must have been there, but I sure didn't know anything about them. I graduated in '91 from a suburban high school of about 1000 students, primarily military, but certainly not exclusively.

[Parrothead]

Public school with prevalent use. It was obvious with the dopers. Not so obvious with the cool kids. The geeks were oblivious.

[Mrs Mungo]

I voted that you had to go looking for it, but that's because it fit better than the first choice. I would not say that it was the norm, at all. But, I *was* directly exposed to people using drugs at normal (not wild, druggie or frat) parties in college. I was offered drugs in high school and college. eta: And I was a geek, not a cool kid, lol.

[nova147]

I voted prevelant/norm. But I think it would be fair to say less than half of the kids actually did drugs. Maybe more than half tried it once, but most kids just knew it was there, and who to get it from if you wanted it.

 

I don't know how this compares to current high school culture, but I do know that when I was in school, pot and meth were easy to get. Anything else, I think you would have to go looking. And no one was doing prescription drugs, to my knowledge.

[ErinE]

I went to a large suburban high school, affluent suburbs mostly. There was access to drugs very easily. I went to several parties where it was available. I graduated in 1985. Pot was easily available, I don't think people were into heavier drugs generally.

 

This was my experience years later. Oddly enough, I saw and was exposed to heavier drug use in junior high. In high school, I think harder drug users either dropped out or were more underground, not doing it in public at parties.

[MamaT]

I graduated high school in 1981, and it was definitely prevalent/norm. It was the geeks, cool kids, everyone really. There were a few kids I knew of that stayed away from drinking and drugs, but they were few and far between. It was mostly heavy drinking and pot, and a few kids I knew did cocaine.

[Farrar]

I voted that you had to go looking... but I feel like the truth is in the middle. It was normal for some. It was something you couldn't completely avoid because it was prevalent enough that you inevitably knew at least a few people who used drugs, either casually or not so casually. But it was easy enough to find a crowd where you could avoid it as well. I do think *that's* normal - for it to be an accepted part of the high school culture, but for it not to be a scene everyone directly participates in.

[indigomama]

Graduated from public school, in 1999 in California. I voted you had to go looking for them.

 

No one in school ever offered me any because everyone knew I would never accept.

 

Unfortunately, I could easily have gotten them from extended family way before high school:glare:

[jewellsmommy]

Unfortunately I was offered drugs on more than one occasion starting in middle school. By mid highschool I had a reputation as a 'good' girl so I didn't get any more offers. :lol:

 

I still remember the day that one of the girls in my Chemistry class turned in her book, at the end of the year, with marijuana between the back cover and back page. :001_huh: I actually did not know what it was, but the teacher suspected, and I was standing beside her desk at the time. Another student confirmed her suspicion for her :lol:. The teacher had a conversation with the young lady but did not report her. It was a pretty well known issue. Someone got busted every time they brought the dogs by.

[gardenmom5]

I need an "other".

 

let's see - at school, I basically knew who the most obvious users were.

 

at home . . . . my sister used (and loved the drama of claiming she was going to OD); my brother used, dealt, grew, and repeatedly told me when I was ready to use to come to him. I used to slit through the main stem of his pot plants and he'd come pound on me when they'd start dying. One of his friends tried to force it on me and only backed off when some girls with them told him to. (I wasn't in a position where I could get away.)

 

I never willingly used, and never wanted to. With my siblings, I had total access and had many kids come up to me asking questions about drugs and paraphenalia as early as middle school.

 

at least my brother is clean now, and rather ashamed of using. (though probably oblivious to how things he did affected anyone else. I'm sure he's NPD.)

 

eta: I have three who did public high school - my girls stayed far away from that crowd. 2dd did crew in college- and quit because she was expected to attend their parties and all they did was get drunker than a skunk. she never drank. My son dropped friends when they started doing drugs (and he told me why he dropped them.). iow: None of my four adult children so much as tried recreational drugs of any kind.

 

I'll also add - my brother was introduced to drugs at the unitarian church (NOT at school) my parents decided to start attending because it was so "out there". (it made other unitarian churches look downright conservative)

Edited May 11, 2012 by gardenmom5

[NanceXToo]

I drank beer and smoked pot starting in 7th grade. At that time, I attended a public school. A lot of my friends did the same thing. (And a lot didn't).

 

When I was in 10th grade my mother decided to send me to a private Catholic school to see if that would be "any better." It wasn't. I met quite a few kids there who also drank, smoked cigarettes, smoked pot (sometimes even AT school), etc.

 

ETA: Like KidsHappen said below, most people I knew did not use any harder drugs, and either did I.

Edited May 11, 2012 by NanceXToo

[KidsHappen]

I went to PS and I didn't know anyone who didn't smoke. I wasn't as big a deal then. Even for a teen possession or use was usually a misdemenor if the cop didn't just take your stuff and send you on your way. (late 70's - 81)

 

My my eldest dd went to HS at a PS she had the distinction of going to the most drug infested school in the state but she didn't use drugs. (99-03 I think)

 

I just watched a news program/documentary stating that more teens are trying and/or using marajuana that at any time in history (including the 60's). (2000s-now)

 

Since I was a teen until now speed use has always been rampant in the overachieving crowd. There are only so many hours and a day and in order to do all that they do something has to give. Usually it is sleep and you can only go without sleep for so long without some help.

 

I never had any interaction with people who used harder drugs - cocaine, heroine, meth, etc. They seemed to be an entirely different class of drug user.

[Word Nerd]

I was not exposed to drugs other than alcohol in high school, but I know they were available if you went looking. I was a goody-two-shoes and I think my schoolmates shielded me from that to some extent. They knew I wouldn't mess with it anyway and were probably afraid I would narc on them (and I probably would have). The first time I was ever exposed to pot was at a U2 concert when I was in college.

Edited May 11, 2012 by WordGirl

[Wheres Toto]

I went to a large public high school in NJ in the 1980's. :) Central Morris County. I don't remember gambling at all. But that could be because of the partying. ;)

 

Okay, I also went to a large public high school in NJ, in Central Morris County. Graduated in 1987.

[DaffodilDreams]

The first time I actually saw drugs/saw someone using drugs was my jr yr of college. I never saw it in high school or at local parties. Ten years later, though, they were all over the middle and high schools, and there were several known "drug houses" in town. Ten more years later, it's still that way. Prescription drug abuse, though, I unknowingly grew up with. Didn't realize it when I was young, but several family members had a history of that sort of abuse. Eventually some of them moved on to street drugs, but by then I was away from those relatives.

[Dustybug]

I went to public school and while I'm sure there were kids who did drugs, I did not socialize with any of them and I wasn't too aware of it, so you would probably have had to go looking for them if you wanted them.

 

Sadly though, I was exposed to lots of drugs and alcohol outside of school in my own home. :( My mother is an alcoholic(although she's been sober now for 6 years or so) and when I was a teen, there were frequently various people in and out, having LOUD card playing parties with music blaring on weeknights while I just tried my hardest to sleep so I could go to school/work the next day. My mom never did the drugs in front of me, but I would often smell weed in her bedroom and when she met my stepfather, it turned out that he had a drug of choice too---crack. He's been in and out of rehab several times over the years, but this last time about a year ago seems to have worked (prayerfully).

 

ETA: We also lived in a low income apartment housing and there were constant drug dealings going on outside. There was even a shooting once when I was in middle school.

[Harriet Vane]

Never offered drugs at either my large, public junior high or small, private, Christian high school. I was not aware of where I could even get them at school.

 

There was someone dear to me who was a drug addict. I knew where she got her drugs, and even went there with her at times. She never purchased in my presence and her friends did not smoke pot in front of me, nor did they ever offer it to me. I was known as a harmless "Jesus freak."

[Ipsey]

No one ever offered me drugs, (at my public high school--200 students--only high school in our small community--1990s) thought I knew some classmates who smoked pot. I'm sure some folks had access to harder stuff. I went to one "drinking" party that was monitored by parents. I didn't drink. No one was allowed to leave.

 

I don't approve of such parties myself, didn't even at the time, but wanted to see what they were like. My parents knew where I was going, but knew me well enough to trust me. So, . . .I saw what they were like. It was pretty much what I thought. Stupid. No one even encouraged me to drink alcohol. I had a soft drink in my hand and my drunk classmates all cheered me for being such a "good person". It was quite laughable, actually.

[laundrycrisis]

At the PS I attended (wealthy suburban) it was very easy to get into that sort of trouble if you were interested in it. But it was not the majority culture of the school.

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I wasn't until after I graduated public high school that I found out how prevalent it was (art teacher making bongs, kids in the bathrooms smoking pot, "narcs" making the kids share when they caught them, etc.) I was very naive and didn't have a lot of friends. There was one bathroom that smelled weird, but I thought it was some girls' hairspray or something. (Nope, it wasn't.) I had a lot of trouble breathing, so I didn't use that one more than once or twice.

 

In my (tiny) private Chirstian middle school a kid got in trouble for "pranking" another kid by selling him basil and telling him it was weed.

 

I put "other."

[kewb]

I went to public school. I wouldn't say the drugs were prevalent but you also didn't have to really search for them. Everyone knew where to get them. Our Good Humor Ice Cream Truck was a supplier (I only recently found out about that).

 

Personally, I have never tried any illegal drug, including Marijuana. I did have friends who were regular users and friends who sampled.

 

I do think that at some point All teens will be exposed to it but I do not think they will ALL try it. I think that depends on the kid.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Private Christian missionary school - there were drugs. It wasn't blatant but it was there.

 

Public school for one year - there were drugs. Much more blatant. Teachers were involved in supplying them. Obviously not everyone used them.

[Meriwether]

I put "it was there" but I never saw it. I was never offered drugs in either high school or college. I went to a small school. No one would have thought for a minute that I'd be interested. I'm sure it was available for the interested kids.

[mommy5]

I was never offered drugs ... at public school. Tried to find friends who weren't into that sort of lifestyle. There were a lot of things, though, at the ps that I was exposed to at a young age.

Edited May 12, 2012 by mommy5

[SuperDad]

Public schooled. It was prevalent, definitely, but I worked very hard to surround myself with friends who weren't from the "drug crowd". I just did not want to go there. I had too much to lose.

[LMD]

I voted Public school - prevalent. Graduated in 2001.

 

But it was probably more alcohol/cigarettes for the majority, with a few using pot and a couple trying other things. There were definately the known 'potheads' group, they were the regular users - there were casual users across all the groups (I most certainly was not in the 'cool' group).

 

I think I thought it was more prevalent than it really was, since it was so normalized to me from my home life, where the adults grew up in the 60's and were regular users... I tried pot once and didn't like it much, DH (same highschool) never tried it. Neither of us have tried anything harder, infact most people I know are happy to have pot as their limit - with a few notable and sad exceptions :(

Edited May 11, 2012 by LMD

[Rosie_0801]

One mom even said, "Well, they are bored." :001_huh:

 

That was the conclusion I came to as a teen also. The guys in particular were being told to grow up, but in other ways weren't allowed to.

 

Most of the guys I went to school with used pot and alcohol, fewer girls used pot. Very, very few used anything "worse." The only one I'm aware of that became a druggie, as opposed to a person who smokes pot and drinks too much (coz they aren't drugs :rolleyes:) was the kid with the most pocket money and least involved parents.

 

Rosie

[blondeviolin]

I went two public high schools: one in CA, the other in KY. Interestingly, drugs were much more prevalent in KY vs CA. I graduated in 2003.

[lynn]

I never knew what drugs were until we moved to the pit of south florida at the age of 13.

[ma23peas]

Never ever had drugs offered to me, or alcohol! People knew I was not one to ask about those things...I worked in Colorado one summer during college and it was the first time I had ever seen a bong...a guy I met wanted me to meet his roommates...he opened the door and there sat two guys inhaling...I was mortified...it literally looked as if they were killing themselves and had no care the effect on their bodies...it made me want to cry and that pretty much ended our date...two different worlds....my date was the son of a very successful businessman, drove his own Porsche and while he apologized for his roomies, he said 'everyone' does it. I think he realized quickly how not true that was by the look on my face...never had my first alcoholic drink until I was 21 and since then, may have had 10 drinks...never finishing most...just not something I want in my body...not one of my 30+ friends (close ones from high school and college) ever did drugs...just not a part of our culture.

[kalanamak]

I was in hs during That 70s Show era, and just about everyone tried pot, and quite a few acid or mushrooms. No cocaine, a few white cross and sedatives about, but nothing public or blatant. No one pressured or made fun of anyone who didn't. Lots of beer, too.