by Sar » Sat Sep 23, 2006 12:12 am
I know this is an old topic (and unrelated to the original post - sorry) but I was thinking about this on my way home from youth club tonight and couldnt help myself......
Every friday night we deal with young people who are drinking, getting into fights being verbally abusive or in the worse case scenario escorting them in the back of an ambulance to hospital as they've found, ignored and passed their drinking limit.
Its not always like that but its a fairly regular occurance - one night I noticed that the young people were all clearly stoned - smiling, red eyed and in the mood for chilling, playing pool and a bit of conversation. I didnt point it out as I didnt want to induce any paranoia but that night was one of the best friday nights at youth club I have ever had.
I had meanigful conversations with the young people, didnt have to break up any fights, everyone had a good night and then went home - no drama at all.
I would never encourage young people to experiment with drugs any more than I would alcohol - but that experience illustrated a valid point to me. In addition, the people I know who have had psyhc problems arnt the people who just smoke but the people who 'progressed' onto other substances. Does make me wonder (seems true in my experience) if the correlational link between use and psych illness may be due to the 'fact' that people who partake in smoking are more likely to experiment with other substances which are what in fact cause the illness in the first place but the smoking is more regular so its put down to that.
Sorry tend to ramble after working 16 hrs straight and needed to get that off my chest. Anyway one more beer (Corona at the mo.) then off to bed.