David’s story

Sometimes it’s hard to remember what it was like to be young now that I’m in my fifties.

I used to smoke a lot of cannabis in my youth and occasionally take other mind altering substances such as Ecstasy (or at least what I hoped was Ecstasy) and rarely some other drugs. I wanted to experiment with my friends.

The war on drugs made this extremely expensive and even though I worked very hard all my life I never had the money to purchase a house because I was giving my Cannabis dealer about $200 per week instead of growing my own for free. I know this was a personal choice I made and I take full responsibility for my actions. I did try to grow my own cannabis as I preferred it to alcohol after growing up with an alcoholic father. Unfortunately I was arrested and charged for cultivating a prohibited plant and received a fine and a criminal record. that criminal record has prevented me getting jobs. I don’t use any drugs including alcohol since I had children. I do find the “war on drugs” counter productive and actually makes a health issue into a law and order issue. This has many downsides including making some people (like drug dealers) very rich.

Young people will always want to experiment with drugs and we should use science to work out the best harm minimisation strategies, not anecdotes and political ideologies.

We are doing our youth a great disservice.

Yours sincerely

David

– Name has been changed.