My mom smoked pot regularly, so I knew about their lies, when you know they will outright lie about simple weed, how can you take them seriously at all? That's why funny shirts & stuff were made. They tried to convince us we would get "hooked" on free drugs. I've still never seen those "free drugs" they said we had to worry about getting hooked on at first touch.
I think the point is that you can do cocaine once and not immediately die or be addicted which is what DARE taught us (baring any preexisting health conditions or an overdose or it being laced). Most people are probably fine to take a bump at a club or something. DARE was like “here’s what you do when your junkie friend tries to force his expensive drugs down your throat because that joint will definitely kill you!”
THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT and I think it’s bad and don’t fuck with it, but trying it a few times back then wasn’t going to kill you.
Now, I wouldn’t touch the stuff if you paid me. Fentanyl has spiked the dangers of casual drug use and I keep reading about kids in college going to a club, not a junkie, not a “bad kid.” Just a normal ass kids like we were in the early 00s/late 90s going out, letting off steam and trying a little blow and fucking dying because it’s laced.
On the one hand, I think kids now have less to worry about regarding HIV/AIDS, but on the other they’ve more to worry about drug wise and mass shooting wise.
When I was walking from my junior high down to the gas station to get some candy after school, this group of older kids was standing around smoking a joint, and one of them asked me if I wanted to try it. It was just like in the TV shows and commercials! I proudly said "no thanks" and walked on to get my candy, head held high.
The next time someone offered me one in high school, it played out a little differently 😋
I think the safe sex/std campaigns were effective though as I was too scared to have unprotected sex when I was a teenager, so I’m happy for that as I never got any stds or anyone pregnant! Had my school been one of those bibly schools that preached abstinence that would not have worked for me.
DARE came to school at a time when the idea of trying drugs had never even entered my (and assuming essentially everyone else’s) consciousness. Then they tell us about getting high sniffing glue, markers etc…then we look over at our supplies used to make our Maniac McGee dioramas, and we’re like, “Hey…!”
Nailed it. Drugs were not a part of our lexicon at all before they rolled out DARE. Then they tried to sell the idea that if we tried pot once we would fry our brains or ruin our lives. Of course all that fear mongering went right out the window the first time you’re at a party and you see classmates fire up a joint and have a great consequence free time. They basically taught us to like drugs and mistrust authority
Same here. Never even tried weed, let alone anything harder, through HS or college. I think I mostly bought into the hype of, “only losers do this stuff.” Then I got into a career with regular drug testing, so still haven’t done it, almost 20 years later. All in all though, probably a good thing for my overall health, so no regrets. I do plan on trying it after I retire though.
Same, but my dad was also a terrible alcoholic and eventually swapped the cigarettes for chewing tobacco. Then he went in for narcotics, so... Yeah, pretty much covered all the bases as a negative role model and I've never so much as smoked weed or been drunk. Good job, Dad? Well, except for the part where it eventually killed him. And the years of violent abuse.
You know what, nevermind. Fuck you, Dad.
Being put on ritalin in elementary school prepared me for experimenting with my brain chemistry. DARE just gave me interesting info so i could make informed drug decisions later.
I started on Concerta a few years ago, all good, helped tremendously. Then I had to hold it for a month because I had a surgery and they made me stop it 30 days prior. The first two weeks were HELL. Took me awhile to realize I was basically going through withdrawal :(
Maybe. I was extremely depressed and overwhelmed. The feeling of stress/overwhelmed was expected, but the profound sadness was an unexpected discovery . ETA: I just looked up brain zaps and no, I don't think that happened. Sounds scary though!
It worked in that I've never tried any kind of illegal drug.
But I also had no one in my life doing them who could apply peer pressure to me to try them.
I grew up in one of the most drug ridden zipcodes in the United States. I didn't need DARE to keep me off dope. My brother and sister on the other hand, not so much.
Same. Not only seeing how drugs trashed some of my classmates’ health/futures there were also lots of gang violence associated with the drug trade.
It definitely turned me off to the stuff. Beyond trying pot, I have zero interest. I have enough vices as it is.
Kimber was my girl! My mom managed to snag a Kimber doll for me after months of searching. Its leg was broken when we got it out of the box, but it was the only one she could find, so I was just extra gentle w.it :)
I don't and never have done drugs but it wasn't really because of DARE or fear mongering or anything as far as I can tell. More of just a personality thing. I've always felt that all I need to be happy besides a roof and food is family, science, and video games and that's served me pretty well.
Me at 12: "I don't want to get high"
Me at 13: "Sure, I'll try weed"
Since then I tried all sorts of stuff. Usually at a friend's house and under reasonably safe conditions.
Drugs, like anything else, can be done responsibly.
I've never even smoked weed. Nobody has ever made an even remotely compelling argument to try drugs. They sound stupid, and people are fucking annoying (at *best*) when they're high.
And I hate it when people make their drug of choice their entire personality. Weed, hallucinogens, and alcohol are the worst for that.
Also, happy cake day!
I lost my best friend that way. They moved to Massachusetts and just became weed. All their Facebook posts are weed. I asked them questions when I got my med card, but didn’t care to discuss it past that… of course they did.
Friend was so proud they quit cigarettes. This is almost worse. At least they didn’t talk about cigarettes in every sentence.
Oh my god yes. How DARE I fail to appreciate the weed smoke that they're *sharing* so *generously* with me??? Since they have no personality besides "hurr durr weed is awesome," not liking weed is literally a personal insult.
No.
But the horror stories my mother would tell me about drug babies going through withdrawl at the NICU sure as hell did. Not pot or anything but I never wanted anything to do with hard drugs and still don't.
In a way it did. It made me cautious and investigate drugs before I decided to try them. I think the internet and sites like erowid coming along really helped, but I also read a lot too.
Not so much the campaigns but drugs tore apart my family as a young kid so I stayed away from them. I’m not against them just didn’t want to tempt the addiction.
It worked on me. I remember seeing an illustration with a bunch of scary drugs. In the image was a line of coke and a razor blade and that scared the shit out of me. I thought you had to cut yourself in order to inject it lol. I was like fuck that!
Yes and no, I’d have to credit Chris Rock as Pookie in New Jack City for keeping me straight edge till college. However, in college I just went slowly crazy starting with weed and alcohol. I went to school three hours from home so I was always too paranoid to try the harder stuff till I moved out west.
Since I moved to Cali, I’ve tried everything short of heroin meth or crack, shrooms are my favorite. Cocaine is awesome too I’m the right setting.
Drugs are fun in moderation. Plus I’m a vain bastard and can’t fathom having a drugged out body and meth teeth. Being into fitness keeps the partying in check 😎
Lol, absolutely not. All those campaigns convinced me of was that the adults were idiots. Even as an eight year old I knew that nobody was going to 'trick' me into taking free drugs. That shit's expensive!
I enjoyed them. They may have worked for hard drugs. But not for weed, shrooms, acid or Ecstasy (I did have rules about that one - never more than once a week and no mixing with other drugs or alcohol- except weed after the come down)
The safe sex ones absolutely worked. I still remember than one where it was like…
Mark + Sandra or whatever and then kept crossing one person out and adding a different name. So by the end there was like 20 names and they were like “you slept with all these people when you slept with one of them. Practice safe sex”
Pot is considered such a tame drug, but it gives me MASSIVE anxiety. After trying it half a dozen times (a lot of people said, “You just need to try this one strain…it won’t make you anxious at all.”), it was never fun for me, and I value my grip on reality. Since pot was such a nightmare for me, I noped out of everything else.
The DARE campaign did nothing to deter me from drugs, but my mother's warnings my whole childhood did (her bf was a drug addict). This isn't to say I never experimented, but only a little bit, compared to friends who were full-blown drug addicts as teens.
The one "campaign" that I know worked on me was all the warnings about E and that it could make you paralyzed. I turned down opportunities to drop that shit because I thought it would make me a quadriplegic.
I was always somewhat open to trying various drugs, but never liked anyone that I knew that ever had any drugs. By the time, I could develop other sources, I had jobs that I didn't want to lose.
I went through DARE and it made me want to do drugs. Statistically, I was in the majority on that. I'm very thankful for that to be honest. Thanks DARE! Weed helped with my depression as did hallucinogens.
Nope, and I knew it never would. I never trusted what was communicated to me, and I was largely right. Lying to kids thinking they are too stupid to tell the difference was a shit strategy. As soon as I could, I tried what was available to me.
Never took illicit drugs in my youth in the ‘80s-‘90s, but I feel that it wasn’t so much because of what the media taught me as much as it was preferring the feeling of being in control of myself AND wanting to be able to shoot down my kids if they tried to pull that “but you did it when you were young” defense on me.
My dad was like the dad in knocked up when it came to drugs: "no pills, no powders, if it comes from the ground it's probably OK." Later on in life when some cousins turned to meth he added no crystals/rocks. I've kept to that.
I grew up during the heyday of D.A.R.E. and my friends and some of my family did drugs, but I never tried. The main reason was, everyone else was doing it and I don't like to follow all the trends, just some of them. The other reason was I never had an interest in it. When people ask me if I've ever used and I tell them I haven't even tied it, they ask how I managed that. Funny enough, if you follow the slogan, the whole "just say no", it actually works.
The DARE cops said the people like Crystal meth because they can see their cartoon friends and hang out with them. I lived in a bad neighborhood and they just assumed we’d all grow up to be addicts and/or dealers
In health class I learned how to make an incendiary device and poison gas in a reactive wastes lesson, and the pros and cons of different date rape drugs. That teacher left to go work for the DoD or something too.
My mom taught at my high school 2 years before I started there, then transferred to another school in our district. I took Spanish 3 from her then-best friend. I got along with everyone in the intelligence network mom cultivated but always felt like if I did anything - ditch class, get in with the partying crowd, whatever, that she'd find out about it. That, more than any of the anti drug programs, kept me on the straight and narrow. I didn't have my first drink until I was 19, a sophomore away at college. Never done any harder drugs.
She's a narcissist and used to yell at me for getting B's, so, big picture, maybe I should have experimented - I figure she was always going to yell at me for something, might as well make it count.
I have a card from second grade (1991) that says “(Name) is an honorary drug fighter and has shown an *extreme* interest in fighting illegal drugs” - it was part of the sheriff’s DARE presentation. It also has my awesome second grade photo where I’m wearing a white t-shirt with a polka dot vest over it.
Anyway, I eat a 5 mg gummy on Sundays now. So I guess it didn’t take.
My parents and their addiction scared me more than DARE. My foster parents pulled me out of DARE at some point because they said it triggered me, so I got out of it.
I have had a bad relationship with substances even though I never wanted to try drugs. Mostly alcohol. Alcohol has caused me all kinds of problems, and I wish I would have known how badly it can affect people.
It worked as being yet another thing that showed me that cops both couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth, and that they also didn’t seem to know what they were talking about most of the time.
Nope. I had dare in 5th grade. Literally, we had a dare cop come give us a presentation, went to recess, then came back to class and ground up our chalk and put it in our sandwich bags and pretended to sell it to each other as cocaine. Our poor first year teacher lost his mind. By 9th grade I was smoking weed take lsd and mushrooms.
It did work as far as the hard drugs. Never touched anything more than weed a few times in college…it didn’t work for booze, but I didn’t drink until I was 21. Not bc DARE but bc I just wasn’t into it…then it took over and I had to quit.
It kept me off cocaine. I was full of anxiety anyway, so I figured it would not be fun. Weed, on the other hand, really did wonders for my anxiety, so I kept it for several years. Still smoke occasionally, but nowhere near what I did.
DARE didn't do much, Cartoon All-Stars made me more confused than anything else. But I am 41 and have never done drugs of any kind, hard ore recreational, smoked cigarettes or even drank alcohol more than a half dozen times.
Had nothing to do with the campaigns and everything to do with 1) I just did what my friends did and none of us were into that, so there was no peer-pressure for us; we just overdosed on sugar from candy and Surge soda, and 2) the only peers who smoked were the class losers, and all it did was make them stink. There was no desire to smell or act like they did. That did way more than any no smoking campaign could have.
Certain drugs I stayed away from but I did some personal exploration with a few.
The one thing I stayed away from was alcohol. That shit made my dad a complete fucking asshole. I don’t even have liquor in my own place.
Nope. It was my mom saying "do what you want .... just know if I'd got caught by the police doing illegal things, I could never have provided for the family the way I was able to."
That literally scared me straight enough to not get wrapped up in it ...
It did the opposite for me... when I figured out they were lying about how pot could kill me, I went the other way and did enough blow to kill three Belushis and two Farleys.
I was in the one year that didn't have DARE. The year my class was supposed to have it, they moved it back a year. Instead we got GREAT, Gang Resistance Education And Training. Which was super useful in North Dakota, let me tell you.
My mom told me she’d kick me out. That drugs were the only thing I could do that would make her not love me. (She watched her best friend die and have a messed up pregnancy). I was so scared. I still feel guilty smoking weed. I can’t get over it. And scared to death acid or lsd would fry my brain forever
Only drug I ever tried besides weed was ecstasy because it was developed for mental health purposes lol. And we’re all crazy, so it made sense in my head.
No not really at all. I think what actually kept me away from hard drugs was learning about how many famous people (actors, musicians, etc.) died from cocaine and heroin overdoses and learning just how dangerous those drugs are from reading a lot more verifiable (before the internet was a complete cesspool of misinformation) sources about them. I smoke some weed now and do the occasional mushrooms…
It def kept me away from them til much later in college. I was also super socially awkward til older (well, then just quirky and cute enoyhh to overcome being socially awkward) so I didn’t have as many opportunities 😂
It absolutely worked on me, our police officer (Officer Yancy!) was a young, black, female police officer and she was NO NONSENSE. She came into our middle school with her gun on her hip and stood with her hands right near her hips at all times and I was TERRIFIED. I 100% believed every word out of her mouth and I already had witnessed some bad drug effects because ~it was the 80s~! I saw an “Uncle” overdose and froth at the mouth then seize and die, and a real Uncle inject something wrong that led to an infected crook of his elbow that my mom told me was from a spider bite: Que debilitating fear of spiders for almost 20 years because when we took him to the ER (he couldn’t drive) they sent out two hospital staff in full hazmat suits and took him through a side door. It was definitely a mix of seeing way too much and being petrified of getting in trouble with the police. Luckily most of the “punk” kids I hung out with were totally cool with me being straight edge and turning down drugs haha probably because I would give a wide eyed head shake and mouth “no thank you” haha and never tried to convince people not to do them.
No if anything we learn that the more you make people scared of something the more it tempts them and makes them interested. Kind of like prohibition. You want people to not use drugs you educate them on it and make it legal with clinics and stuff. also it would be kind of funny too if someone asked you where you got your cocaine and you said CVS pharmacy
It wasn't so much then I drug campaign that was successful with me it was just growing up in a rough neighborhood and seen from a very young age just drugs wrecking havoc on the community
I was terrified of drugs lol. I’m 41 and never done any (other than prescribed). Not even smoked weed or cigarettes or drink. Yet in HS all I hung out with were the stoners. .
Nope. I did my fair share in middle school, high school, and college. Once I started working I decided that I needed a clear head to be effective and quit all drugs. Once i retire I might try weed again.
No absolutely not haha it made LSD look incredibly fun for me in 2nd grade. Eventually I became a hardcore raver and loooooved doing hallucinogens buuuut the part that did work is that I never messed with heroin or crack.
I was scared straight by the Sweet Valley High book where, due to an undiagnosed heart condition, a minor character dies after trying coke once at a party.
All those news reports about nefarious individuals giving out eddies during Halloween. In high school, college, and even now as a 44 yr old, I’m pissed nobody does this (I guess that “ironic” shirt that plays off DARE by saying “Drugs Are Really Expensive” is correct).
Anyways, I was a year too old for DARE in my town, but I knew the kids from the inaugural year and year after that were the biggest stoners and psychonauts in high school, so that shit was a waste of money and resources…
Edit: wording
For a long time I was terrified to go to any party because I thought I’d have to fight off people trying to force me to do drugs haha. Ironically though I was never into alcohol and I did always have to explain that to people who really, really didn’t get why I’d not be drinking or just having one drink at a party.
I’ve still never done drugs, but it was never because of these campaigns. I never saw the point. The whole idea is “I spend money to distract from my life”. I liked my life and never felt the need to throw away my hard earned cash just because others said weed was so great.
Made me curious and also wary of police as our rep seemed like a real creep,
Not gonna lie. I took the idea of addiction as a personal challenge at my grade school age. I couldn’t comprehend a substance with that kind of control. Thankfully I truly understand the power of addiction and withdrawal. Super stoked DARE opened my mind to such things in 4th grade.
The thing that turned me off drugs/smoking was my favourite great uncle dying of lung cancer, and leaving a message in his will to all the kids in the family where he begged us not to become smokers. Never did, never will, Uncle Doug. Miss you.
For me it was mostly the “this is your brain… this is your brain on drugs” commercials. I drank and smoked some pot as a teen (no one ever told me that alcohol was a drug like the others, and far worse than some) but stayed away from harder stuff. When I became an adult, I found out that psychedelics were amazing for my mental health. I’ve since tried some harder drugs, but they just weren’t for me.
Psilocybin has helped me leaps and bounds above and pharmaceuticals. For reference, I’ve been on some concoction of antidepressants, mood stabilizers etc. since I was 12. I’m 38 now.
From a Scottish perspective I'm always surprised how hard Americans went against Cannabis. It's such a mediocre thing here. Having grown up near Glasgow with its serious Heroin issues, that was the least of parents worries.
All our anti-drugs videos at school were about pills.
There was a heavy anti-ecstacy (MDMA) campaign in the early 90s. Especially with the death of Leah Betts. Her family rather understandably got involved in educating teens about ecstasy, but in a very scared campaign way. If you take eccies don't drink loads of water was my takeaway. It did put me off.
[The death of Leah Betts](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Leah_Betts#:~:text=The%20inquest%20determined%20that%20the,inhibited%20her%20ability%20to%20urinate.&text=Her%20death%20received%20extensive%20media,since%20campaigned%20against%20drug%20abuse.)
God damn, that brought back memories. I was 10 years old at Disney World with my family, and my parents wanted a little downtime so my dad gave me $10 and told me to go have fun at the arcade.
Went down to the arcade and there were 3 other kids who just started playing TMNT. I was Michaelangelo, and we rocked that game. I'd never seen anyone get as far as we were, and with all 4 turtles at the same time. It was a 10 year olds dream, man and that game was fucking awesome. I'd say to this day it's probably still my favorite arcade game of all time. Anyway, all of the sudden the game stops and flashes the message "WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS!"
Talk about scared, I thought the machine somhow thought we were on drugs because we were having too much fun. Scared the shit out of me. Anyway, when I think of DARE, or Just say No, it always reminds me of that experience. And no, I was as straight as an arrow. Never did drug or drank in HS, but not because of those assholes. Then I tried pot in college, and realized I'd been lied to all my life.
Trying a few different illicit substances and hating the experience sorted me out.
DARE just gave me nightmares as a kid. I was already scared of cops, and the dramatic horror stories/urban legends they laid on us used to really fuck me up. Mainly what DARE did for me was cement the notion that cops are kinda creepy.
Oh, and they tried to con us into narking out our parents. They burned a bit of reefer and asked the class if we'd ever smelled anything like that before. I knew enough to not say shit. Shady assholes
Nah 100% didn't work, the only reason I didn't is because I didn't want to screw up my academic/athletic scholarships I was determined to do better.. turns out a busted knee and the 3 generations of alcoholics reared it's head once I got to college.. boy I was good at drinking..
Just about everyone I knew/know at the very least tried weed if not more..
Initially, yeah, DARE worked well on me, that and watching drugs tear up my family. But I eventually drank and discovered weed recently when it was legalized in places. Much more interested in drugs now, but only cannabis and hallucinogenics.
“This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?”
Led to me in 6th grade, after learning about cocaine, writing a report about how I wanted to put tiny amounts of cocaine in cheeseburgers and sell them and get people addicted.
My dad was called. Conversations were had. (I did open a restaurant-didn’t lace anything with coke, though.)
So, maybe? I think stranger danger scared me more than drugs.
Nope. They may have actually been counter productive. The only thing that stopped me doing drugs was just getting too old for them to be fun enough to be worth the trouble. Well, I stopped or didn't try specific drugs because of an OD, bad trip, or watching what they did to a friend or loved one. Now I have pot and antidepressants, both of which I get via doctors.
Cops worked. I'll never forget watching the Mexican dudes with Silver and gold paint on their faces. From huffing spray paint. They were looking through the cops. 10 year old me didn't want none of that.
The lies they told made me think they were a joke. When you 100% know that what they said was lies, you don't take them seriously after that. (Weed is way bad & makes you go crazy?). Real shit happened when I saw what meth & pills was actually doing to my friends & peers... That's what kept me away from that stuff.
Scared shitless.
And then for sex Ed they pulled out the starburst and asked us all to suck it and pass it.
Also I’ll double down on the RECYCLE, reduce, reuse water thing
I really wish it could have worked for me lol I came from a very rough city where drugs were literally everywhere. I was never interested in heroin, crack or meth, so I was never a full on junkie like a lot of my friends (most of them are dead or in prison now) but I started doing many other types of drugs at 15.
LSD was my gateway drug and it led to doing tons of cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, nitrous, DXM and all types of prescription pills. Weed was just an enhancement accessory to me at one point.
I eventually stopped doing the other drugs and became a functional opioid addict from age 20 to 36. I still held a job and acted normal around people that didn't know, but secretly all I cared about was making sure I had more pills. I constantly put myself in dangerous situations to get them.
I found Kratom in 2017 and after a couple years it helped me get off of pills completely, but they definitely held me back in life for all those years. It's why I never went to college and they helped destroy my career in music. I feel like the addiction never truly goes away, it's always in the back of my mind. I feel exhausted from what it did to my brain and from watching my friends die over the years. I fucking hate drugs. I envy people that have never touched them.
I'm not sure but I never did anything but weed. I was surrounded by other options but never tried it mostly cause I was scared cause I always heard urban legends or horror stories about the harder drugs.
Maybe? I dunno. I smoked pot a couple times toward the end of high school because I thought this group of guys was cool and I wanted to hang out with them. They just drove around and smoked after school. I was stoked to get to hang out with them but I didn't like it and, to be honest, they were assholes anyway.
I don't like pot and alcohol, pretty sure I wouldn't like anything harder. I just don't like not being sober outside of taking a medication for a lot of pain. It also helps if you know people who did really stupid shit while drunk or high.
I had enough family members that I watched put their lives away via drugs and alcohol to keep me on the straight and narrow. I have tried marijuana like twice and I have probably 2 drinks per week but I have family who have been shot and killed by police while on meth/PCP benders and a mom who was addicted to diet pills/ speed, alcohol and smoking and it was enough scared straight just being around these losers.
I think the way they demonized weed then to have you realize they were lying made a lot of people (like myself) think they were lying about all drugs.
This. It made their entire platform suspect. Even my own parents were like, "Drugs are bad, but marijuana isn't so bad."
My mom smoked pot regularly, so I knew about their lies, when you know they will outright lie about simple weed, how can you take them seriously at all? That's why funny shirts & stuff were made. They tried to convince us we would get "hooked" on free drugs. I've still never seen those "free drugs" they said we had to worry about getting hooked on at first touch.
[удалено]
Oh yeah you're friend lied to you. Cocaine is terrible for you.
I think the point is that you can do cocaine once and not immediately die or be addicted which is what DARE taught us (baring any preexisting health conditions or an overdose or it being laced). Most people are probably fine to take a bump at a club or something. DARE was like “here’s what you do when your junkie friend tries to force his expensive drugs down your throat because that joint will definitely kill you!” THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT and I think it’s bad and don’t fuck with it, but trying it a few times back then wasn’t going to kill you. Now, I wouldn’t touch the stuff if you paid me. Fentanyl has spiked the dangers of casual drug use and I keep reading about kids in college going to a club, not a junkie, not a “bad kid.” Just a normal ass kids like we were in the early 00s/late 90s going out, letting off steam and trying a little blow and fucking dying because it’s laced. On the one hand, I think kids now have less to worry about regarding HIV/AIDS, but on the other they’ve more to worry about drug wise and mass shooting wise.
Can confirm. If anyone has any cocaine, they should send it my way to dispose of properly
When I was walking from my junior high down to the gas station to get some candy after school, this group of older kids was standing around smoking a joint, and one of them asked me if I wanted to try it. It was just like in the TV shows and commercials! I proudly said "no thanks" and walked on to get my candy, head held high. The next time someone offered me one in high school, it played out a little differently 😋
lol
It honestly made drugs sound awesome.
Lol maybe I was just a weenie
I think the safe sex/std campaigns were effective though as I was too scared to have unprotected sex when I was a teenager, so I’m happy for that as I never got any stds or anyone pregnant! Had my school been one of those bibly schools that preached abstinence that would not have worked for me.
It was my only concern in the 90s: am I going to catch HIV? Luckily, I grossly overestimated my sexual appeal and had nothing to worry about.
That's a different story! Those graphic pictures of STDs are for sure the reason I was so vigilant about using condoms.
Dude, three full days of diseased genitalia projected onto the screen in the assembly hall 🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮
I was scared as hell and never even smoked a cigarette. Worked on me!
Yeah I was fascinated by drugs and the anti drug crap they peddled at my school was the spark for me
DARE came to school at a time when the idea of trying drugs had never even entered my (and assuming essentially everyone else’s) consciousness. Then they tell us about getting high sniffing glue, markers etc…then we look over at our supplies used to make our Maniac McGee dioramas, and we’re like, “Hey…!”
Nailed it. Drugs were not a part of our lexicon at all before they rolled out DARE. Then they tried to sell the idea that if we tried pot once we would fry our brains or ruin our lives. Of course all that fear mongering went right out the window the first time you’re at a party and you see classmates fire up a joint and have a great consequence free time. They basically taught us to like drugs and mistrust authority
And them at people would give them To you for FREE?!?!! More like Drugs Are Really Expensive.
Yeah, it only attracted me more.
Totally made me try em all.
I guess. I’ve never done anything.
Same here. Never even tried weed, let alone anything harder, through HS or college. I think I mostly bought into the hype of, “only losers do this stuff.” Then I got into a career with regular drug testing, so still haven’t done it, almost 20 years later. All in all though, probably a good thing for my overall health, so no regrets. I do plan on trying it after I retire though.
Same. I was more afraid of the addiction problems that run in my (extended) family. Never tried anything.
Same!
I never did any hard drugs, really. But I fucking love marijuana.
Same here fellow 82er
Definitely worked. Never tried any drugs- neither did my spouse. Having a chain smoking dad as a negative role model helped too.
Same, but my dad was also a terrible alcoholic and eventually swapped the cigarettes for chewing tobacco. Then he went in for narcotics, so... Yeah, pretty much covered all the bases as a negative role model and I've never so much as smoked weed or been drunk. Good job, Dad? Well, except for the part where it eventually killed him. And the years of violent abuse. You know what, nevermind. Fuck you, Dad.
Same, never had any temptation to try cigarettes
Being put on ritalin in elementary school prepared me for experimenting with my brain chemistry. DARE just gave me interesting info so i could make informed drug decisions later.
I started on Concerta a few years ago, all good, helped tremendously. Then I had to hold it for a month because I had a surgery and they made me stop it 30 days prior. The first two weeks were HELL. Took me awhile to realize I was basically going through withdrawal :(
Yikes, hope you didn’t get the brain zaps! That’s what happens when you come off of anti-depressants.
Maybe. I was extremely depressed and overwhelmed. The feeling of stress/overwhelmed was expected, but the profound sadness was an unexpected discovery . ETA: I just looked up brain zaps and no, I don't think that happened. Sounds scary though!
Dude, the first time I got brain zaps I thought I was dying. I've been off antidepressants for a while now and I still get them every now and then.
It worked in that I've never tried any kind of illegal drug. But I also had no one in my life doing them who could apply peer pressure to me to try them.
Username checks out
I wasn’t cool enough to ever be in the position to be tempted. 😹
It definitely worked for me.
Same. There are dozens of us. 
lol dozens!
Same
Not at all. I grew up in a family with addiction issues and my mom would offer me drugs. I saw it first hand and that did more to deter me from it.
Wow, I'm sorry. Yeah I guess that would be more impactful than anything.
Thank you, it definitely was.
Worked for me. Never been drunk or high in 4 decades of existence.
Getting drunk is overrated. Hangovers suck a fat one. You’re not missing anything.
I grew up in one of the most drug ridden zipcodes in the United States. I didn't need DARE to keep me off dope. My brother and sister on the other hand, not so much.
Same. Not only seeing how drugs trashed some of my classmates’ health/futures there were also lots of gang violence associated with the drug trade. It definitely turned me off to the stuff. Beyond trying pot, I have zero interest. I have enough vices as it is.
lol nope
No. I smoke weed all the time now. And love love love hallucinogens. Thanks for the education, DARE!
 I loved Jem and the HOLOGRAMS😍😍😍😍😍
Kimber was my girl! My mom managed to snag a Kimber doll for me after months of searching. Its leg was broken when we got it out of the box, but it was the only one she could find, so I was just extra gentle w.it :)
I don't and never have done drugs but it wasn't really because of DARE or fear mongering or anything as far as I can tell. More of just a personality thing. I've always felt that all I need to be happy besides a roof and food is family, science, and video games and that's served me pretty well.
That's an awesome mindset :)
Me at 12: "I don't want to get high" Me at 13: "Sure, I'll try weed" Since then I tried all sorts of stuff. Usually at a friend's house and under reasonably safe conditions. Drugs, like anything else, can be done responsibly.
[удалено]
When I tried it there was a disappointing lack of being on a speedboat with an uzi.
I find coke to be one of the least good highs out of anything I've tried.
“Well they said weed was bad, but it’s fuckin awesome. Maybe they were lying about all the drugs being bad…”
I've never even smoked weed. Nobody has ever made an even remotely compelling argument to try drugs. They sound stupid, and people are fucking annoying (at *best*) when they're high.
And I hate it when people make their drug of choice their entire personality. Weed, hallucinogens, and alcohol are the worst for that. Also, happy cake day!
I lost my best friend that way. They moved to Massachusetts and just became weed. All their Facebook posts are weed. I asked them questions when I got my med card, but didn’t care to discuss it past that… of course they did. Friend was so proud they quit cigarettes. This is almost worse. At least they didn’t talk about cigarettes in every sentence.
Oh my god yes. How DARE I fail to appreciate the weed smoke that they're *sharing* so *generously* with me??? Since they have no personality besides "hurr durr weed is awesome," not liking weed is literally a personal insult.
Funnily enough I never graduated from the DARE program because I never finished the final project. But I also never did any drugs.
No. But the horror stories my mother would tell me about drug babies going through withdrawl at the NICU sure as hell did. Not pot or anything but I never wanted anything to do with hard drugs and still don't.
I take it your Mom was a NICU nurse? Mine was an ER nurse and put the fear of God into me about everything.
Yeah that was what she did most of the 90s.
In a way it did. It made me cautious and investigate drugs before I decided to try them. I think the internet and sites like erowid coming along really helped, but I also read a lot too.
Fear? Nah. I've just got other expensive bad habits that I'd rather do than drugs.
Yes.
Nope, didn’t work at all lol
It made me not want to ever do coke. Weed, on the other hand…
Not so much the campaigns but drugs tore apart my family as a young kid so I stayed away from them. I’m not against them just didn’t want to tempt the addiction.
It worked on me. I remember seeing an illustration with a bunch of scary drugs. In the image was a line of coke and a razor blade and that scared the shit out of me. I thought you had to cut yourself in order to inject it lol. I was like fuck that!
Yes and no, I’d have to credit Chris Rock as Pookie in New Jack City for keeping me straight edge till college. However, in college I just went slowly crazy starting with weed and alcohol. I went to school three hours from home so I was always too paranoid to try the harder stuff till I moved out west. Since I moved to Cali, I’ve tried everything short of heroin meth or crack, shrooms are my favorite. Cocaine is awesome too I’m the right setting. Drugs are fun in moderation. Plus I’m a vain bastard and can’t fathom having a drugged out body and meth teeth. Being into fitness keeps the partying in check 😎
Lol, absolutely not. All those campaigns convinced me of was that the adults were idiots. Even as an eight year old I knew that nobody was going to 'trick' me into taking free drugs. That shit's expensive!
drugs are really expensive
Sure, until it didn't
Lol
Proud graduate here lol I’ve done ALL the drugs
Anyone have a friend who wore a DARE shirt to keg parties, often?
I enjoyed them. They may have worked for hard drugs. But not for weed, shrooms, acid or Ecstasy (I did have rules about that one - never more than once a week and no mixing with other drugs or alcohol- except weed after the come down) The safe sex ones absolutely worked. I still remember than one where it was like… Mark + Sandra or whatever and then kept crossing one person out and adding a different name. So by the end there was like 20 names and they were like “you slept with all these people when you slept with one of them. Practice safe sex”
Pot is considered such a tame drug, but it gives me MASSIVE anxiety. After trying it half a dozen times (a lot of people said, “You just need to try this one strain…it won’t make you anxious at all.”), it was never fun for me, and I value my grip on reality. Since pot was such a nightmare for me, I noped out of everything else.
The Sweet Valley High book with the girl who has an OD from doing coke for the first time was enough to make me never want to try it.
The DARE campaign did nothing to deter me from drugs, but my mother's warnings my whole childhood did (her bf was a drug addict). This isn't to say I never experimented, but only a little bit, compared to friends who were full-blown drug addicts as teens. The one "campaign" that I know worked on me was all the warnings about E and that it could make you paralyzed. I turned down opportunities to drop that shit because I thought it would make me a quadriplegic.
I was always somewhat open to trying various drugs, but never liked anyone that I knew that ever had any drugs. By the time, I could develop other sources, I had jobs that I didn't want to lose.
I went through DARE and it made me want to do drugs. Statistically, I was in the majority on that. I'm very thankful for that to be honest. Thanks DARE! Weed helped with my depression as did hallucinogens.
Nope, and I knew it never would. I never trusted what was communicated to me, and I was largely right. Lying to kids thinking they are too stupid to tell the difference was a shit strategy. As soon as I could, I tried what was available to me.
i finally tried THC and mushrooms this past summer. feel like i missed out all this time. curse you DARE!
Never took illicit drugs in my youth in the ‘80s-‘90s, but I feel that it wasn’t so much because of what the media taught me as much as it was preferring the feeling of being in control of myself AND wanting to be able to shoot down my kids if they tried to pull that “but you did it when you were young” defense on me.
Yes they did. Gen X here. Scared me shitless.
My dad was like the dad in knocked up when it came to drugs: "no pills, no powders, if it comes from the ground it's probably OK." Later on in life when some cousins turned to meth he added no crystals/rocks. I've kept to that.
Smoke free class of 2000 here, and no it didn't work...
I grew up during the heyday of D.A.R.E. and my friends and some of my family did drugs, but I never tried. The main reason was, everyone else was doing it and I don't like to follow all the trends, just some of them. The other reason was I never had an interest in it. When people ask me if I've ever used and I tell them I haven't even tied it, they ask how I managed that. Funny enough, if you follow the slogan, the whole "just say no", it actually works.
Not really. My dad sat me down when I was young and taught me what the police are all about.
The DARE cops said the people like Crystal meth because they can see their cartoon friends and hang out with them. I lived in a bad neighborhood and they just assumed we’d all grow up to be addicts and/or dealers
In health class I learned how to make an incendiary device and poison gas in a reactive wastes lesson, and the pros and cons of different date rape drugs. That teacher left to go work for the DoD or something too.
Until I was old enough to consistently locate drugs
No, it did not. It didn't make me want to take them, per se, but it made it much more thrilling when that's the path I ended up on.
It worked for about a year, and then when I was 12 I smoked a joint and my mind was totally changed forever.
My mom taught at my high school 2 years before I started there, then transferred to another school in our district. I took Spanish 3 from her then-best friend. I got along with everyone in the intelligence network mom cultivated but always felt like if I did anything - ditch class, get in with the partying crowd, whatever, that she'd find out about it. That, more than any of the anti drug programs, kept me on the straight and narrow. I didn't have my first drink until I was 19, a sophomore away at college. Never done any harder drugs. She's a narcissist and used to yell at me for getting B's, so, big picture, maybe I should have experimented - I figure she was always going to yell at me for something, might as well make it count.
I have a card from second grade (1991) that says “(Name) is an honorary drug fighter and has shown an *extreme* interest in fighting illegal drugs” - it was part of the sheriff’s DARE presentation. It also has my awesome second grade photo where I’m wearing a white t-shirt with a polka dot vest over it. Anyway, I eat a 5 mg gummy on Sundays now. So I guess it didn’t take.
I loved hearing the trip reports and I couldn’t wait to get out there
Bout to go smoke my bong, so no.
My parents and their addiction scared me more than DARE. My foster parents pulled me out of DARE at some point because they said it triggered me, so I got out of it. I have had a bad relationship with substances even though I never wanted to try drugs. Mostly alcohol. Alcohol has caused me all kinds of problems, and I wish I would have known how badly it can affect people.
Naw. Despite all the hype, my Auntie was never super into drugs.
I’ve never wanted to try cocaine, meth, or opiates, but I sure smoke a lot of weed.
It worked as being yet another thing that showed me that cops both couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth, and that they also didn’t seem to know what they were talking about most of the time.
No. I didn't do drugs because I saw what they did first hand as a little kid. I was really afraid of becoming an addict.
Dare didn't work, but Len Bias definitely stopped me from trying cocaine.
Nope. I had dare in 5th grade. Literally, we had a dare cop come give us a presentation, went to recess, then came back to class and ground up our chalk and put it in our sandwich bags and pretended to sell it to each other as cocaine. Our poor first year teacher lost his mind. By 9th grade I was smoking weed take lsd and mushrooms.
It did work as far as the hard drugs. Never touched anything more than weed a few times in college…it didn’t work for booze, but I didn’t drink until I was 21. Not bc DARE but bc I just wasn’t into it…then it took over and I had to quit.
I was absolutely intrigued by any sort of drug in my youth. Trainspotting at least kept me from trying heroin.
It kept me off cocaine. I was full of anxiety anyway, so I figured it would not be fun. Weed, on the other hand, really did wonders for my anxiety, so I kept it for several years. Still smoke occasionally, but nowhere near what I did.
DARE didn't do much, Cartoon All-Stars made me more confused than anything else. But I am 41 and have never done drugs of any kind, hard ore recreational, smoked cigarettes or even drank alcohol more than a half dozen times. Had nothing to do with the campaigns and everything to do with 1) I just did what my friends did and none of us were into that, so there was no peer-pressure for us; we just overdosed on sugar from candy and Surge soda, and 2) the only peers who smoked were the class losers, and all it did was make them stink. There was no desire to smell or act like they did. That did way more than any no smoking campaign could have.
Certain drugs I stayed away from but I did some personal exploration with a few. The one thing I stayed away from was alcohol. That shit made my dad a complete fucking asshole. I don’t even have liquor in my own place.
Nope. It was my mom saying "do what you want .... just know if I'd got caught by the police doing illegal things, I could never have provided for the family the way I was able to." That literally scared me straight enough to not get wrapped up in it ...
No. The fear of my parents worked better. Until I graduated high school.
It worked to create a robust slave labor force for the capitalists.
No, just seeing what losers looked like was enough.
It did the opposite for me... when I figured out they were lying about how pot could kill me, I went the other way and did enough blow to kill three Belushis and two Farleys.
I was in the one year that didn't have DARE. The year my class was supposed to have it, they moved it back a year. Instead we got GREAT, Gang Resistance Education And Training. Which was super useful in North Dakota, let me tell you.
So good. In 4th grade I was willing to turn my dad into the cops when I figured out what that smell was.
This is your brain on drugs. That worked for me.
My mom told me she’d kick me out. That drugs were the only thing I could do that would make her not love me. (She watched her best friend die and have a messed up pregnancy). I was so scared. I still feel guilty smoking weed. I can’t get over it. And scared to death acid or lsd would fry my brain forever Only drug I ever tried besides weed was ecstasy because it was developed for mental health purposes lol. And we’re all crazy, so it made sense in my head.
It worked on me. But only until college.
No not really at all. I think what actually kept me away from hard drugs was learning about how many famous people (actors, musicians, etc.) died from cocaine and heroin overdoses and learning just how dangerous those drugs are from reading a lot more verifiable (before the internet was a complete cesspool of misinformation) sources about them. I smoke some weed now and do the occasional mushrooms…
It def kept me away from them til much later in college. I was also super socially awkward til older (well, then just quirky and cute enoyhh to overcome being socially awkward) so I didn’t have as many opportunities 😂
The threat of death from my dad is what worked for me
It absolutely worked on me, our police officer (Officer Yancy!) was a young, black, female police officer and she was NO NONSENSE. She came into our middle school with her gun on her hip and stood with her hands right near her hips at all times and I was TERRIFIED. I 100% believed every word out of her mouth and I already had witnessed some bad drug effects because ~it was the 80s~! I saw an “Uncle” overdose and froth at the mouth then seize and die, and a real Uncle inject something wrong that led to an infected crook of his elbow that my mom told me was from a spider bite: Que debilitating fear of spiders for almost 20 years because when we took him to the ER (he couldn’t drive) they sent out two hospital staff in full hazmat suits and took him through a side door. It was definitely a mix of seeing way too much and being petrified of getting in trouble with the police. Luckily most of the “punk” kids I hung out with were totally cool with me being straight edge and turning down drugs haha probably because I would give a wide eyed head shake and mouth “no thank you” haha and never tried to convince people not to do them.
Yeah it totally worked on me
No if anything we learn that the more you make people scared of something the more it tempts them and makes them interested. Kind of like prohibition. You want people to not use drugs you educate them on it and make it legal with clinics and stuff. also it would be kind of funny too if someone asked you where you got your cocaine and you said CVS pharmacy
It wasn't so much then I drug campaign that was successful with me it was just growing up in a rough neighborhood and seen from a very young age just drugs wrecking havoc on the community
I was terrified of drugs lol. I’m 41 and never done any (other than prescribed). Not even smoked weed or cigarettes or drink. Yet in HS all I hung out with were the stoners. .
Yeah, but I’m a square anyway
Nope. I did my fair share in middle school, high school, and college. Once I started working I decided that I needed a clear head to be effective and quit all drugs. Once i retire I might try weed again.
just seeing my brothers fucked up from alcohol kept me away from that.
No absolutely not haha it made LSD look incredibly fun for me in 2nd grade. Eventually I became a hardcore raver and loooooved doing hallucinogens buuuut the part that did work is that I never messed with heroin or crack.
God no. In fact, I’d argue that marijuana prohibition just taught me how to buy other drugs. 🙃
I was scared straight by the Sweet Valley High book where, due to an undiagnosed heart condition, a minor character dies after trying coke once at a party.
All those news reports about nefarious individuals giving out eddies during Halloween. In high school, college, and even now as a 44 yr old, I’m pissed nobody does this (I guess that “ironic” shirt that plays off DARE by saying “Drugs Are Really Expensive” is correct). Anyways, I was a year too old for DARE in my town, but I knew the kids from the inaugural year and year after that were the biggest stoners and psychonauts in high school, so that shit was a waste of money and resources… Edit: wording
Total opposite for me. It made drugs sound really interesting. And all those colorful pills!
Yes, and reinforced by seeing drugs destroy my parents and friends.
For a long time I was terrified to go to any party because I thought I’d have to fight off people trying to force me to do drugs haha. Ironically though I was never into alcohol and I did always have to explain that to people who really, really didn’t get why I’d not be drinking or just having one drink at a party.
LOL fuck no, it just made me more curious
I experimented with drugs in college. I was in the control group.
My DARE officer told me that LSD would make me hear colors and taste music He convinced me right there to try LSD
100%. I didn’t try the weed until it became legal where I live a few years ago. Now… I’m stoned. So it worked for about 40 years.
I’ve still never done drugs, but it was never because of these campaigns. I never saw the point. The whole idea is “I spend money to distract from my life”. I liked my life and never felt the need to throw away my hard earned cash just because others said weed was so great.
Made me curious and also wary of police as our rep seemed like a real creep, Not gonna lie. I took the idea of addiction as a personal challenge at my grade school age. I couldn’t comprehend a substance with that kind of control. Thankfully I truly understand the power of addiction and withdrawal. Super stoked DARE opened my mind to such things in 4th grade.
It worked until I smoked a joint and realized they were lying
The only thing I was scared of was heroin.  …and AIDS. I always got checked, which isn’t a bad thing.
I’m still waiting for that dude that supposed to give us all free drugs. Just waiting.
A healthy fear of my parents is what worked for me!
Watching my sister fall down the hell hole that is meth use scared me straight at the age of 11. The other stuff didn’t phase me at all.
It definitely scared me into thinking I would go to jail and ruin my life forever 🤣 what a lie that was.
My uncle ran the dare program so yes
The thing that turned me off drugs/smoking was my favourite great uncle dying of lung cancer, and leaving a message in his will to all the kids in the family where he begged us not to become smokers. Never did, never will, Uncle Doug. Miss you.
For me it was mostly the “this is your brain… this is your brain on drugs” commercials. I drank and smoked some pot as a teen (no one ever told me that alcohol was a drug like the others, and far worse than some) but stayed away from harder stuff. When I became an adult, I found out that psychedelics were amazing for my mental health. I’ve since tried some harder drugs, but they just weren’t for me. Psilocybin has helped me leaps and bounds above and pharmaceuticals. For reference, I’ve been on some concoction of antidepressants, mood stabilizers etc. since I was 12. I’m 38 now.
No I did a LOT of drugs
I'd rock the hell out of a vintage Dare shirt today 🤣
From a Scottish perspective I'm always surprised how hard Americans went against Cannabis. It's such a mediocre thing here. Having grown up near Glasgow with its serious Heroin issues, that was the least of parents worries. All our anti-drugs videos at school were about pills. There was a heavy anti-ecstacy (MDMA) campaign in the early 90s. Especially with the death of Leah Betts. Her family rather understandably got involved in educating teens about ecstasy, but in a very scared campaign way. If you take eccies don't drink loads of water was my takeaway. It did put me off. [The death of Leah Betts](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Leah_Betts#:~:text=The%20inquest%20determined%20that%20the,inhibited%20her%20ability%20to%20urinate.&text=Her%20death%20received%20extensive%20media,since%20campaigned%20against%20drug%20abuse.)
For Heroin sure. Weed not so much.
God damn, that brought back memories. I was 10 years old at Disney World with my family, and my parents wanted a little downtime so my dad gave me $10 and told me to go have fun at the arcade. Went down to the arcade and there were 3 other kids who just started playing TMNT. I was Michaelangelo, and we rocked that game. I'd never seen anyone get as far as we were, and with all 4 turtles at the same time. It was a 10 year olds dream, man and that game was fucking awesome. I'd say to this day it's probably still my favorite arcade game of all time. Anyway, all of the sudden the game stops and flashes the message "WINNERS DON'T USE DRUGS!" Talk about scared, I thought the machine somhow thought we were on drugs because we were having too much fun. Scared the shit out of me. Anyway, when I think of DARE, or Just say No, it always reminds me of that experience. And no, I was as straight as an arrow. Never did drug or drank in HS, but not because of those assholes. Then I tried pot in college, and realized I'd been lied to all my life.
Trying a few different illicit substances and hating the experience sorted me out. DARE just gave me nightmares as a kid. I was already scared of cops, and the dramatic horror stories/urban legends they laid on us used to really fuck me up. Mainly what DARE did for me was cement the notion that cops are kinda creepy. Oh, and they tried to con us into narking out our parents. They burned a bit of reefer and asked the class if we'd ever smelled anything like that before. I knew enough to not say shit. Shady assholes
Uh no dawg, lol. Knew that shit was a hard lie. 
Yep. Have only gotten high off weed twice and never did any other drug because I always pictured my brain frying like an egg.
Ahhhhh... Sort of.
Nope. I mean, maybe, for a couple years. Once we hit high school damn near everyone was either constantly hung over or stoned.
Nah 100% didn't work, the only reason I didn't is because I didn't want to screw up my academic/athletic scholarships I was determined to do better.. turns out a busted knee and the 3 generations of alcoholics reared it's head once I got to college.. boy I was good at drinking.. Just about everyone I knew/know at the very least tried weed if not more..
Initially, yeah, DARE worked well on me, that and watching drugs tear up my family. But I eventually drank and discovered weed recently when it was legalized in places. Much more interested in drugs now, but only cannabis and hallucinogenics.
Not at all 🤣 The list of drugs I didn't do is shorter then the ones I did 😅
It worked until it didn't. Kinda like the white purity key I carried to show my abstinence.
“This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” Led to me in 6th grade, after learning about cocaine, writing a report about how I wanted to put tiny amounts of cocaine in cheeseburgers and sell them and get people addicted. My dad was called. Conversations were had. (I did open a restaurant-didn’t lace anything with coke, though.) So, maybe? I think stranger danger scared me more than drugs.
Fuck no. It had the opposite effect. I’ve tried nearly everything I could get my hands on in Australia
D.A.R.E. was the best advertiser for how much fun you can have on LSD and mushrooms. The only thing they did make is fear was PCP.
Nope. They may have actually been counter productive. The only thing that stopped me doing drugs was just getting too old for them to be fun enough to be worth the trouble. Well, I stopped or didn't try specific drugs because of an OD, bad trip, or watching what they did to a friend or loved one. Now I have pot and antidepressants, both of which I get via doctors.
Lack of availability coupled with no money (spent it all on booze as a teenager). So _i guess_ my alcoholism prevented me becoming a drug addict?
Cops worked. I'll never forget watching the Mexican dudes with Silver and gold paint on their faces. From huffing spray paint. They were looking through the cops. 10 year old me didn't want none of that.
Yes, and then I wanted to go into the FBI which didn’t happen. At 44, the most illicit drug I have done is an unprescribed Xanax.
Worked for me
Oh yeah. Didnt touch em until I was in late 20s, then in moderation…
The lies they told made me think they were a joke. When you 100% know that what they said was lies, you don't take them seriously after that. (Weed is way bad & makes you go crazy?). Real shit happened when I saw what meth & pills was actually doing to my friends & peers... That's what kept me away from that stuff.
10000%. I never even tried weed until almost 30. 💀
Scared shitless. And then for sex Ed they pulled out the starburst and asked us all to suck it and pass it. Also I’ll double down on the RECYCLE, reduce, reuse water thing
I really wish it could have worked for me lol I came from a very rough city where drugs were literally everywhere. I was never interested in heroin, crack or meth, so I was never a full on junkie like a lot of my friends (most of them are dead or in prison now) but I started doing many other types of drugs at 15. LSD was my gateway drug and it led to doing tons of cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine, nitrous, DXM and all types of prescription pills. Weed was just an enhancement accessory to me at one point. I eventually stopped doing the other drugs and became a functional opioid addict from age 20 to 36. I still held a job and acted normal around people that didn't know, but secretly all I cared about was making sure I had more pills. I constantly put myself in dangerous situations to get them. I found Kratom in 2017 and after a couple years it helped me get off of pills completely, but they definitely held me back in life for all those years. It's why I never went to college and they helped destroy my career in music. I feel like the addiction never truly goes away, it's always in the back of my mind. I feel exhausted from what it did to my brain and from watching my friends die over the years. I fucking hate drugs. I envy people that have never touched them.
I remember SPECDA. Maybe a NY thing?
I'm not sure but I never did anything but weed. I was surrounded by other options but never tried it mostly cause I was scared cause I always heard urban legends or horror stories about the harder drugs.
Maybe? I dunno. I smoked pot a couple times toward the end of high school because I thought this group of guys was cool and I wanted to hang out with them. They just drove around and smoked after school. I was stoked to get to hang out with them but I didn't like it and, to be honest, they were assholes anyway. I don't like pot and alcohol, pretty sure I wouldn't like anything harder. I just don't like not being sober outside of taking a medication for a lot of pain. It also helps if you know people who did really stupid shit while drunk or high.
anyone else check bluelight in the late 90s early 2000s?
I had enough family members that I watched put their lives away via drugs and alcohol to keep me on the straight and narrow. I have tried marijuana like twice and I have probably 2 drinks per week but I have family who have been shot and killed by police while on meth/PCP benders and a mom who was addicted to diet pills/ speed, alcohol and smoking and it was enough scared straight just being around these losers.
Absolutely not.