People who used drugs were viewed to be the bottom of society. Proper people did not use or associate with people who used drugs.
Also the penalties for getting caught with drugs were very harsh. There’s a pro-drug activist who used to be a narcotics detective and he says he put college kids in prison for 10 years for a single joint. If you got arrested for drug possession in the 50’s and early 60’s you were screwed.
Think of how crackheads are viewed today, that’s how casual drug users were viewed back in the day.
In my world, most everyone used drugs of some sort. People who did not were considered “straight” and they were not cool. We did not look down on them, but they are people we would not want to hang out with.
The thing is, we were all professional in our lives, we had good jobs that afforded us our nice apartments and our nice cars. We worked and we played and more often than not we used drugs while we worked for better productivity.
Also, it was not an open thing. People could not tell if you used drugs, EVERYONE was super thin and this was before smoking crack so there was no bad teeth.
I grew up near San Francisco, and this was the 70s, so you can imagine how drugs were viewed in that era. I think because we were able to maintain a good life, and be productive members of society, and we did not flaunt it, it was not viewed at all.
Now if you saw someone shooting up, that was looked down on, big time. Those were the drug users you did not want to associate with.
Now, if you are here for advise, as the reason for this sub.
Drugs users were basically the devil and will kill you for the fun of it. They put babies in the oven and jumped off of buildings because they thought they could fly like Superman. I grew up during the satanic panic. Fun times.
Everyone smoked pot and did occasional LSD. Nothing really heavy like heroin when I graduated in 1977. I’m sure it was out there, but I did not know anyone. I thought I knew everything about drugs until my son became addicted to opioids. I had experimented on a limited basis while young. Did cocaine about 10 times. I did not like the feeling and never did them again. However, my son who btw was in the gifted program, an Eagle Scout, lifeguard and 3rd year engineering student ended up becoming addicted to Xanax while at his fraternity in college. Dropped out and became a heroin user. Pretty unbelievable for a kid who came from a two person family with little drinking even. He passed from positional asphyxiation with heroin and fentanyl in his system. It infuriates me to this day. We have lost so many young people. The only thing I can do now to honor his memory and give back to my community is spread awareness. Today I’m going to a bingo event for a local rehab. We will talk about our lost children and hope we make some sort of impression on the residents of the facility.
Drug users were considered scummy and zero-potential people. Losers. Dumb. No creativity or brains. Also low-life. Not people any smart person would want to hang out with.
Also, many were actually dangerous because of hanging out with bigger-criminal dealers. But it was the ick factor that put us off.
No decent people would hang around with druggies. I felt sorry for them, though, for being weak and pathetic.
A not-very-close friend in HS got caught up with a group of druggies because of an older boyfriend, like 30. She thought she was so glamorous and sophisticated. Ha. Even at 16 I and most all my friends saw through that —-it was ICK.
But big drama ensued. She went straight down the drain, ran away from her very nice home and parents, whom the boyfriend then tried to shake down for money, threatening them in their home. So they called the police and the daughter left town with the boyfriend that night and was never heard from for years. Both her siblings did fine: college, grad school/med school, jobs, travel, families. Learned when we were all around 30 that she had ended up homeless, doing street prostitution for drugs, and finally OD’d (or perhaps was murdered in her brother’s opinion). Very sad. The parents were the saddest of all. RIP Sarah L.
I grew up in the 60s and 70s. The hippie culture as a child to me was very inviting. I started smoking pot at 13. We were sneaking alcohol at 11. Our parents had huge dinner parties, so booze was easy to steal. There was so much they didn’t notice.
We all were smoking pot in hs. Then in college it was cocaine. It was everywhere in Los Angeles. On my 21st birthday a guy I knew bought me some coke. The plan was to do 21 lines, lol. Aww, youth.
I knew a man who would put in a nasal spray bottle with saline. People wore little spoon necklaces. I remember one party a bunch of us in the bathroom. One guy took the medicine cabinet mirror off to snort off of, lol.
Then, in my first corporate job, they would close my office door and spread out lines. It was part of the lifestyle of making big money, dressing sharp, and living large.
Fortunately for me I didn’t get addicted to coke. It was too much for me. I’m energetic enough without it. I don’t even drink caffeine anymore.
Now, drug addicts were frowned upon and looked on as weak. It wasn’t looked on as a disease. It was a weakness of moral character.
It entirely depended upon who raised you and in what environment. Drug use was fairly prolific though across the board. In some circles it was weed (though its drug classification is quite questionable if you ask me), acid, shrooms (also a questionable classification) in others it was coke, still in others it was heroine … and in the homes of housewives it was any pill that helped them cope with the lack of basic rights, and the mendacity of their drudgery. For their husbands it was booze while they (the wives) remained at home washing down Valium with cooking sherry.
I was in high school in early ’80s. Only loser “burnouts” smoked cigarettes or used any kind of drugs. Alcohol was seen as different than pot or harder stuff, unless you got drunk every weekend. Then that made you a loser, too.
By me – best avoided – didn’t even encounter cannabis at close quarters until I was in my thirties – and I was still suspicious of it, and the people who used it
A half century ago, the cool kids smoked a little weed, the uncool kids drank a little, and the kids on the edge tried hallucinogenics or speed that the rest of us thought were too dangerous. I remember a lot of friends trying quaaludes in the first half of 1973; forget how long they were on the market. Cocaine and heroin were thought of as the hard drugs that you only read about in the newspaper, that killed people. I never knew anyone who partied like my kids’ generation (millennials) and I never met a cocaine user until the 1980’s, or a heroin user. And I just met one of each in the 20th century.
Nancy Regan on TV telling is Just Say No to drugs. D.A.R.E programs. Only losers smoked cigarettes! If you were an athlete then drinking was the cool thing. Handful of rich kids did coke. Handful of hippie types did mushrooms. My parents thought weed was the devil. But, cerveza y tequila… no hay problema. Even ad a teen the let me drink.
Drug use (if weed is in this category) was fairly common at my relatively affluent high school. There were also some students using more serious stuff like LSD and heroin. If I remember correctly, it was pretty much ignored… and I don’t recall if any of those students didn’t graduate with the rest of us.
Grew up in a small town in the 60’s. Population was less than 1000. I never even saw any drugs until I went to college. My friends and I viewed drug users as losers. But we did get together in a cow pasture to drink beer on weekends.
because the drug war was not in full swing it was not vilified as much for sure. coke was viewed much more as a status symbol like saying look, i’m rich. speed, shrooms and other stuff mostly who cares it doesnt hurt anyone else. heron was different it was not really as accepted i think although i didn’t see it a lot where i lived so it’s mostly just a feeling i got.
Comments
People who used drugs were viewed to be the bottom of society. Proper people did not use or associate with people who used drugs.
Also the penalties for getting caught with drugs were very harsh. There’s a pro-drug activist who used to be a narcotics detective and he says he put college kids in prison for 10 years for a single joint. If you got arrested for drug possession in the 50’s and early 60’s you were screwed.
Think of how crackheads are viewed today, that’s how casual drug users were viewed back in the day.
In my world, most everyone used drugs of some sort. People who did not were considered “straight” and they were not cool. We did not look down on them, but they are people we would not want to hang out with.
The thing is, we were all professional in our lives, we had good jobs that afforded us our nice apartments and our nice cars. We worked and we played and more often than not we used drugs while we worked for better productivity.
Also, it was not an open thing. People could not tell if you used drugs, EVERYONE was super thin and this was before smoking crack so there was no bad teeth.
I grew up near San Francisco, and this was the 70s, so you can imagine how drugs were viewed in that era. I think because we were able to maintain a good life, and be productive members of society, and we did not flaunt it, it was not viewed at all.
Now if you saw someone shooting up, that was looked down on, big time. Those were the drug users you did not want to associate with.
Now, if you are here for advise, as the reason for this sub.
Dont do drugs, mMmmMmmkay?
Drug use was common. It was the age of
Make Love not War
Turn on and Tune in
These are now your Boomers.
We had
Sit ins
Sit downs
And Protests
Drugs users were basically the devil and will kill you for the fun of it. They put babies in the oven and jumped off of buildings because they thought they could fly like Superman. I grew up during the satanic panic. Fun times.
Everyone smoked pot and did occasional LSD. Nothing really heavy like heroin when I graduated in 1977. I’m sure it was out there, but I did not know anyone. I thought I knew everything about drugs until my son became addicted to opioids. I had experimented on a limited basis while young. Did cocaine about 10 times. I did not like the feeling and never did them again. However, my son who btw was in the gifted program, an Eagle Scout, lifeguard and 3rd year engineering student ended up becoming addicted to Xanax while at his fraternity in college. Dropped out and became a heroin user. Pretty unbelievable for a kid who came from a two person family with little drinking even. He passed from positional asphyxiation with heroin and fentanyl in his system. It infuriates me to this day. We have lost so many young people. The only thing I can do now to honor his memory and give back to my community is spread awareness. Today I’m going to a bingo event for a local rehab. We will talk about our lost children and hope we make some sort of impression on the residents of the facility.
I grew up in New York City.
Pot was everywhere. Only parents worried about it.
Cocaine was the drug of the rich and famous. This was in the pre-crack era.
Heroin was what everyone worried about
Drug users were considered scummy and zero-potential people. Losers. Dumb. No creativity or brains. Also low-life. Not people any smart person would want to hang out with.
Also, many were actually dangerous because of hanging out with bigger-criminal dealers. But it was the ick factor that put us off.
No decent people would hang around with druggies. I felt sorry for them, though, for being weak and pathetic.
A not-very-close friend in HS got caught up with a group of druggies because of an older boyfriend, like 30. She thought she was so glamorous and sophisticated. Ha. Even at 16 I and most all my friends saw through that —-it was ICK.
But big drama ensued. She went straight down the drain, ran away from her very nice home and parents, whom the boyfriend then tried to shake down for money, threatening them in their home. So they called the police and the daughter left town with the boyfriend that night and was never heard from for years. Both her siblings did fine: college, grad school/med school, jobs, travel, families. Learned when we were all around 30 that she had ended up homeless, doing street prostitution for drugs, and finally OD’d (or perhaps was murdered in her brother’s opinion). Very sad. The parents were the saddest of all. RIP Sarah L.
68-78 It separated the cool people from the squares
Benevolently. I grew up in the late 60s / early 70s.
I grew up in the 60s and 70s. The hippie culture as a child to me was very inviting. I started smoking pot at 13. We were sneaking alcohol at 11. Our parents had huge dinner parties, so booze was easy to steal. There was so much they didn’t notice.
We all were smoking pot in hs. Then in college it was cocaine. It was everywhere in Los Angeles. On my 21st birthday a guy I knew bought me some coke. The plan was to do 21 lines, lol. Aww, youth.
I knew a man who would put in a nasal spray bottle with saline. People wore little spoon necklaces. I remember one party a bunch of us in the bathroom. One guy took the medicine cabinet mirror off to snort off of, lol.
Then, in my first corporate job, they would close my office door and spread out lines. It was part of the lifestyle of making big money, dressing sharp, and living large.
Fortunately for me I didn’t get addicted to coke. It was too much for me. I’m energetic enough without it. I don’t even drink caffeine anymore.
Now, drug addicts were frowned upon and looked on as weak. It wasn’t looked on as a disease. It was a weakness of moral character.
It entirely depended upon who raised you and in what environment. Drug use was fairly prolific though across the board. In some circles it was weed (though its drug classification is quite questionable if you ask me), acid, shrooms (also a questionable classification) in others it was coke, still in others it was heroine … and in the homes of housewives it was any pill that helped them cope with the lack of basic rights, and the mendacity of their drudgery. For their husbands it was booze while they (the wives) remained at home washing down Valium with cooking sherry.
I was in high school in early ’80s. Only loser “burnouts” smoked cigarettes or used any kind of drugs. Alcohol was seen as different than pot or harder stuff, unless you got drunk every weekend. Then that made you a loser, too.
My parents taught me how to make pot brownies.
By my generation – a lot of people used them.
By my family and friends – a real no-no
By me – best avoided – didn’t even encounter cannabis at close quarters until I was in my thirties – and I was still suspicious of it, and the people who used it
Alcohol was and is viewed as a socially acceptable but it was and always has been the worst.
Where I lived weed was okay but it was illegal most people didn’t care.
Everything else was bad news.
Today I know a lot of people who smoke weed myself included, I’m a true light weight I like to nap after a while 🙂
Uhh…. I saw it just fine. I was close enough to the drugs.
A half century ago, the cool kids smoked a little weed, the uncool kids drank a little, and the kids on the edge tried hallucinogenics or speed that the rest of us thought were too dangerous. I remember a lot of friends trying quaaludes in the first half of 1973; forget how long they were on the market. Cocaine and heroin were thought of as the hard drugs that you only read about in the newspaper, that killed people. I never knew anyone who partied like my kids’ generation (millennials) and I never met a cocaine user until the 1980’s, or a heroin user. And I just met one of each in the 20th century.
An egg in a frying pan.
Nancy Regan on TV telling is Just Say No to drugs. D.A.R.E programs. Only losers smoked cigarettes! If you were an athlete then drinking was the cool thing. Handful of rich kids did coke. Handful of hippie types did mushrooms. My parents thought weed was the devil. But, cerveza y tequila… no hay problema. Even ad a teen the let me drink.
I grew up in the 70s/80s. Everyone was smoking/snorting/injecting something.
Drug use (if weed is in this category) was fairly common at my relatively affluent high school. There were also some students using more serious stuff like LSD and heroin. If I remember correctly, it was pretty much ignored… and I don’t recall if any of those students didn’t graduate with the rest of us.
Grew up in a small town in the 60’s. Population was less than 1000. I never even saw any drugs until I went to college. My friends and I viewed drug users as losers. But we did get together in a cow pasture to drink beer on weekends.
It was rampant in my circles…
Everyone drank and smoked cigarettes and pot
Am I old at 38? My mother was a meth head, and I experienced that lifestyle until I was sick. I condemned drug use from childhood
Nancy Reagan, just say no campaign. By 7th grade almost everyone I knew had dropped acid at least once.
because the drug war was not in full swing it was not vilified as much for sure. coke was viewed much more as a status symbol like saying look, i’m rich. speed, shrooms and other stuff mostly who cares it doesnt hurt anyone else. heron was different it was not really as accepted i think although i didn’t see it a lot where i lived so it’s mostly just a feeling i got.