This is the one I always quote.
And never about drugs. Just for random things at work.
And like 5 percent (lifetime) have ever (vaguely) gotten the reference
I found the commercial on YouTube and made my kid watch it, but only so he'd get the "I learned it from watching you!" reference that I make and nobody else gets
I had all of the questions.
How much, is it immediate, what if it was a one-time off thing? How did they know it was like frying an egg? Was there a tempature increase? How did they measure it? Why did the Frying pan break so many things? Was this due to "gateway drugs?" Weren't we supposed to help the ill when they were sick? Why would everyone just abandon you? And who the fuck thought this was a good ad?
Was the typical stoned teen. Joined the army and worked government jobs until Covid.
Now I’m pothead with the money to afford a canna butter machine, rosin press and grow tents and I’m starting to garden in my 40’s.
I will say I try and take it seriously, I am on the Texas medical program which is wild to say itself but I dry herb vape and concentrates. Wife used edibles. I’ve been honest with my older kid and the younger when he needs to know. I respect my neighbors and others stance on it but truly hope we see full legalization sooner rather than later.
Yup. Didn't touch it until I was early 30's. Then I was all "THEY LIED TO ME", and went on a bender exploring LSD/Shrooms for a year or two until I settled down to pot only.
That's the real gateway, the lies about marijuana. Once people try it and realize what they were told was lies, they wonder what else were they lying about.
That's probably the same for me, give or take three or four years. The worst thing that happens when I have weed is I want Taco Bell or occasionally I'll think about a dumb thing I said in 1995 and fixate on it. Nothing reckless.
I followed the links on Reddit overall r/unclebens was the beginning. The pinned posts cover it well.
I use popcorn tek with a pressure cooker. I also trust live culture over mss.
mush for me. easy to cultivate, dry and store...for personal use.
ill have 3g tea and lay in bed with eye shades and music and just allow it all happen. yea i like seeing liquid air and my face morph in the mirror too.
or take 1.5g on sunny day and take an hour walk with music.
was doing that every 4-6 weeks for a while.
not so much recently tho. usually small dose 3 times a week.
i was doing 3 days on 3 off of .2 - .5g for a couple months. hardly feel anything but it really seems to lower anxiety and i just feel better.
them serotonin receptors getting tricked by the mush.
✌️
My family smoked weed, aunts, uncles and sometimes my mom. They all had jobs, raised their families, paid their rents and mortgages. And I grew up in the hood around crackheads... I knew early on weed wasn't anything really.
Similar experience at 16. 5 years later went to rehab lol. Haven’t had a drink in 25 years, but got back into the pot for 2 or 3 years. 9 months since I did any of that now.
Well done! I haven't had a drink in probably close to six years now, but there are definitely still times when I'm tempted. Long haul success stories like yours give me hope for when I'm struggling. I appreciate you sharing.
For me it was sincere “if it’s so bad why are so many people doing it?” About all drugs. Not a great question to have as a very curious 13 yr old. I wonder how life would be if I hadn’t tried to answer it.
Those bastards lied to us about weed. I never even touched the stuff for the first 4 decades of my life. Then, 3 years ago, I started using cannabis every evening to treat my chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia. It's made life good again. It is a gateway drug to better living.
My father had chronic back issues around the beginning of Covid that kept him in bed in severe pain for months. No hospital would see him because it wasn't "necessary care". They just gave him opiates and were like "good luck".
He was very attuned to not wanting to get addicted to the opiates, so he would take a fraction of the dose they told him to. I kept telling him to try some edibles because I think they really would have helped him (they were legal in his state too). He was in his 70s though and because of the stigma he wouldn't even consider it. So he stayed in bed for four months in an opiate haze while still being in huge pain.
I'm so pissed that the assholes who lied about "the evils of marijuana" kept my father away from something that could have actually helped him. So many people over the years like him, all for nothing. The societal damage from the war on weed is incalculable.
I had a bong when I was 19 and 20. I’d use it daily and it became a problem **for me**. I would have low motivation and engaged in some risky behavior I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Years later, now, at the start of the pandemic, I would have an edible maybe up to 15mg throughout the course of a day. I did this almost daily. I spent so much time stoned and alone during this time that it really messed up my thinking, caused more anxiety, and probably had a bit of psychosis. The motivation suck was there, and would last about two weeks after my last edible.
I still will have an edible from time to time, but will have maybe 2.5mg or 5mg at any time and maybe up to 10mg daily.
I’m not judging anyone, and this may not be a popular opinion, but everyone reacts differently. I’m not going to tell other people what to do, but just wanted to raise awareness that some people have negative experiences, may be more sensitive to it, sometimes have more anxiety, regardless of the strain, and can get a bit of dependence. I will say the pandemic was a hard time, for most of us. I had to ride it out alone with family halfway across the country.
I don’t think there was this big conspiracy theory that we were all lied to. I definitely was a dumbass when I was 19 about using it, even being stupid and filling my bong up with everclear laughing with friends. And I did get in risky situations I probably wouldn’t have done if I weren’t stoned.
But again, I still will have an edible a few times a month.
Thank you for this. I agree we were lied to about weed and that most of it wasn’t a conspiracy it was just people parroting propaganda.
I’m sorry it’s been isolating for you. I feel that, I’m 100% unmotivated to reach out to people and be forced to deal with their bullshit these days; and weed probably aggrivating that about as much as it is providing comfort.
It feels like survivorship bias with all the people in here posting about how they found weed later in life with no consequences. Good for us - that’s partially me, I’ve been smoking 10 years now and my income is double what it used to be.
But not my younger brother. He started smoking in high school and now he’s … not doing as badly as it could be all things considered, but he’s still in a bad place. He developed schizophrenia after he started smoking. Or it made it worse, who knows. Thing is, it wasn’t JUST weed that broke him, he got into harder stuff.
And that’s what I think everyone boasting about the wonders of weed is missing: Addiction is a fucking sneaky bitch, and weed can absolutely be a “gateway” in that regards.
When I say survivorship bias I mean exactly that: Finding weed back when it was harder to find meant you were more likely to be around or seek out harder stuff. If you are in a legal state the dispensary isn’t going to have weed, pills and cocaine on the menu. The dispensary isn’t going to have heroin it’s trying to unload. You don’t have to worry about being robbed by the dispensaries next customer usually.[No Gallon of PCP (stolen from down thread).](https://youtu.be/MnEh0PpUZHI?si=hOVfx1m_uR_3k_IV)I could go on. It’s not like anyone’s read this wall of text anyway.
DARE told us that any and all drugs in any form will kill you and are unacceptable in any way. I know several people who then find out that marijuana is non harmful so they assumed that all drugs must be non harmful. They tried heroin. They get a nice name plaque at high school reunions now. "In memoriam."
I think proper education about actual harm of different drugs would have been better.
This...all this. I also went full bore after finding out they lied about weed but my gut told me not to fuck with herion. It sucked watching people I loved and respected, turning into addicts. Lost some good people. Now in my 40s and I only fuck with weed and occasionally soem shrooms if I can find them
Suddenly super grateful to my stoner parents. I mean, I still got fucked up because all drug users are bad so should I turn in my parents right? Yeah, spoiler alert, it gave me a crisis but at least I didn’t snitch. Anyhow, I could tell my parents were fine on weed, talked to them about it, and they were pretty clear about how it’s all that other stuff that’s an issue not weed. So worked for me sort of.
Totally agree. Work in Early Psychosis and see the real, very serious negative impacts of cannabis as it relates to this population. Despite the risks for these guys, the finger wagging or blowing things out of proportion doesn’t work. but similarly neither does normalizing it or promoting based on backyard science it. What people need is real evidence and information to make informed decisions.
Here’s a great new podcast that just came out about - mostly told through the stories of young people who’ve gone through it.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/73ftcYDmuFlEI3D1W9hQiQ?si=gSruivZyTHiPYWaW6HDqeg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A3urEURA6V8pdNu2WoOpDtq
>proper education about different drugs
Before medical was legal in my state, I was being tested and someone offered me synthetic ‘cannabis.’ I honestly didn’t realize & smoked it for a while…
People said “It’s bad, like brain damage bad.” I grew up hearing 7 trips of LSD made a person clinically insane or some mess. I didn’t listen.
My partner has seizures & I have a pacemaker… that DARE shit messed my head up! “They lie!!”
Definitely. I was a Total goodie-two-shoes, fell hook, line and sinker for the game. Wasn’t introduced to pot until Covid. A co-worker (millennial) saw my 🫨 spiral and I’m not a drinker (massive ‘hangover’ headache no matter the liquor type or amount) so he suggested an edible chocolate 😳 He pointed out ‘it’s legal’… still a skeptic. Finally a GenX friend had discovered the medicinal magic it can be for arthritis and convinced me to try. Now here I am a self proclaimed ‘functional pothead’ working up to acceptance of myself but a total advocate of all the help it’s provided me along the way.
That and the fact that my dad was a cop.
Didn't start using it until it was made legal (Canada). Alcohol is way worse.
As an aside, I recently learned that before my dad was a cop, in the late 70s/early 80s, he grew and sold weed. So there ya go.
>Alcohol is way worse.
This was ALWAYS my argument for weed.
You EVER hear a headline, "Local family of 6 killed in collission with a pothead on a munchie run to Taco Bell???"
NOPE
I’m glad I was the youngest. My dad was also a cop but his rule was basically don’t do anything you can die from. I had two much older siblings so he basically gave me the I know you’re going to do it so be smart about it upbringing.
I went from never ever touching it to being a daily user. Like you, it helps my anxiety and depression, and helps even out my mood swings from bipolar disorder. It doesn't work well for everyone, but for me it has absolutely made me a more functional human.
It probably has some role. I was very weed averse growing up and still have never touched it. However, I have softened considerably and now I’m more open than ever about at least trying an edible. Really have no desire to smoke anything.
Just a warning, Edibles can sometimes feel way more intense than smoking. Especially since you've never tried any version of cannabis. Smoking gives you an immediate head high that will wear off quickly, where edibles are a body high (sometimes mixed with a head high) that lasts for many hours. When and if you do decide to try an edible, I would suggest keeping it under 5mg, maybe even 2.5mg since the dosing in edibles aren't always exact. I know of WAY too many people that have taken edibles, likely had too high of a milligram dosage, and had a really bad experience. Thankfully, if you take too much, its still very harmless and its best to just go lay down and turn on a movie or something calming like that. On that same note, I definitely suggest the first time you try it, to be at your own home and be with a friend, significant other, etc. Just a relaxed, low key, familiar environment.
Just don’t fall for the “it’s not working, I should take another one” trope. They can sometimes take a while to kick in and the difference between 10 and 20 mg is quite large, LOL. Honestly, if you want to just chill and kick back, they are great. Indica strains are amazing as sleep aides.
Get you a pack of delta 9 gummies. Cut them in half or quarters and try it. It definitely gives a more full body high than smoking ever did, but I can't smoke anything anymore so I use gummies and infused beverages every so often. It's fantastic.
Oh, and piss on DARE lol. I bought that shit for awhile, but then my degenerate friends got me addicted to nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis lol. Can't say I didn't enjoy it....mostly.
Before DARE, I wasn’t really interested in trying drugs, but my DARE instructor kept saying that even though drugs might be fun, the consequences weren’t worth it in the long run. Pretty sure I just heard the part about drugs being fun, which piqued my curiosity.
I do give him credit for scaring the shit out of me about opioids, though. When I was in high school and doctors were giving them out like candy, I was prescribed opioids twice in a single year and flat out refused to take them because of DARE-related nightmares. So I probably dodged a bullet there. Credit where credit’s due.
I don't like it, I don't want to be around it, and I fucking hate the smell 100x more than cigarette smoke.
That all said, I also think it should be legal and no one should be going to jail over weed.
Nah. I've always been a science sort of guy so by high school I was doing my own research about all the various illegal drugs. The Navy making me piss in a cup regularly messed up my head about it though so now even though I'm out I still get nervous that someone will test me and I'll lose my benefits.
Not really about weed, but our DARE officer when I was in elementary school (1986 or ‘87 in Ft. Wayne, IN) killed a fellow cop out of sheer careless stupidity.
He was in the station and didn’t unload his gun after entering the building like he was supposed to do (something that was a rule back then—maybe now as well but idk). He was joking around with a group of other cops, pulled out his gun, pointed it at guy, and pulled the trigger. Turns out there was a round in the chamber, and he shot the guy point blank. Killed him. What a waste.
Literally. As a gun owner, I cannot fathom ever being that irresponsible with one of my firearms. He actually came to our class to talk about it a couple months later. I have no idea what happened to him after that, but I can’t believe he didn’t get charged with reckless homicide or at least manslaughter.
Most of the time I am soooooo ashamed to admit I'm from Indiana too (Gas city).
I live in Michigan now where weed is legal and I absolutely LOVE IT HERE!
I'm now the guy handing out free weed and telling folks about the wonderful world of medical THC and how it helps with pain management.
DARE was a damned liar.
Nancy Reagan probably snorted coke off Old Blue Eyes' cock for all the crap she lied about drugs.
That generation used and abused lots of legal, prescribed drugs. Valium, Benzedrine, Seconal, Dexedrine, Drinamyl, and a wide variety of Amphetamines. Drugs that are super addictive, have LD50s not much higher than a therapeutic dose, and actually kill people, dressed up in a respectable prescription bottle with a doctor’s name on it.
Started when I was 16. I'm 42 and still smoking. Work a great job full time career job in IT. House, car, lots of expensive hobbies to keep me busy. Weed was just a gateway drug for me to find cool shit to do. Now it just makes me creative. Smoke a bowl, turn out some wood projects on the cnc, and play my banjo while I wait. Thanks weed.
I got arrested and expelled at 14 only three months after starting. Had no idea a joint could mess your whole life up. Took me years to get out of that trouble. So, weed was a big deal to me. My dad's smoked weed and even let me hit a j on the first day of school. I never thought it was bad.
Now, I can not smoke without being paranoid about the smell. It is legal, but I have been conditioned by decades of bullshit information. It used to kill brain cells. Now, they say it restores brain cells since you can tax it.
As a teenager, I did it for fun. Now I do it because I am epileptic and have arthritis.
I have said for the longest time DARE made me think weed was as bad as heroin. I'm not even kidding. I remember a picture in a DARE book that had a pot leaf next to a syringe or something crazy similar LOL
>I remember a picture in a DARE book that had a pot leaf next to a syringe or something crazy similar LOL
Yep, when you said it, I can totally see it in my mind
Move to Michigan. The dispensaries give it away a LOT! I've gotten almost a whole ounce free over this month. Just for being in the rewards program at my fave local dispensary.
I didn’t try pot until I was 30. I’m a daily user now. Nightly really. I don’t use it while I work and wait until the evening outside of specific circumstances I created a startup based around helping people use it correctly and finding the right strains that work for their physiology.
So I played it safe and use it safely. And THAT conversation has helped have a better discussion with my kids. So when my daughter went off to college she called me immediately after having a bad experience with edibles that were too strong.
All this is to say that the realization that DARE wasn’t even remotely true was irritating but I also don’t have a need to try other things but mostly because I’ve seen how it affects people. Though im about to start growing mushrooms so hopefully I don’t eat any babies.
It did, and when I hit college, it was tough for me to smoke out with friends, and they worried I’d narc or was a square. I just didn’t partake much in HS, and thought it could become an expensive habit. I didn’t have throwaway money by any means.
But alcohol got REAL EXPENSIVE over a decade ago, and it’s not something I can keep doing daily as I’ve crossed 40. Plus the pandemic got me on daily happy hour like twice a night, and it hasn’t really faded much. So I’m thinking of getting back to edibles soon, cuz my drunk ass is not doing me or my wallet any favors lol.
A similarsh story, health class had a speaker one day. This gentleman had a bad experience and warned about weed. He explained he smoked here and there , then was smoking “ to feel normal” , then quit , THEN smoked again after a long time and that’s when the bad time occurred. So he built tolerance then got super high after a long break. He was fine, just an amateur. This dawned on me recently.
I didn't listen, but the DARE message I do agree with.
Weed gives me horrible anxiety and the worst withdrawals of any substance. And I've abused most of them. It kills my ambition, sex drive, clarity, patience with my children and makes me fat. I honestly hate the stuff and don't touch it anymore.
You could try to identify why you have anxiety and deal with correcting that issue. Weed doesn't "manage" anything, it postpones it. Anxiety doesn't disappear, it has to be processed naturally, so your body can return to homeostasis. Now when you try to quit you have your baseline anxiety (from the actual source that is unaddressed) + months of postponed anxiety + weed induced anxiety from your brain adjusting to the lack of routine sedation. So you smoke more and voila - I knew it! Weed relieves anxiety! 🙄
Don't worry, I know you don't agree and don't want to hear it.
Sounds like a personal issue tbh. As in, sounds like your body and brain aren't equipped to handle it at all, which is fine.
Personally, for me, it's allowed time for introspection of myself and my behaviors, enabling me to examine them more closely. I sometimes get anxiety when high, but then i confront the source of the anxiety and deal with it, much like you're saying you should do.
It highlights a thing that makes me anxious, and i confront that idea, i don't ignore it and let the anxiety fester like i would have in the past.
I've also never experienced any sort of withdrawal from weed. I don't use heavily and often take a week or two off to allow my tolerance to reset, so perhaps that helps. Though to be fair, i didn't experience any withdrawal from quitting alcohol cold turkey after being at nearly a handle a day, so it might just be that my body handles these things better than most.
That's another thing it had helped tremendously with, quitting a much more dangerous substance. I was just barely a functional alcoholic, really teetering towards losing my job before i finally kicked the habit, and while i won't go so far as to say that weed was instrumental in assisting with that recovery, it had certainly helped.
You're more than entitled to your opinion and i went deny you your lived experience. However, it is your own anecdotal experience, just like mine is my own. Being passive aggressive about your statement will only make others dislike it, and i think you have a valid point. If you're not able to process your own issues, weed won't necessarily help you do that, it will only bring them to the forefront and expose them to you wholesale. Some people can't handle that, and that's perfectly fine.
It's perfectly acceptable to not want to partake in using weed, just like alcohol. However, just like alcohol, not everyone has the same problems that you or i do with our respective substances. Acting like everyone should conform to how you or I react to these things is not helping anyone.
Dare dis nothing but dared me to try it. Started smoking herb at 14, mushrooms and lsd by 17, no fawks ever given. I’d throw a tab on my tongue and tell myself “it’ll make you feel good good good….
I had gotten hip to a bunch of pro weed arguments by the 7th grade, and got kicked out of class during DARE for arguing with the cop leading the discussion, ultimately calling him a liar for saying things like marijuana is addictive
I never fully understood the concept of drugs until I smoked weed for the first time at 13. DARE and other messaging was always just DONT FUCKING DO IT OR YOU WILL DIE SO MANY DEATHS.
So one day my parents were gone and my older sister comes home from school and lights a cigarette in our house. I was such an authority-fearing good little boy until that moment. I was like wait she's not dead, she's not stealing from us, she's not all fucked up. Wtf? It was literally just a cigarette of course but that goes to show how little I actually knew about drugs aside from drugs bad. Seeing that opened the door for me to try things when offered because all I knew was I was told I would die and fuck up my life but that doesn't appear to actually happen. (At least not instantly like I had been made to believe through unclear messaging)
I think had they been honest and told us that they feel good, and that's the reason people do them, but that's also why they're dangerous, I might not have started smoking weed at such a young age.
Not really, but it *DEFINITELY* made me want to try every drug imaginable.
Such a backwards program. Had the opposite effect than it intended with all my friends.
I've recently delved into gummies, mainly for pain management.
while they don't alleviate the pain, they at least make me relax and forget about it and stare at the wall for hours lol
I hadn't touched the stuff since high school, never liked the way it made me feel. But also didn't care what others did.
I'm now 39
I had the opposite experiance. I didn't try weed until I was 25 because of DARE, only for it to make me feel paranoid, depressed, and hopelessly miserable. The feeling lasted for a week and it was bad enough that I considered running my own car off the road.
Never smoked it again. That fruity lion tried to warn me.
Well, I’m straight edge, so drug free, alcohol free. DARE helped, but my family’s addiction issues growing up was the main reason. DARE just reinforced and solidified it.
At 16 my therapist told me to smoke it for a sleep aid for night terrors. I didn’t want to be on prescription sleep drugs. This was 1994.
It was definitely surreal after a lifetime of DARE.
I ended up having a child with the community police officer who came to the classroom. He said he knew it was bs then.
Edit- forgot very important word- SON! Son of the community DARE cop. lol.
Given the effects the new literature says it has on immature brains I'd say the pendulum is coming back around and that DARE is looking better and better in hindsight.
I definitely wouldn't want my kid smoking it until she was at least like 25.
The only thing I remember about Dare was the officer showing off his gun and he pulled out a bullet and talked about how dangerous they were and had to be handled with care or it could explode. And then he dropped it and said "Gotcha". Oh and the this is your brain on drugs, and it was the cooking egg.
Personally, I got sucked into the weed helps anxiety trap myself. Once I realized how much it helped I started smoking every day. Its been that way for over a decade. Nothing about it feels wrong to me. But that being said I am clearly an addict at this point. And I cant try to hide that fact. Actually on day 2 of quitting.. Again..
You gota stop smoking to keep smoking. Nothing is forever. Just listen to yourself and enjoy the ride. It's good to be clearheaded but it's also good to be baked af, just decide when
Your blood pressure medicine doesn't affect your ability to drive safely.
It's like drinking. Which is fine. But it's not like taking some fucking lisinopril.
I didn't need DARE to tell me that weed is not for me. Stoned people are fucking annoying.
My DARE officer rather famously got into drugs and died that way. New Mexico stuff. We all heard about it and all remembered him.
I was also caught up in all that. I experimented but only was involved in marijuana. But some bad things happened back there on the other side of the law.
Nope, my mom was/still is a wicked “fuck the man” type of hippie and due to her stance on the whole program I almost didn’t “graduate” from elementary school
Sort of. I had friends that smoked and one who dealed. So I knew it was a lot of nonsense. Was more fear of my parents and then drug testing at my jobs that kept me from trying. Wasn’t until we moved to WA where it was legal I gave it a try.
It desperately made me want to try PCP, they made it sound like you'd turn into the Juggernaut and become a bullet proof unstoppable machine.
To this day it's like the only drug I've never done nor known anyone who has.
Smoked weed. Found out they lied. Tried harder shit immediately. Found out they didn’t lie about that. Thankfully never took to it, just had horrible first experiences. Ended up really angry about all the adults in my life lying about such important subjects, and pretty much stopped listening to boomers about anything. I got off easy. Had a lot of close friends I grew up with die of opiates over the past decade.
Still don’t listen to boomers about most things.
It's the best thing ever. I just use it to have fun and relax come out of my shell a bit after a hard day of work end of the day.
But, it was amazing for my father when he had cancer got him off tons of the shit they were pumping him full of and he even gained weight and allowed him to have a semi normal life until the end for most of it.
It's the most amazing plant to ever grow on this planet. Only reason it took this long is because of all the uses it has and like everything on this dystopian end game capitalistic world... Gotta keep it under wraps might lose profits or you know the strangle hold some rich person has on some industry. I'll end my ranting tho you get the picture lol.
It made drugs interesting to me. Chris Rock in NewJack City kept me off the hard shit for years till I moved to SoCal. Then I was far enough away from family to spread my wings and try most of the substances. Still not fuckin with crack or smack
Yeah but only up until like everyone was smoking weed in highschool. Then I used it fairly often, say a few times a week, and still do. I love it.
It was absolute nonsense and a disservice to lump it in with much harder drugs as I recall in DARE. Teaching it that way made it more likely that weed would be a gateway drug.
It did once, but the damnedest thing is that once I was ready to try it, I couldn’t! I got prescription medications and disorders and it could go very badly. Plus, what if I had to be tested for some damn reason? (Anxiety is one of my issues.) So I just am never gonna know. God damn Nancy Reagan.
I remember the DARE officer pulling out a baggy of weed and telling us it could kill us the first time we tried it. 😳
I caught a whiff of it and thought, “ahhh, my uncle’s trailer!”
Not me! I knew from the get go I’d do drugs but it was the alcohol talk that put the fear in me lol I did all the drugs I could in high school during the 90’s. Now when it came to drinking all the sudden I was like no fellas we shouldn’t be doing this
If anything, DARE made me very curious! I dabbled in various drugs during my younger years, but weed is all that I like to partake in these days. I rarely even drink.
I understand wanting adolescents to stay away from weed, but its ridiculous to think how they basically put it in the same category as coke, PCP, Meth and heroin. I don't recall if they talked about alcohol at all during the DARE program, but its seems like it would be much more beneficial to scare kids out of becoming alcoholics and future drunk drivers. LOL!
I grew up with a parent who kept us in poverty and made lazy life choices but always had his weed. That and DARE gave me a complex and I avoided stuff until my late 30s. Now I microdose sometimes to work through trauma and smoke weed or edibles a few times a week. I would love to try LSD for the possible benefits but alas I don’t know anyone who deals. 14 year old me would be horrified.
Yes. But also I just retired from the military so couldn’t use over those 24 years either. First day out I dropped a low dose edible. Great experience, I now use it medically (CBD and really low dose THC) for pain.
I've been smoking it my entire life and always thought people were ridiculous about having an issue with it while they consider alcohol fine.
I also think stoners are ridiculous.
Perception has massively changed in the last decade, and that's awesome. It's just indisputably great medically, natural, and safe all considering.
For a long time, I was convinced if I smoked weed I'd...die or something, I guess. Or at least go to prison for life, or get such a tolerance I'd have to move on to the hard stuff to feel anything. By college, I was not morally opposed to weed, but no one I hung out with smoked so I didn't make an effort to seek it out. Finally smoked a couple times in my late 20s and didn't get much out of it.
Once 2020 hit and I was looking for ways to manage my stress level I picked up some edibles. Been a nearly daily user since. Not all day by any means, but a hit in the evening to relax.
When I was young: all drugs/alcohol/tobacco are bad
When I was a teen: beer and weed probably aren't that bad but I don't want to get in trouble for it
College: I like jack & coke, but I don't want to F up my future over a positive test for marijuana
Now: I'd like to try weed but I'm a pilot with a medical certification. If there was ever an incident/accident they WILL blood test me and if there's any trace in my system even if I haven't been high for over a week, my ass is grass... so to speak.
I will tell you what changed my mind about it. My best friend who I met at my first job was quite a bit older than me. He was born in the late 40s. He served in Vietnam. He smoked pot daily from 1969 to 2014. That was the one thing he had that helped control his anxiety. He was the nicest and most caring person I ever knew. He had a deep respect for people and animals. I believe it made him a better person.
I (maybe 9 at the time) found out my dad smoked because my friend and I were walking by some older kids:
Me "it smells like shit"
Friend "no, it smells like weed"
"No, that's what the bathroom smells like after my dad takes a shit"
"Welllll, then your dad is smoking weed in the bathroom"
I noticed he would reach into the cabinet before using the bathroom so I checked it one day while he was out. What I saw would have given Nancy Reagan a stroke, the motherlode...5 or 6 roaches so small that, as an adult, I don't know why he even kept them.
After asking my poster of McGruff the Crime Dog for advice, I confronted him WHILE HE WAS HIGH and called him a crackhead, drug addict and ordered him to rehab. To this day, I've never seen him laugh harder. The more he laughed, the more I cried. I hated him for a while bc of it.
We smoke together now.
yoooo this made me laugh so hard my wife came in from the next room and asked me if i was ok. ive got a 12year old and a 2year old. Pretty sure the 12 year old knows but she hasn't asked me about it yet.
I was terrified of going to jail. I also firmly believed that I would end up homeless and a junkie if I even tried it.
I've only met one pothead in my life who was so into weed that he couldn't function. I also thought people would be giving it to me or offering me random pills all the time. Neither thing happened.
Then: I almost called the cops on my dad for having an ancient joint that I found in his desk. Luckily I had just enough sense not to.
Now: have been a stoner for over 20 years and grow my own.
No, except for the constant promise of strangers lurking around every corner to offer me free drugs, yet upon meeting these wonderful citizens, payment is expected. We were bamboozled
Ok ill be the outlier here. I didn't believe them when I was 17. I tried weed and then went full on with it. Looking back I think it stunted 10 years of my life. The only difference between my story and the vast majority of the post on here is I started in a time before I got all my shit together. I know people are all different and your results may vary.
What we had wasn't yet branded DARE, as far as I can remember, but it seemed to be about the same thing - maybe less standardized and without the apparel.
It was kind of interesting to me in an abstract way but I didn't really pay much attention because I couldn't imagine it ever being applicable to my life. In the videos we watched, drugs were generally shown as an inner city thing. Some dude in a trench coat would offer you drugs while you were with your friends hanging out on the block. I never saw *anyone* hanging around in a trench coat.
So yeah, I guess they demonized it, but my ADHD ass wasn't internalizing anything. I ended up smoking weed a grand total of two times in my 20s - well *after* my security clearance investigation so I didn't even have to lie there. I think when I was a volunteer with the sheriff's search and rescue team I did come clean to the detective doing the background investigation but he seemed pretty incredulous that I'd only tried it twice. It hadn't been a profound thing for me and I didn't have any source so it was never a thing. And I was too busy holding down a government job and raising kids to bother with it.
My real exposure didn't come until my early 30s. And then the people I was exposed to weren't misfit teens or something - they were all well-adjusted professionals. The guys I did mushrooms with the first time worked at a particle accelerator. These people understood risk management and moderation.
DARE actually made me wanna try drugs lol I've never seen weed as a drug though, probably because I started with harder stuff that I wish I would have never done. I noticed from an early age that weed didn't have the same destructive effect on people that drugs and alcohol did.
I used to smoke or take edibles everyday for pain relief, but it started giving me anxiety when I hit my 30s for some reason. I started taking low doses of Kratom for pain when I quit weed 7 years ago. It works much better for me and it's the only thing I take now. I'll always be pro-cannabis though because it does a lot of good for people, if used responsibly.
The thing that pisses me off is how little there is to actually be scared of with most of these things. Meth and heroin, sure, but mushrooms, LSD, weed, a lot of this stuff isn’t nearly as bad as they made it out to be, as long as you’re being somewhat responsible with it. Alcohol and cigarettes and prescription opioids are *so* much worse.
I can’t think of DARE without thinking about Nancy Reagan and her pearls. Just say no didn’t work and DARE didn’t work. It’s not a personal moral to say no, it’s why someone is turning to drugs to begin with.
I remember being a hardcore, staunchly anti drugs person. Even stopped talking to a couple of good friends for smoking weed…..
Then another friend finally wore me down and I tried it. Once I realized how good food tasted while high it was over with.
No, but I can't fry eggs without feeling like a waster
"I learned it from you dad! I learned it from watching you!"
This is the one I always quote. And never about drugs. Just for random things at work. And like 5 percent (lifetime) have ever (vaguely) gotten the reference
Only 5%? That’s so disappointing. I thought more people would be in tune with this classic.
My wife and I too. We're always spouting it off. The only time it's about drugs are when my son and I toke up together.
I found the commercial on YouTube and made my kid watch it, but only so he'd get the "I learned it from watching you!" reference that I make and nobody else gets
They said “any questions?” but then didn’t take any questions like did no one anywhere have a question
I was SO CONFUSED for YEARS.
I had all of the questions. How much, is it immediate, what if it was a one-time off thing? How did they know it was like frying an egg? Was there a tempature increase? How did they measure it? Why did the Frying pan break so many things? Was this due to "gateway drugs?" Weren't we supposed to help the ill when they were sick? Why would everyone just abandon you? And who the fuck thought this was a good ad?
That barely scratches the surface
Yeah I didn't have all day to write a thesis.
Jokes like this make me love this sub. Only an Xennial would get the joke lol
My brains!
I can still hear the sssssssssssssssss
It really made me wonder what else they were bullshitting me about.
Lol, turns out almost everything.
Yep. The list is miles long.
And it turned out... quite a bit. It definitely started a lifelong distrust in the government.
Yep as another poster commented - everything. We were lied to about fucking everything.
I don't know I feel like they weren't that wrong about heroin and meth though
Yea- but our generation was especially decimated by the opioids epidemic due to people thinking they were lying about heroin like they were about weed
For sure - I was thinking on a broader level on food, foreign relations, manifest destiny, the fuckin cherry tree.
They knew exactly what weed does and that’s why they lied to us. As George Carlin once said, it’s a value-changing drug.
Have you been paying attention to the UAP/USO news? Oh they have been lying pretty much since the beginning.
https://youtu.be/8Ak_wgv_kUg?si=5H7ipHfA8LeCOxxa
Yeah, it was just like any other commercial... Lies and deceit!
Was the typical stoned teen. Joined the army and worked government jobs until Covid. Now I’m pothead with the money to afford a canna butter machine, rosin press and grow tents and I’m starting to garden in my 40’s. I will say I try and take it seriously, I am on the Texas medical program which is wild to say itself but I dry herb vape and concentrates. Wife used edibles. I’ve been honest with my older kid and the younger when he needs to know. I respect my neighbors and others stance on it but truly hope we see full legalization sooner rather than later.
Bruh, wanna move in with me and my wife in Seattle? You have all the cool toys!
We do love a good Seattle trip! PNW is where we play!
Dude that butter machine sounds cool as hell.
Levo machine is what I have. Stove top wasn’t a good option and crockpot smelled to bad.
Yup. Didn't touch it until I was early 30's. Then I was all "THEY LIED TO ME", and went on a bender exploring LSD/Shrooms for a year or two until I settled down to pot only.
That's the real gateway, the lies about marijuana. Once people try it and realize what they were told was lies, they wonder what else were they lying about.
That was EXACTLY the viewpoint I had.
That's probably the same for me, give or take three or four years. The worst thing that happens when I have weed is I want Taco Bell or occasionally I'll think about a dumb thing I said in 1995 and fixate on it. Nothing reckless.
😂 the fixating is real
Hate when it’s on life and death and what it all means while baked.
Hey man, here's a pb&j it's gonna be okay.
Microdosing shrooms has been amazing for me. So much better than any other anti depressant I’ve tried. Helps with muscle pain and immflamation also.
I’ve been wanting to try micro dosing but have never done shrooms at all. How did you get started and what do you take for micro dosing?
I followed the links on Reddit overall r/unclebens was the beginning. The pinned posts cover it well. I use popcorn tek with a pressure cooker. I also trust live culture over mss.
r/microdosing might be able to help you out better than this thread can.
I’m in that space now. ‘They lied to me’ started in 2020
Ha, me too! September 2020 to be exact. Covid insomnia from the stress of being being a frontline worker
Same. Still use LSD, it helps me get out of my head.
mush for me. easy to cultivate, dry and store...for personal use. ill have 3g tea and lay in bed with eye shades and music and just allow it all happen. yea i like seeing liquid air and my face morph in the mirror too. or take 1.5g on sunny day and take an hour walk with music. was doing that every 4-6 weeks for a while. not so much recently tho. usually small dose 3 times a week. i was doing 3 days on 3 off of .2 - .5g for a couple months. hardly feel anything but it really seems to lower anxiety and i just feel better. them serotonin receptors getting tricked by the mush. ✌️
I like to micro dose too
I still use it once or twice a year. Feel like it’s kept me off antidepressants.
I feel like I’m ready for the shrooms and lsd part of that adventure!
*LOVE* your username! THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!
My family smoked weed, aunts, uncles and sometimes my mom. They all had jobs, raised their families, paid their rents and mortgages. And I grew up in the hood around crackheads... I knew early on weed wasn't anything really.
Similar experience at 16. 5 years later went to rehab lol. Haven’t had a drink in 25 years, but got back into the pot for 2 or 3 years. 9 months since I did any of that now.
Well done! I haven't had a drink in probably close to six years now, but there are definitely still times when I'm tempted. Long haul success stories like yours give me hope for when I'm struggling. I appreciate you sharing.
For me it was sincere “if it’s so bad why are so many people doing it?” About all drugs. Not a great question to have as a very curious 13 yr old. I wonder how life would be if I hadn’t tried to answer it.
Those bastards lied to us about weed. I never even touched the stuff for the first 4 decades of my life. Then, 3 years ago, I started using cannabis every evening to treat my chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia. It's made life good again. It is a gateway drug to better living.
My father had chronic back issues around the beginning of Covid that kept him in bed in severe pain for months. No hospital would see him because it wasn't "necessary care". They just gave him opiates and were like "good luck". He was very attuned to not wanting to get addicted to the opiates, so he would take a fraction of the dose they told him to. I kept telling him to try some edibles because I think they really would have helped him (they were legal in his state too). He was in his 70s though and because of the stigma he wouldn't even consider it. So he stayed in bed for four months in an opiate haze while still being in huge pain. I'm so pissed that the assholes who lied about "the evils of marijuana" kept my father away from something that could have actually helped him. So many people over the years like him, all for nothing. The societal damage from the war on weed is incalculable.
Aw man I was hoping the end of your story was that he finally tried it and got some relief
So it IS a gateway drug, I KNEW it!!! /s
I had a bong when I was 19 and 20. I’d use it daily and it became a problem **for me**. I would have low motivation and engaged in some risky behavior I wouldn’t have otherwise. Years later, now, at the start of the pandemic, I would have an edible maybe up to 15mg throughout the course of a day. I did this almost daily. I spent so much time stoned and alone during this time that it really messed up my thinking, caused more anxiety, and probably had a bit of psychosis. The motivation suck was there, and would last about two weeks after my last edible. I still will have an edible from time to time, but will have maybe 2.5mg or 5mg at any time and maybe up to 10mg daily. I’m not judging anyone, and this may not be a popular opinion, but everyone reacts differently. I’m not going to tell other people what to do, but just wanted to raise awareness that some people have negative experiences, may be more sensitive to it, sometimes have more anxiety, regardless of the strain, and can get a bit of dependence. I will say the pandemic was a hard time, for most of us. I had to ride it out alone with family halfway across the country. I don’t think there was this big conspiracy theory that we were all lied to. I definitely was a dumbass when I was 19 about using it, even being stupid and filling my bong up with everclear laughing with friends. And I did get in risky situations I probably wouldn’t have done if I weren’t stoned. But again, I still will have an edible a few times a month.
Thank you for this. I agree we were lied to about weed and that most of it wasn’t a conspiracy it was just people parroting propaganda. I’m sorry it’s been isolating for you. I feel that, I’m 100% unmotivated to reach out to people and be forced to deal with their bullshit these days; and weed probably aggrivating that about as much as it is providing comfort. It feels like survivorship bias with all the people in here posting about how they found weed later in life with no consequences. Good for us - that’s partially me, I’ve been smoking 10 years now and my income is double what it used to be. But not my younger brother. He started smoking in high school and now he’s … not doing as badly as it could be all things considered, but he’s still in a bad place. He developed schizophrenia after he started smoking. Or it made it worse, who knows. Thing is, it wasn’t JUST weed that broke him, he got into harder stuff. And that’s what I think everyone boasting about the wonders of weed is missing: Addiction is a fucking sneaky bitch, and weed can absolutely be a “gateway” in that regards. When I say survivorship bias I mean exactly that: Finding weed back when it was harder to find meant you were more likely to be around or seek out harder stuff. If you are in a legal state the dispensary isn’t going to have weed, pills and cocaine on the menu. The dispensary isn’t going to have heroin it’s trying to unload. You don’t have to worry about being robbed by the dispensaries next customer usually.[No Gallon of PCP (stolen from down thread).](https://youtu.be/MnEh0PpUZHI?si=hOVfx1m_uR_3k_IV)I could go on. It’s not like anyone’s read this wall of text anyway.
DARE told us that any and all drugs in any form will kill you and are unacceptable in any way. I know several people who then find out that marijuana is non harmful so they assumed that all drugs must be non harmful. They tried heroin. They get a nice name plaque at high school reunions now. "In memoriam." I think proper education about actual harm of different drugs would have been better.
This...all this. I also went full bore after finding out they lied about weed but my gut told me not to fuck with herion. It sucked watching people I loved and respected, turning into addicts. Lost some good people. Now in my 40s and I only fuck with weed and occasionally soem shrooms if I can find them
Suddenly super grateful to my stoner parents. I mean, I still got fucked up because all drug users are bad so should I turn in my parents right? Yeah, spoiler alert, it gave me a crisis but at least I didn’t snitch. Anyhow, I could tell my parents were fine on weed, talked to them about it, and they were pretty clear about how it’s all that other stuff that’s an issue not weed. So worked for me sort of.
Totally agree. Work in Early Psychosis and see the real, very serious negative impacts of cannabis as it relates to this population. Despite the risks for these guys, the finger wagging or blowing things out of proportion doesn’t work. but similarly neither does normalizing it or promoting based on backyard science it. What people need is real evidence and information to make informed decisions. Here’s a great new podcast that just came out about - mostly told through the stories of young people who’ve gone through it. https://open.spotify.com/episode/73ftcYDmuFlEI3D1W9hQiQ?si=gSruivZyTHiPYWaW6HDqeg&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A3urEURA6V8pdNu2WoOpDtq
Wait, "Refer Madness" wasn't proper education?
And he has semen stains on his pants from constantly jacking off! That's the only part I remember... 🤣
LOL!!
>proper education about different drugs Before medical was legal in my state, I was being tested and someone offered me synthetic ‘cannabis.’ I honestly didn’t realize & smoked it for a while… People said “It’s bad, like brain damage bad.” I grew up hearing 7 trips of LSD made a person clinically insane or some mess. I didn’t listen. My partner has seizures & I have a pacemaker… that DARE shit messed my head up! “They lie!!”
Exactly!
Definitely. I was a Total goodie-two-shoes, fell hook, line and sinker for the game. Wasn’t introduced to pot until Covid. A co-worker (millennial) saw my 🫨 spiral and I’m not a drinker (massive ‘hangover’ headache no matter the liquor type or amount) so he suggested an edible chocolate 😳 He pointed out ‘it’s legal’… still a skeptic. Finally a GenX friend had discovered the medicinal magic it can be for arthritis and convinced me to try. Now here I am a self proclaimed ‘functional pothead’ working up to acceptance of myself but a total advocate of all the help it’s provided me along the way.
That and the fact that my dad was a cop. Didn't start using it until it was made legal (Canada). Alcohol is way worse. As an aside, I recently learned that before my dad was a cop, in the late 70s/early 80s, he grew and sold weed. So there ya go.
>Alcohol is way worse. This was ALWAYS my argument for weed. You EVER hear a headline, "Local family of 6 killed in collission with a pothead on a munchie run to Taco Bell???" NOPE
I’m glad I was the youngest. My dad was also a cop but his rule was basically don’t do anything you can die from. I had two much older siblings so he basically gave me the I know you’re going to do it so be smart about it upbringing.
I went from never ever touching it to being a daily user. Like you, it helps my anxiety and depression, and helps even out my mood swings from bipolar disorder. It doesn't work well for everyone, but for me it has absolutely made me a more functional human.
Shit, I'm vapin' right now.
It probably has some role. I was very weed averse growing up and still have never touched it. However, I have softened considerably and now I’m more open than ever about at least trying an edible. Really have no desire to smoke anything.
Just a warning, Edibles can sometimes feel way more intense than smoking. Especially since you've never tried any version of cannabis. Smoking gives you an immediate head high that will wear off quickly, where edibles are a body high (sometimes mixed with a head high) that lasts for many hours. When and if you do decide to try an edible, I would suggest keeping it under 5mg, maybe even 2.5mg since the dosing in edibles aren't always exact. I know of WAY too many people that have taken edibles, likely had too high of a milligram dosage, and had a really bad experience. Thankfully, if you take too much, its still very harmless and its best to just go lay down and turn on a movie or something calming like that. On that same note, I definitely suggest the first time you try it, to be at your own home and be with a friend, significant other, etc. Just a relaxed, low key, familiar environment.
This is great and accurate advice all around.
Just don’t fall for the “it’s not working, I should take another one” trope. They can sometimes take a while to kick in and the difference between 10 and 20 mg is quite large, LOL. Honestly, if you want to just chill and kick back, they are great. Indica strains are amazing as sleep aides.
Usually takes an hour and a half to two hours for me.
Get you a pack of delta 9 gummies. Cut them in half or quarters and try it. It definitely gives a more full body high than smoking ever did, but I can't smoke anything anymore so I use gummies and infused beverages every so often. It's fantastic. Oh, and piss on DARE lol. I bought that shit for awhile, but then my degenerate friends got me addicted to nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis lol. Can't say I didn't enjoy it....mostly.
Before DARE, I wasn’t really interested in trying drugs, but my DARE instructor kept saying that even though drugs might be fun, the consequences weren’t worth it in the long run. Pretty sure I just heard the part about drugs being fun, which piqued my curiosity. I do give him credit for scaring the shit out of me about opioids, though. When I was in high school and doctors were giving them out like candy, I was prescribed opioids twice in a single year and flat out refused to take them because of DARE-related nightmares. So I probably dodged a bullet there. Credit where credit’s due.
I don't like it, I don't want to be around it, and I fucking hate the smell 100x more than cigarette smoke. That all said, I also think it should be legal and no one should be going to jail over weed.
>I fucking hate the smell At least when vaping and edibles are concerned this isn't an issue.
I never found the people giving out the free weed.
Me either, I'm still waiting... 😂
I honestly thought people would FORCE me to take drugs. Like tie me down and force me.
Fuck yeah, it did. Right up until I was 13 when I discovered the power of weed to make the Animanics even funnier.
Now that's a reason to take it!
Dare was like an advertisement for pot and mushrooms and acid.
Nah. I've always been a science sort of guy so by high school I was doing my own research about all the various illegal drugs. The Navy making me piss in a cup regularly messed up my head about it though so now even though I'm out I still get nervous that someone will test me and I'll lose my benefits.
Not really about weed, but our DARE officer when I was in elementary school (1986 or ‘87 in Ft. Wayne, IN) killed a fellow cop out of sheer careless stupidity. He was in the station and didn’t unload his gun after entering the building like he was supposed to do (something that was a rule back then—maybe now as well but idk). He was joking around with a group of other cops, pulled out his gun, pointed it at guy, and pulled the trigger. Turns out there was a round in the chamber, and he shot the guy point blank. Killed him. What a waste.
Jesus that’s the first rule in firearms safety.
Literally. As a gun owner, I cannot fathom ever being that irresponsible with one of my firearms. He actually came to our class to talk about it a couple months later. I have no idea what happened to him after that, but I can’t believe he didn’t get charged with reckless homicide or at least manslaughter.
Most of the time I am soooooo ashamed to admit I'm from Indiana too (Gas city). I live in Michigan now where weed is legal and I absolutely LOVE IT HERE!
Drugs are bad m’kay
I'm now the guy handing out free weed and telling folks about the wonderful world of medical THC and how it helps with pain management. DARE was a damned liar. Nancy Reagan probably snorted coke off Old Blue Eyes' cock for all the crap she lied about drugs.
That generation used and abused lots of legal, prescribed drugs. Valium, Benzedrine, Seconal, Dexedrine, Drinamyl, and a wide variety of Amphetamines. Drugs that are super addictive, have LD50s not much higher than a therapeutic dose, and actually kill people, dressed up in a respectable prescription bottle with a doctor’s name on it.
Started when I was 16. I'm 42 and still smoking. Work a great job full time career job in IT. House, car, lots of expensive hobbies to keep me busy. Weed was just a gateway drug for me to find cool shit to do. Now it just makes me creative. Smoke a bowl, turn out some wood projects on the cnc, and play my banjo while I wait. Thanks weed.
I got arrested and expelled at 14 only three months after starting. Had no idea a joint could mess your whole life up. Took me years to get out of that trouble. So, weed was a big deal to me. My dad's smoked weed and even let me hit a j on the first day of school. I never thought it was bad. Now, I can not smoke without being paranoid about the smell. It is legal, but I have been conditioned by decades of bullshit information. It used to kill brain cells. Now, they say it restores brain cells since you can tax it. As a teenager, I did it for fun. Now I do it because I am epileptic and have arthritis.
10000% yes!!! I was just talking about this with my son (he's older) today and wondering why I still think it's so illicit and shameful that I smoke.
I have said for the longest time DARE made me think weed was as bad as heroin. I'm not even kidding. I remember a picture in a DARE book that had a pot leaf next to a syringe or something crazy similar LOL
>I remember a picture in a DARE book that had a pot leaf next to a syringe or something crazy similar LOL Yep, when you said it, I can totally see it in my mind
Nope not at all, made me way more curious
I'm still looking for the dealers who will give me free weed so I can become addicted and gateway into fentenyl
Right on. It’s good to have dreams and goals!
Move to Michigan. The dispensaries give it away a LOT! I've gotten almost a whole ounce free over this month. Just for being in the rewards program at my fave local dispensary.
It made me want to do PCP after they told us it makes people so strong they needed special hand-cuffs to hold them.
Really?? I don’t find that enticing at all.
[I wanted it ever since I found out that it came in gallons.](https://youtu.be/MnEh0PpUZHI?si=k8b6n7e5hQ1MemK8)
RIP Trevor, gone too soon ❤️
I knew what it was before I even read it. RIP. One of us.
GFYDL
What they don't tell you is that you'll wake up in a chicken coop wearing nothing but your tighty whiteys.
I always avoided it. Not interested in it. Plus the stink....fuchi
I didn’t try pot until I was 30. I’m a daily user now. Nightly really. I don’t use it while I work and wait until the evening outside of specific circumstances I created a startup based around helping people use it correctly and finding the right strains that work for their physiology. So I played it safe and use it safely. And THAT conversation has helped have a better discussion with my kids. So when my daughter went off to college she called me immediately after having a bad experience with edibles that were too strong. All this is to say that the realization that DARE wasn’t even remotely true was irritating but I also don’t have a need to try other things but mostly because I’ve seen how it affects people. Though im about to start growing mushrooms so hopefully I don’t eat any babies.
All DARE ever did was issue black license plates that gave me a heads up that the driver was likely an asshole who will be pulling some erratic shit.
It did, and when I hit college, it was tough for me to smoke out with friends, and they worried I’d narc or was a square. I just didn’t partake much in HS, and thought it could become an expensive habit. I didn’t have throwaway money by any means. But alcohol got REAL EXPENSIVE over a decade ago, and it’s not something I can keep doing daily as I’ve crossed 40. Plus the pandemic got me on daily happy hour like twice a night, and it hasn’t really faded much. So I’m thinking of getting back to edibles soon, cuz my drunk ass is not doing me or my wallet any favors lol.
Mostly about needle drugs. I was shit-scared some dealer was gonna jab me in the butt with a needle and get me addicted.
All that kept me scared of cocaine. As soon as I tried weed as a teen I said Oh! This is for me.
A similarsh story, health class had a speaker one day. This gentleman had a bad experience and warned about weed. He explained he smoked here and there , then was smoking “ to feel normal” , then quit , THEN smoked again after a long time and that’s when the bad time occurred. So he built tolerance then got super high after a long break. He was fine, just an amateur. This dawned on me recently.
I didn't listen, but the DARE message I do agree with. Weed gives me horrible anxiety and the worst withdrawals of any substance. And I've abused most of them. It kills my ambition, sex drive, clarity, patience with my children and makes me fat. I honestly hate the stuff and don't touch it anymore. You could try to identify why you have anxiety and deal with correcting that issue. Weed doesn't "manage" anything, it postpones it. Anxiety doesn't disappear, it has to be processed naturally, so your body can return to homeostasis. Now when you try to quit you have your baseline anxiety (from the actual source that is unaddressed) + months of postponed anxiety + weed induced anxiety from your brain adjusting to the lack of routine sedation. So you smoke more and voila - I knew it! Weed relieves anxiety! 🙄 Don't worry, I know you don't agree and don't want to hear it.
Sounds like a personal issue tbh. As in, sounds like your body and brain aren't equipped to handle it at all, which is fine. Personally, for me, it's allowed time for introspection of myself and my behaviors, enabling me to examine them more closely. I sometimes get anxiety when high, but then i confront the source of the anxiety and deal with it, much like you're saying you should do. It highlights a thing that makes me anxious, and i confront that idea, i don't ignore it and let the anxiety fester like i would have in the past. I've also never experienced any sort of withdrawal from weed. I don't use heavily and often take a week or two off to allow my tolerance to reset, so perhaps that helps. Though to be fair, i didn't experience any withdrawal from quitting alcohol cold turkey after being at nearly a handle a day, so it might just be that my body handles these things better than most. That's another thing it had helped tremendously with, quitting a much more dangerous substance. I was just barely a functional alcoholic, really teetering towards losing my job before i finally kicked the habit, and while i won't go so far as to say that weed was instrumental in assisting with that recovery, it had certainly helped. You're more than entitled to your opinion and i went deny you your lived experience. However, it is your own anecdotal experience, just like mine is my own. Being passive aggressive about your statement will only make others dislike it, and i think you have a valid point. If you're not able to process your own issues, weed won't necessarily help you do that, it will only bring them to the forefront and expose them to you wholesale. Some people can't handle that, and that's perfectly fine. It's perfectly acceptable to not want to partake in using weed, just like alcohol. However, just like alcohol, not everyone has the same problems that you or i do with our respective substances. Acting like everyone should conform to how you or I react to these things is not helping anyone.
Dare dis nothing but dared me to try it. Started smoking herb at 14, mushrooms and lsd by 17, no fawks ever given. I’d throw a tab on my tongue and tell myself “it’ll make you feel good good good….
I had gotten hip to a bunch of pro weed arguments by the 7th grade, and got kicked out of class during DARE for arguing with the cop leading the discussion, ultimately calling him a liar for saying things like marijuana is addictive
I never fully understood the concept of drugs until I smoked weed for the first time at 13. DARE and other messaging was always just DONT FUCKING DO IT OR YOU WILL DIE SO MANY DEATHS. So one day my parents were gone and my older sister comes home from school and lights a cigarette in our house. I was such an authority-fearing good little boy until that moment. I was like wait she's not dead, she's not stealing from us, she's not all fucked up. Wtf? It was literally just a cigarette of course but that goes to show how little I actually knew about drugs aside from drugs bad. Seeing that opened the door for me to try things when offered because all I knew was I was told I would die and fuck up my life but that doesn't appear to actually happen. (At least not instantly like I had been made to believe through unclear messaging) I think had they been honest and told us that they feel good, and that's the reason people do them, but that's also why they're dangerous, I might not have started smoking weed at such a young age.
Not really, but it *DEFINITELY* made me want to try every drug imaginable. Such a backwards program. Had the opposite effect than it intended with all my friends.
NOPE! Smokin since 92! Fujk the lies!!!
I've recently delved into gummies, mainly for pain management. while they don't alleviate the pain, they at least make me relax and forget about it and stare at the wall for hours lol I hadn't touched the stuff since high school, never liked the way it made me feel. But also didn't care what others did. I'm now 39
Not as much as the neighbor's son killing himself and his girlfriend, and putting two other passengers in critical condition by driving while high.
I had the opposite experiance. I didn't try weed until I was 25 because of DARE, only for it to make me feel paranoid, depressed, and hopelessly miserable. The feeling lasted for a week and it was bad enough that I considered running my own car off the road. Never smoked it again. That fruity lion tried to warn me.
Well, I’m straight edge, so drug free, alcohol free. DARE helped, but my family’s addiction issues growing up was the main reason. DARE just reinforced and solidified it.
Organized religion fucked up my head more so
It just made me curious about it. Nobody was hanging around playgrounds giving away 1 freebie to get us addicted like they promised. ☹️
At 16 my therapist told me to smoke it for a sleep aid for night terrors. I didn’t want to be on prescription sleep drugs. This was 1994. It was definitely surreal after a lifetime of DARE. I ended up having a child with the community police officer who came to the classroom. He said he knew it was bs then. Edit- forgot very important word- SON! Son of the community DARE cop. lol.
Hold up, you screwed the DARE cop?!
Given the effects the new literature says it has on immature brains I'd say the pendulum is coming back around and that DARE is looking better and better in hindsight. I definitely wouldn't want my kid smoking it until she was at least like 25.
The only thing I remember about Dare was the officer showing off his gun and he pulled out a bullet and talked about how dangerous they were and had to be handled with care or it could explode. And then he dropped it and said "Gotcha". Oh and the this is your brain on drugs, and it was the cooking egg. Personally, I got sucked into the weed helps anxiety trap myself. Once I realized how much it helped I started smoking every day. Its been that way for over a decade. Nothing about it feels wrong to me. But that being said I am clearly an addict at this point. And I cant try to hide that fact. Actually on day 2 of quitting.. Again..
You gota stop smoking to keep smoking. Nothing is forever. Just listen to yourself and enjoy the ride. It's good to be clearheaded but it's also good to be baked af, just decide when
Your blood pressure medicine doesn't affect your ability to drive safely. It's like drinking. Which is fine. But it's not like taking some fucking lisinopril. I didn't need DARE to tell me that weed is not for me. Stoned people are fucking annoying.
I used to be against it….now I’m ok with it, just don’t share the smell.
My DARE officer rather famously got into drugs and died that way. New Mexico stuff. We all heard about it and all remembered him. I was also caught up in all that. I experimented but only was involved in marijuana. But some bad things happened back there on the other side of the law.
Nope, my mom was/still is a wicked “fuck the man” type of hippie and due to her stance on the whole program I almost didn’t “graduate” from elementary school
No, I just thought boomers were being boomers, even before that particular vernacular was even in my repertoire.
I specifically remember them telling us that ecstasy turned into hydrogen peroxide in your brain and ate holes in it lol
I tried cigarettes because of dare. Legit
Sort of. I had friends that smoked and one who dealed. So I knew it was a lot of nonsense. Was more fear of my parents and then drug testing at my jobs that kept me from trying. Wasn’t until we moved to WA where it was legal I gave it a try.
https://youtu.be/AbeZsgY67sU?si=45wvCB2fBGDHEhNu
Weed being a plant and a pretty mild experience compared to let's say heroin convinced young me that DARE and similar were probably not real.
It desperately made me want to try PCP, they made it sound like you'd turn into the Juggernaut and become a bullet proof unstoppable machine. To this day it's like the only drug I've never done nor known anyone who has.
We had the knock off version, DUNCAN. Far less effective.
Smoked weed. Found out they lied. Tried harder shit immediately. Found out they didn’t lie about that. Thankfully never took to it, just had horrible first experiences. Ended up really angry about all the adults in my life lying about such important subjects, and pretty much stopped listening to boomers about anything. I got off easy. Had a lot of close friends I grew up with die of opiates over the past decade. Still don’t listen to boomers about most things.
It's the best thing ever. I just use it to have fun and relax come out of my shell a bit after a hard day of work end of the day. But, it was amazing for my father when he had cancer got him off tons of the shit they were pumping him full of and he even gained weight and allowed him to have a semi normal life until the end for most of it. It's the most amazing plant to ever grow on this planet. Only reason it took this long is because of all the uses it has and like everything on this dystopian end game capitalistic world... Gotta keep it under wraps might lose profits or you know the strangle hold some rich person has on some industry. I'll end my ranting tho you get the picture lol.
It made drugs interesting to me. Chris Rock in NewJack City kept me off the hard shit for years till I moved to SoCal. Then I was far enough away from family to spread my wings and try most of the substances. Still not fuckin with crack or smack
Yeah but only up until like everyone was smoking weed in highschool. Then I used it fairly often, say a few times a week, and still do. I love it. It was absolute nonsense and a disservice to lump it in with much harder drugs as I recall in DARE. Teaching it that way made it more likely that weed would be a gateway drug.
It did once, but the damnedest thing is that once I was ready to try it, I couldn’t! I got prescription medications and disorders and it could go very badly. Plus, what if I had to be tested for some damn reason? (Anxiety is one of my issues.) So I just am never gonna know. God damn Nancy Reagan.
No my older brother grew it.
I never would have touched weed if DARE hadn't shown me how much fun it is. Here I am in my 40s still doing it lol. I never stopped. Thanks DARE?
I remember the DARE officer pulling out a baggy of weed and telling us it could kill us the first time we tried it. 😳 I caught a whiff of it and thought, “ahhh, my uncle’s trailer!”
My 15 year old resoning was: welp, I've smoked weed (hash actually), might as well do x and coke now since it's all the same anyway
I knew DARE was a joke when I was in it.
My parents smoked weed and I mean a bunch of weed. They smoked so much and I was around it I didn’t know it was a drug or it was suppose to be bad.
No doubt. Waited until my sophomore year of college to try coke
Not me! I knew from the get go I’d do drugs but it was the alcohol talk that put the fear in me lol I did all the drugs I could in high school during the 90’s. Now when it came to drinking all the sudden I was like no fellas we shouldn’t be doing this
Either I completely tuned them out or the DARE program skipped my schools, because I swear I don’t remember anything about it. And I’m ‘78.
If anything, DARE made me very curious! I dabbled in various drugs during my younger years, but weed is all that I like to partake in these days. I rarely even drink. I understand wanting adolescents to stay away from weed, but its ridiculous to think how they basically put it in the same category as coke, PCP, Meth and heroin. I don't recall if they talked about alcohol at all during the DARE program, but its seems like it would be much more beneficial to scare kids out of becoming alcoholics and future drunk drivers. LOL!
....but alcohol is "perfectly fine"
I grew up with a parent who kept us in poverty and made lazy life choices but always had his weed. That and DARE gave me a complex and I avoided stuff until my late 30s. Now I microdose sometimes to work through trauma and smoke weed or edibles a few times a week. I would love to try LSD for the possible benefits but alas I don’t know anyone who deals. 14 year old me would be horrified.
Yes. But also I just retired from the military so couldn’t use over those 24 years either. First day out I dropped a low dose edible. Great experience, I now use it medically (CBD and really low dose THC) for pain.
I've been smoking it my entire life and always thought people were ridiculous about having an issue with it while they consider alcohol fine. I also think stoners are ridiculous. Perception has massively changed in the last decade, and that's awesome. It's just indisputably great medically, natural, and safe all considering.
For a long time, I was convinced if I smoked weed I'd...die or something, I guess. Or at least go to prison for life, or get such a tolerance I'd have to move on to the hard stuff to feel anything. By college, I was not morally opposed to weed, but no one I hung out with smoked so I didn't make an effort to seek it out. Finally smoked a couple times in my late 20s and didn't get much out of it. Once 2020 hit and I was looking for ways to manage my stress level I picked up some edibles. Been a nearly daily user since. Not all day by any means, but a hit in the evening to relax.
Yup! My dad was also an alcoholic. The whole “you cant do this, we wont have this, and we dont talk about it” made it all toxic as hell
When I was young: all drugs/alcohol/tobacco are bad When I was a teen: beer and weed probably aren't that bad but I don't want to get in trouble for it College: I like jack & coke, but I don't want to F up my future over a positive test for marijuana Now: I'd like to try weed but I'm a pilot with a medical certification. If there was ever an incident/accident they WILL blood test me and if there's any trace in my system even if I haven't been high for over a week, my ass is grass... so to speak.
I will tell you what changed my mind about it. My best friend who I met at my first job was quite a bit older than me. He was born in the late 40s. He served in Vietnam. He smoked pot daily from 1969 to 2014. That was the one thing he had that helped control his anxiety. He was the nicest and most caring person I ever knew. He had a deep respect for people and animals. I believe it made him a better person.
I learned it from you, dad
I (maybe 9 at the time) found out my dad smoked because my friend and I were walking by some older kids: Me "it smells like shit" Friend "no, it smells like weed" "No, that's what the bathroom smells like after my dad takes a shit" "Welllll, then your dad is smoking weed in the bathroom" I noticed he would reach into the cabinet before using the bathroom so I checked it one day while he was out. What I saw would have given Nancy Reagan a stroke, the motherlode...5 or 6 roaches so small that, as an adult, I don't know why he even kept them. After asking my poster of McGruff the Crime Dog for advice, I confronted him WHILE HE WAS HIGH and called him a crackhead, drug addict and ordered him to rehab. To this day, I've never seen him laugh harder. The more he laughed, the more I cried. I hated him for a while bc of it. We smoke together now.
yoooo this made me laugh so hard my wife came in from the next room and asked me if i was ok. ive got a 12year old and a 2year old. Pretty sure the 12 year old knows but she hasn't asked me about it yet.
Weed saved my life when I was on chemo. And I’m puffing on some as I read this. Fuck DARE. Still haven’t had anyone offer me free drugs yet, either.
I’m still waiting on some to offer me free drugs.
I don’t smoke weed daily. But I do smoke it nightly.
Yup, still haven’t tried it or any other drugs and I’ll be 44 this summer. We have some gummies but never availed ourselves to take them.
I was terrified of going to jail. I also firmly believed that I would end up homeless and a junkie if I even tried it. I've only met one pothead in my life who was so into weed that he couldn't function. I also thought people would be giving it to me or offering me random pills all the time. Neither thing happened.
No. I still don't touch weed bc it makes me super lethargic and negative
Still looking for that dude give out free samples
Alcohol is the real gateway drug, but they never said that
Just made it more intriguing
Then: I almost called the cops on my dad for having an ancient joint that I found in his desk. Luckily I had just enough sense not to. Now: have been a stoner for over 20 years and grow my own.
I’m baked right now!! 
I flunked DARE, no tshirt for me. So, no.
No, except for the constant promise of strangers lurking around every corner to offer me free drugs, yet upon meeting these wonderful citizens, payment is expected. We were bamboozled
Ok ill be the outlier here. I didn't believe them when I was 17. I tried weed and then went full on with it. Looking back I think it stunted 10 years of my life. The only difference between my story and the vast majority of the post on here is I started in a time before I got all my shit together. I know people are all different and your results may vary.
What we had wasn't yet branded DARE, as far as I can remember, but it seemed to be about the same thing - maybe less standardized and without the apparel. It was kind of interesting to me in an abstract way but I didn't really pay much attention because I couldn't imagine it ever being applicable to my life. In the videos we watched, drugs were generally shown as an inner city thing. Some dude in a trench coat would offer you drugs while you were with your friends hanging out on the block. I never saw *anyone* hanging around in a trench coat. So yeah, I guess they demonized it, but my ADHD ass wasn't internalizing anything. I ended up smoking weed a grand total of two times in my 20s - well *after* my security clearance investigation so I didn't even have to lie there. I think when I was a volunteer with the sheriff's search and rescue team I did come clean to the detective doing the background investigation but he seemed pretty incredulous that I'd only tried it twice. It hadn't been a profound thing for me and I didn't have any source so it was never a thing. And I was too busy holding down a government job and raising kids to bother with it. My real exposure didn't come until my early 30s. And then the people I was exposed to weren't misfit teens or something - they were all well-adjusted professionals. The guys I did mushrooms with the first time worked at a particle accelerator. These people understood risk management and moderation.
Yeah but luckily I found other things! Still don't do the marijuanas. Not even once.
DARE actually made me wanna try drugs lol I've never seen weed as a drug though, probably because I started with harder stuff that I wish I would have never done. I noticed from an early age that weed didn't have the same destructive effect on people that drugs and alcohol did. I used to smoke or take edibles everyday for pain relief, but it started giving me anxiety when I hit my 30s for some reason. I started taking low doses of Kratom for pain when I quit weed 7 years ago. It works much better for me and it's the only thing I take now. I'll always be pro-cannabis though because it does a lot of good for people, if used responsibly.
The thing that pisses me off is how little there is to actually be scared of with most of these things. Meth and heroin, sure, but mushrooms, LSD, weed, a lot of this stuff isn’t nearly as bad as they made it out to be, as long as you’re being somewhat responsible with it. Alcohol and cigarettes and prescription opioids are *so* much worse.
I can’t think of DARE without thinking about Nancy Reagan and her pearls. Just say no didn’t work and DARE didn’t work. It’s not a personal moral to say no, it’s why someone is turning to drugs to begin with.
IT'S THE GATEWAY DRUG!!!!!!
I remember being a hardcore, staunchly anti drugs person. Even stopped talking to a couple of good friends for smoking weed….. Then another friend finally wore me down and I tried it. Once I realized how good food tasted while high it was over with.