Poll: Have you lost a good friend to drugs?

[Antari]

Saturday morning I lost a good friend to a very dangerous drug. Crack Cocaine. It destroys, completely and utterly from what I've been able to observe of it, everyone it touches. I had spent months trying to help them get away from the lifestyle and the drug, but to no avail. There is little I can do but deal with the situation as it is. Any sound recommendations are welcome.

The friend I lost, was a musician. Music is something we enjoyed together. And the escapist usually has some good music threads so if you don't have a story you want to share, pick a song.

And if you have a friend who does this drug or is thinking about doing a drug like this. Get them away from it. Do whatever you have to. You may still fail. As I did. But atleast you will have tried your best.

 

[Arakasi]

I tend to not be friends with those who do drugs.
So, no.

 

[Eleuthera]

I've never lost a friend to drugs. I have however seen an acquaintance destroy his future with drugs.

This was one of the smartest people at my highschool, went to the same university as me. He (and his friends) had always been into smoking weed, but generally not too much and just on the weekends.

After moving out of his parents place he started using more, to the point where he let his studies lapse and eventually dropped out. The last time I spoke to him (4 years ago) he was working the cashregister at a DIY-store.

 

[NightmareExpress]

Not personally.
Or rather...not yet?

For whatever reason, I have never been capable of being the friend of a drug user.
We just never cross paths in life. Though I can't discount the possibility that it can happen or some other (mostly) sober friend could turn into one of them.

So we'll see...

 

[Queen Michael]

I have no friends who do drugs. We all heed the words of Pee-Wee.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Yes, lost (as in dead) a girlfriend and a couple of associates (not really friends though). Lost (as in destroyed relationship) a couple more girlfriends, but otherwise no one I can think of that I really gave a crap about. Couple of friends who've died and then got revived by medics.

Nothing I can really recommend to help.

 

[krazykidd]

Nope , i tend to avoid heavy drug users . Weed is okay as far as i'm concerned but anything more than that would result in me droping the friendship altogether.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

No, but one of my friend's kid brother got into some bad company and got in over his head and ended his own life.

 

[Tanakh]

Not close friends, but yeah, I have lost a couple to drunk driving and one to hard drugs. May they rest in peace.

 

[Yuno Gasai]

I haven't lost a good friend in the sense that he died, but drugs caused him to become less than a shadow of the man he once was.

He used to be really intelligent, and much like your friend, he was also a musician. He initially began smoking weed recreationally (and in fact I distinctly remember him sneaking away before one of our GCSE exams to smoke a spliff before the exam), but after we left school, things really went downhill.

He started experimenting with harder drugs, and became much more addicted and much less like himself. He's always lived up the road from me (until very recently), but I found out that he had had some kind of breakdown and had ended up pinning his father against a wall with a knife held to his throat threatening to kill him. It shocked me.

I've been told he's moved away now, and that he is holding down a stable job.. but I'm wondering how, because I'm 85% sure that he still takes drugs, and drug use isn't really conducive to keeping a job.

 

[Murais]

One of my best friends in high school became an opiate addict pretty much over night. The worst thing is that he had kicked it a few times and I was really proud of him, but then he would either go back or replace it with something else. He kind of just had an addictive personality and would use it to commit himself to an unhealthy level with anything. Pot (which I consider largely non-harmful, but he found a way), women, drinking, what have you, he would just kind of fall off the face of the Earth for a few weeks, apologize for ditching me, and everything would be normal until the next time it happened.

I flew off the handle on him recently after we had a conversation where he revealed to me that in the last amount of time we didn't talk, he got popped for a DUI and started making/selling drugs out of his mom's attic. I kind of just had to cut him out at that point.

 

[hooblabla6262]

Surprisingly, no.

I grew up in a poor neighborhood where drug use is fairly common. Most of my family members have been to rehab, or are in serious need. I've had friends who smoked meth, snorted coke, and shot up with dilaudid. None have died, and I would never abandon them for doing those types of drugs.

It would have surprised most of you to see how functioning these people actually were. Other than the few who used needles, most were indistinguishable from non-drug users. Hell, my friend who probably did the most non-needle based drugs was on tv for Maritime Idol. Just a regular looking hunk.

These days, I belong to the psychedelic crowd (mushrooms, lsd), and of course weed. Like everything, I have some friends who abuse these drugs slightly. The kind of guys who get grumpy cause they haven't smoked weed that day. I, on the other hand, use drugs and maintain a healthy/happy/successful life. Moderation has always come easy to me.

I wouldn't recommend most drugs to the average person, cause the average person is an idiot who could not handle them.
Also, I hate the term "drugs". Way too broad.

 

[Bertylicious]

My friends and I went to Amsterdam a few years ago. Whilst we were there we bought supposedly psychotropic truffles. The package said to eat them raw which we did, they tasted vile and headed back to the apartment.

I can only describe the experience as being akin to how I imagine it would feel to be a woman with terrible PMT who has been put into a big daddy suit, though a little more giggly. We flopped around like seals for a while, making ridiculous "jokes" about "being on tour" and "going on tour to get some bread from the kitchen" and so on.

After a while of staring into space and feeling terrible we heard a loud thud. Someone asked where Dave had gone. I dragged myself to my feet to find out and went out to the hall. That's where I found him. He'd passed out whilst going for a piss and cut his chin when he hit the ground.

*shakes head*

Things are never the same after you've seen a guy's stew.

 

[King of Asgaard]

No, though knowing the group I hang with, lung cancer/liver failure from the smoking and drinking awaits them.
Sorry for your loss, here have an awesome solo:

 

[generals3]

I wouldn't use the word "lost" but i have one who is fucking up his academic career because of weed. And i don't really have any tips because my attempts to make him quit all failed.

 

[Dragoon]

I try to live a straight edge lifestyle so I tend to not associate with people who do drugs and it's stories like these that are the reason I choose to live this way, the risks that drugs bring just aren't worth the momentary buzz you get.

 

[Strazdas]

Yes. i stopped being friends when i found out he used drugs.