You probably can’t convince him that drugs are bad. Because its more complicated than simple “DRUGS BAD”, and teenagers are smart enough to know that. What you can however do is make sure his understanding of the topic is accurate and instead aim for a harm reduction thing.
To start with, he should absolutely stay away from Heroin. The drug is shockingly addictive and absolutely horrible to get free of. And honestly, its kind of a lousy high, but YMMV. Any former heroin addict will tell you its just not worth it, especially when factoring the danger involved, particular with the fentanyl issue. I played in punk bands in the 1990s, and I have some regrets. And I mourn for lost friends. Just avoid this one, nothing good comes from street opiates.
Amphetamines are a little more complicated. You can do safer amphetamine useage with adderal and/or dexamphetamines, however street meth can be pretty ugly if it becomes habitual. Meth psychosis is an awful condition, although i strongly suspect its not the actual meth that causes it, but rather the repeated prolonged bouts of multi day sleeplessness. But its a condition that has long sequela. Annecdotally my brother experienced meth psychosis in the early 2000s and he still has psychological issues, despite being clean for 20+ years. To reiterate, you CAN use amphetamines safely, but stick to the pharmacutical variants and remember to take breaks and remember to sleep every day.
He’s sort of right that LSD is relatively side effect free, however you can have massive anxiety trips that. are super unfun and can lead to trauma. Acid flashbacks are to the best of my understanding PTSD type things. Its one to experiment with, but do it with an experienced tripper as a ‘baby sitter’, and don’t do it if you are enduring any psychological problems or suffer from any sort of anxiety. Bad trips are awful, but there are reliable ways to snap out of them, notably happy music and distractions like making art (bonus, art by people on acid can be very funny afterwards) and just engaging with fun nonsense. Finally keeping a few benzo tabs around to cancel out anxiety is always a useful thing, but put em in the custody of the babysitter.
Um. If I’m honest, theres not a lot of downsides to weed. Its not something I enjoy, but most do enjoy it, and theres very little evidence at all that theres any real downsides to it, although there is weak evidence that smoking pot as a teenager can lead to some likely reversible memory problems. I smoked a tonne of pot as a teenager and I’m fine (In my 50s now), I have terrible memory, but I think thats just a getting older thing.
I’ll conclude with this;- When I was 16 I was smoking weed at a friends house and his father walked in and caught us. He didn’t stop us but instead gave me what I consider the best advice I ever had;- Do it it because you want to, never do it because you need to. And stay away from the powders.
You probably can’t convince him that drugs are bad. Because its more complicated than simple “DRUGS BAD”, and teenagers are smart enough to know that. What you can however do is make sure his understanding of the topic is accurate and instead aim for a harm reduction thing.
To start with, he should absolutely stay away from Heroin. The drug is shockingly addictive and absolutely horrible to get free of. And honestly, its kind of a lousy high, but YMMV. Any former heroin addict will tell you its just not worth it, especially when factoring the danger involved, particular with the fentanyl issue. I played in punk bands in the 1990s, and I have some regrets. And I mourn for lost friends. Just avoid this one, nothing good comes from street opiates.
Amphetamines are a little more complicated. You can do safer amphetamine useage with adderal and/or dexamphetamines, however street meth can be pretty ugly if it becomes habitual. Meth psychosis is an awful condition, although i strongly suspect its not the actual meth that causes it, but rather the repeated prolonged bouts of multi day sleeplessness. But its a condition that has long sequela. Annecdotally my brother experienced meth psychosis in the early 2000s and he still has psychological issues, despite being clean for 20+ years. To reiterate, you CAN use amphetamines safely, but stick to the pharmacutical variants and remember to take breaks and remember to sleep every day.
He’s sort of right that LSD is relatively side effect free, however you can have massive anxiety trips that. are super unfun and can lead to trauma. Acid flashbacks are to the best of my understanding PTSD type things. Its one to experiment with, but do it with an experienced tripper as a ‘baby sitter’, and don’t do it if you are enduring any psychological problems or suffer from any sort of anxiety. Bad trips are awful, but there are reliable ways to snap out of them, notably happy music and distractions like making art (bonus, art by people on acid can be very funny afterwards) and just engaging with fun nonsense. Finally keeping a few benzo tabs around to cancel out anxiety is always a useful thing, but put em in the custody of the babysitter.
Um. If I’m honest, theres not a lot of downsides to weed. Its not something I enjoy, but most do enjoy it, and theres very little evidence at all that theres any real downsides to it, although there is weak evidence that smoking pot as a teenager can lead to some likely reversible memory problems. I smoked a tonne of pot as a teenager and I’m fine (In my 50s now), I have terrible memory, but I think thats just a getting older thing.
I’ll conclude with this;- When I was 16 I was smoking weed at a friends house and his father walked in and caught us. He didn’t stop us but instead gave me what I consider the best advice I ever had;- Do it it because you want to, never do it because you need to. And stay away from the powders.