Drugs are Bad? Okay.

For someone who has never done an illegal drug in his life, I have plenty of experience with drugs. Last night I was talking to a relative that I have all the respect in the world for, and he admitted to me that he had tried a few different types on more than one occasion. Now this is something I had pretty much figured out for myself a few years ago but, it’s probably a good thing he didn’t tell me this much earlier. But for so long he was someone who I not only thought could do no wrong, I thought he never did. Grades, he got ‘em. Career? Has the best and is the best at it. Wife? A ten. Hair? Well okay, he made a mistake or two.

For a very long time, it was imbededed in my brain how bad drugs were. Everyone said so. My teachers, Nancy Reagan, my parents, the kids in rehab I saw weekly when I was twelve and visiting my sister, and I saw drugs destroy Dwight Gooden and his career.

In high school I heard plenty of talk of kids getting high, and 90% of the talk centered on weed. The drug which was also pretty prevalent in the music I listened to around the clock, so that wasn’t earth shattering to me. Still, when I would find out if this friend or that friend had gotten high it would always cause me to do a double take. I mean, how stupid could they be? In my mind, trying any drugs at all would undoubtedly lead to a life of addiction. That’s what they taught in school, and that is what I had seen happen to someone close to me. The decision was made early on that I would never try any. I would just say no. Nope to dope, drug free for me. I think I am the only person those lame ass phrases worked on.

Any wiggle room I had, to maybe one day just take a hit, disappeared when I was 15 and became an uncle for the first time. Right then I knew there was no way I’d change my mind. I wanted to be able to look my niece in the high when she was in high school, and tell her that not everyone tries. That yes it was a choice she’d have to make for herself but, you could still be relatively cool and not get high.

So by the time I got to my twenties, I had pretty much figured that the only thing people actually did was smoke weed once in a while. Or for some, it was a daily almost hourly pastime. But everyone had moved on from the hard stuff, that was high school right? Wrong. I hung out with a group and they are nice enough people, but it was around this group that I first witnessed someone do cocaine. The first time, second and a few other times. In fact the first person I saw ever do coke, was a med student. That wasn’t an easy feeling. And after being exposed to it, I saw a few things. First, wow doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. And holy crap, it’s not that big of a deal! It should be but, it isn’t.

This is when I learned there is such thing as recreational drug use. I was in my early twenties at the time, so for nearly 15 years I thought anyone doing any drug at all, had to be an addict. And hearing if so and so had tried this or that drug, that would rock my world. Now I saw people who kept steady jobs, looked their parents in the eye and still from time to time would put a wrapped dollar bill up their nose and they didn’t end up like Jason Patrick in Rush.

Which brings us back to what my relative told me last night. If he had told me this say, six or seven years ago he would have been knocked of the pedestal I put him on (this is a whole separate fault of mine) and in all honesty the news would have upset me for days. But I have experience with drugs even without ever doing any. And I was able to figure it out myself a few years back. Given his line of work, where he lives, I just kind of assumed he had. Maybe that’s wrong, maybe I owe him an apology for assuming anything. But it didn’t change what or how I thought of him. People try drugs. People you never expect. And some people never touch ‘em sometimes and that too can be the people you’d never expect.

I won’t lie, I’ve been curious. But I made myself a promise, and I will keep it. That doesn’t mean I never wondered what coke really did for people. Or what it was like to hit a club after taking some X. Marijuana, never really had any interest though. From what I hear, and have seen it just makes you kind of lazy. I don’t need a drug for that. And promise or not, I probably was never going to try drugs. I’m just not the adventurous, hey let me try this and experience that type. And I still hope none of my nieces, nephews or friends kids ever try any drugs. It’s still playing Russian roulette. Cause as Mr. Garrison says, “Drugs are bad, mmmkay.”