[quote]Sick Rick wrote:
Let me get this straight.
On one side we have the younger group who, for the most part, are doing fine with their lives, and are consuming different amounts of alcohol/illegal drugs.
On the other side there’s the older guys who have little to no experience with drugs and alcohol and are completely against it?
Seems like a pretty retarded discussion to me. I’m a youngin’ myself but I think that (no disrespect) the older guys who stayed away from drugs should get out of this thread, because you aren’t talking from experience…[/quote]
I’m not sure if you can speak with authority here, as you’re not old yourself - so you aren’t talking from experience. 
But seriously - some of us have tried themselves, and some of us have watched, or tried to help out, when people fucked up their lives. I’ve personally seen (and did my best to help) two guys drop out of school for drink and drugs; one classmate OD’d within months after high school graduation; a friend only got his short-term memory back after going clean after years of being continuously stoned; a friend of mine went to prison after starting out on drink and drugs in his youth and ending up trying to ‘solve’ his money problems with an attempted armed robbery; another friend married a dope-fiend whose ‘harmless’ hobby has for years dragged her down in a never ending battle that destroyed her family and makes her two children constantly suffer. All fights that I have seen - including the one in which I had to defend someone from being strangled - were fueled by alcohol and drugs. To this add the experiences of the two psychiatrists I know who work on drug wards and the psychologist who works at a social support unit. The common denominator - alcohol and dope (and often other drugs later on - but yeah, just dope in some cases). Yeah, you must be right - I’ve lived a sheltered life and have no experience with this whatsoever.
[quote]I’ll probably get the whole “you just wait and see” but honestly like That One Guy said all you have to do is find a middle ground. If you become addicted to soft drugs, you’re simply not disciplined enough to meet this line, and you should stay away from any form of mind altering substance.
I smoke weed every other week or so, and since I’ve started I’ve gotten a job, my grades have gone up and I’ve made more social contacts.[/quote]
That One Guy is right - yes, you’ll be fine if you can find the middle ground - many people just can’t. The problem is that you often just find out too late if you were able to or not. As written earlier on, usage tends to impede your ability to assess risk, while it tends to make you feel more confident than you should. And it’s often not a question of strength of personality - drugs (including alcohol) just don’t work that way - it’s pretty much luck, and many people just don’t have it in varying degrees. So why take the risk? Especially when you’re 16 like the OP or Artem?
That’s why pretty much all of the older posters here have been trying to be good role models and told them to listen to their friends, not to take drugs, not to get drunk and not end up lying about it. It’s called genuine concern and trying to share the experiences we’ve made over the years.
Makkun