Discussing drugs with your child can be a hard subject. When my daughter was in middle school she came home from school one day with a contract. The contract was for her to sign, agreeing she would not use drugs and basically she would not allow anyone else to use drugs either by means of reporting them to teachers or the police.

I absolutely refused to let her sign such a document. I thought that the school had no right to have minors sign a manifesto. But it became an issue for my daughter because now we were considered to be not conforming with the 'moral majority.' ( So, what else is new ?) I thought that she should decide for her self what she thought about drug use, and that she should only be responsible for herself. So what I did was I took her and several of her friends to a week end music festival, where I new security was being controlled by local motorcycle club who were friends of mine. First we just walked around the concert grounds and I pointed out people that were partying and seemingly having a good time. But inevitably we started to see people getting more out of control, writhing around on the ground naked. And then we went to the first aid tent where the overdose cases were taken. At that point I told them that not every one overdoses but with street drugs you never know what you’re getting. There under the tent I noticed a familiar face on a cot, it was a man I had found overdosed in a parking lot of a night club where I was the bouncer. We called him Kong because his facial features were all extremely swollen from the drugs he would shoot (downers I think). He was also sporting a crippled left arm caused from an infected skin graft required in the first place from using dirty works. My daughter’s friends were getting sick and asking to leave at this point.

My daughter decided then that she already felt pretty good about herself and for now didn't think drugs were going to improve on that from what she had just seen. She became what they called around here 'strait edge': no drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco. But this situation did open a door of discussion on altered states, which eventually would become the discussion with her as an adult....

My daughters decision not to use drugs as a child did have an effect socially. The kids in the neighborhood all used drugs, whatever they could find. So she grew up in a neighborhood full of kids that she had nothing to do with. They all tried to harass her for a short time. Until I threatened to plant my boot in their backside, which I did in front of several of their parents, who all agreed it would be fine with them. Several of those kids who were the worst abusers grew up to be policemen, DEA agents, sea captains, and an airline pilot....T

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Exp Year: 2002	ExpID: 18282
Gender: Male
Age at time of experience: Not Given
Published: Oct 18, 2002	Views: 8,353
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Families (661) : Not Applicable (38), Families (41)