People - How to bring up the subject of drugs with new people?

[missyelliott]

Swim would like to talk about drugs to some new friends he has made but is worried incase they are really agaisnt them...

Whats the best way for him to bring up drugs and see peoples views on them without them thinking he is a hardcore drug user??

any tips?

cheers!

NotMuch added 3 Minutes and 59 Seconds later...

The title should be "how to bring up drugs with people" btw...

[RHINESTONECOWBOY]

swim would wait to say anything just yet. dont shoot swiy-self in the foot. guage swiy's new friends' personalities and even if they bring it up themselves. it's hard to keep secrets but friends are priceless. it's good to have them around. dont want to scare them away when their friendship is still vulnerable to judgement. haste kills.

swiy should not start the conversation but wait until swiy can leverage off of a conversation topic into drugs and see their opinions on drugs before swiy spills the beans. that will give swiy an idea of what should and shouldnt be said. that way the beans can be spilled but at an appropriate time. following this advice, the worst case scenario is that swiy keeps new friends and a secret simultaneously. best case, they are accepting of swiy's choices and the planets align.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good advice

[yaba]

Or swiy could say he and a group of friends went to Amsterdam, stag party or a short weekend with friends or people from work . And was amased how open it was, like having a menu to choose from.

Some people will react either good or bad.
Swim usually gets a feeling either good or bad !

Reputation Comments on this post:

Hah, that's great. If only everyone could say they'd been to Amsterdam though. : )

[EyesOfTheWorld]

SWIY should bring up the subject of drinking first, as it is socially acceptable to pretty much anyone who isnt a hardcore religious fanatic. If they agree to get drunk with you they will usually end up telling you their opinions on drugs, or just reaching into their pocket and getting it on. If they decline to drink with you they probably arent into drugs, unless they give a reason like "i cant drink because i used to be an alcoholic, but i smoke bud once in a while". And then you have your answer either way. In vino, veritas

[Stationary Traveller]

the best way is to create an imaginary friend and tell your experiences from his perspective. then you could agree with him on whatever he says

[KomodoMK]

This is quite an easy one really and has always worked for little fishy.

Talk about something in the news or whatever then touch on the subject of today's drug culture. This usually leads to people giving their opinion and it's done in a way where you are not admitting you use/have used.

However, my little fishy never really hides his past or present drug use to anyone, because they are not really friends if they can't accept you for who you are. At the most little fishy will sometimes be selective about how much he tells someone.

[Nature Boy]

I don't think it's a controversial an issue with most young people as you'd think. Cannabis is socially acceptable for the most part although mentioning synthetics might raise an eyebrow or too. The best way to discuss the issue is with knowledge. If you present a coherent reason for why drugs should be legal, for example, that's a good starting point.

[100mg Methylphenidate]

"So do you party?" is probably a better question than "do you drink?" because it's more open. Or just be like "Do you smoke weed? You seem like a stoner." lol. Swim's supervisor did that to him, even before he started smoking. He didn't think much of it at the time until he kept asking him a lot lol. I think it's the hair and the fact that he's usually sleep deprived.

Or if you're in a grocery store or something, be like "hey guys let's get some shrooms" or make some retarded shroom related joke. Or talk about some hippy band. Anything slightly related to drugs, then be like "they were so high all the time." Then see how they react and say "I don't think it's that bad. I know a lot of people that do it and are okay" or something. You've just got to go with the flow.

[Trippin'Buddha]

the way SWIM does it at work is he just asks them if they smoke, If they say yes then SWIM says just cigs? it leaves the other party a simple yes or no question

[herostyle]

Yeah I think bringing up "stoner-related" bands is a great way to bring up the subject of drugs and whether or not the person partakes in them.

[discodave]

like yaba's my friend story but ur legitimizing it by making someone prominent do it as if it's breaking news, a current event, u could insert the name of a random us senator (republican if friend a democrat, democrat if republican) and say you heard they have smoked marijuana, even if it isn't true just u just legitimized it by planting it in an authority figure. then u can ask them, "you ever tried it?", then if yes, "anything harder?"

at any time you can back out without suspicion and blame it on your friend donald duck (change name) for his bad info about the senator if the person ur querying reacts badly (make sure they don't know the donald duck person) , but u'd want to start up a conversation that leads to politics and use this as the first part of the politics conversation, lead into it gently.

if ur friend denies it u could experimentally say, "i tried it once in 7th grade, you never tried it once?" and then it's just a youthful indiscretion if ur friend is persistnently refusing. depends how hard u wanna push it

its not a huge deal, even bush hinted at doing it. and a lot of mps in the UK done it. u just ask "anything harder?" after.

[cra$h]

tell them jfk did meth. It opens eyes, and minds, but timing is probably going to be key. Just look for a drug related moment and just give a little hint towards your attitude towards drugs. The less response the less they know.

[discodave]

Originally Posted by cra$h

The less response the less they know.

sorry got to disagree, in company swim thought it was important to hide this from swim would give a neutral reply to this such as "really? never heard that before" and wait until the other party responded to get a read on their reaction and then mirror it. lotta people don't like to show their hand early.

[100mg Methylphenidate]

Just never ask something really out there and expect to get a serious answer. "Hey anybody wanna go snort some coke!?" in a joking manner would probably get nothing but sarctic yes's or people who really would do it, would question the seriousness of the question too much. Saying you've done drugs in the past could be a bad idea too. Swim used to have a boss that would ask him if he'd ever tried weed and would always tell him that his friends had done it and he thought everybody tried it etc. etc. Swim really hadn't tried it yet. But it didn't take him long to catch on to the fact that he did it. Especially 'cause he had bloodshot eyes quite a bit of the time.

[discodave]

Originally Posted by 100mg Methylphenidate

Saying you've done drugs in the past could be a bad idea too. Swim used to have a boss that would ask him if he'd ever tried weed and would always tell him that his friends had done it and he thought everybody tried it etc. etc. Swim really hadn't tried it yet. But it didn't take him long to catch on to the fact that he did it. Especially 'cause he had bloodshot eyes quite a bit of the time.

swim disagrees because swim suggested broaching it ONCE in context like any shared secret not bringing it up continously. if swim was worried about broaching it ONCE in the context of a politician having done it (which swiy shouldn't be) if the other party says they haven't done it say "it's massively overrated, you're not missing anything" dismissively and it still looks like a one time youthful indiscretion. if they say they tried it then u can ask how old were u when u stopped, its not too hard to feel out and comparing asking ONCE in context to many times like an old boss of methyl's out of context is a very different scenario

[100mg Methylphenidate]

Haha yeah. I guess. Just don't look stoned/coked out/strung out all the time and you're good. Usually if anybody brings it up even once to swim he gets the picture anymore.

[discodave]

cus u see what u want to see methyl or have the intuition from long years of talking to users like swim. just like cops often know cops, users catch onto things about users. sometimes swim feels people out on other, thornier issues which swim is against agressively by playing devils advocate (hinting at having the opposite view) so it's a mistake to think just cause they broached it it's their opinion, albeit a mistake swim relies on.

youthful drug use is a pretty minimal transgression unless u own up to crack/meth/heroin

[RedLantern]

SWIM doesn't make it a secret to his friends that he enjoys a good trip every now and then. SWIM wants to be liked the way he is.

[fazerfaze]

talk about using drugs in the context of something like a concert or a party as most everyone can relate to that.
Things to leave out: doing suppositories of Oxycontin alone at SWIY moms house and freebasing.....no one likes crack.

[Sven99]

SWIM would think it best not to ask others about their drug use, and only bring it up if its relevant. Not everyone wants to talk aout it, and while some users are very honest and open about it, some users are understandably guarded as they don't want word getting around. Its one thing telling friends. Its another to have people you don't necessarily know that well finding out.

[vinylmesh]

SWIM wouldn't want anyone to be friends with him if they wouldn't accept him for who he is.


Once swiy knows them for a while swiy could ask them about their political views. swim would say how he believes everyone should be allowed do whatever they want provided they don't harm anyone else. If they don't react badly to this (i suppose it depends on where swiy lives) then swim mentions legalising drugs. If they agree (at least in part) swiy could ask them if they do drugs themselves. At any point in this conversation swiy can say swiy doesn't do drugs.

and obviously swiy needs to have common sense. swiy should be able to tell some anti-drug people a mile away just from judging their behaviour in other situations.

[slownerveaction]

If you really want to get under people's skin a little, just start calling caffeine your "drug of choice". Talk about being "strung out on a runner's high" when you bump into people, well, right after going on a solid run. Talk about being "doped up on a huge meal" instead of calling it a food coma. Talk about a time when you were in the hospital and they overestimated your tolerance to something or another. Basically, try to show people the altered states of consciousness already present in their own lives.

After doing this for a while, I've found that people will randomly start asking me about other "altered" states (they're shocked to find out how little I know first-hand). Frankly, the fact that I've gotten people to really examine what it means to be "high" is the biggest feather I could possibly have in my cap, especially given modern political climate of prohibition. It's amazing how people take for granted the cheap and easy ways to get high that are all around them all the time! One of my personal favorites is cooking a HUGE meal with friends and then after everyone is stuffed and can't eat anymore, breaking out a bunch of cookies I made before people showed up for dinner. They all have to have one and everyone gets doped up on sugar and flour.

[Sushi]

Alf agrees with most of what was said above, his 2 cents:
-start SWIY's investigation with legal highs, innocent or not so innocent, don't forget the main reason to swim is because most other highs are illegal (->jail); or maybe their reservations are based on morals? so lets see:
-do they drink? wait for them to invite SWIY to the party or have a party SWIYself and let the ethanol do its magic - "in vino veritas"- just remeber it does it's magic on SWIY too, don't get carried away and do not tell too much SWIYself, SWIY can regret it later
-remember, among the group someone else can be keeping his/her dark secret hidden, not only SWIY - which one of them seem to be most likely afflicted by affection to getting high?
-talk about someone else doing drugs, just don't use politicians as example, people tend to quarrel fiercely over politics; and over religion too, so don't hold any prophets or religious leaders as example, SWIY may end up beheaded or bombed (with explosives)
-artists seem to be much better option indeed, they are oftenly transgressive freaks and even conservatives tend to give them a right to be loons from time to time, although they will most likely condemn any immoral practices and behaviours, and this will answer SWIY's question too (but don't forget we are all hypocrites sometimes! they can say one thing and do the other)
-at this point SWIY should know what to do - produce a joint or start preaching against prohibition and war on drugs; if SWIY will find ally, meet with him or her alone and offer a peace pipe - from now on SWIY can engage in subversive activities together