Pretty much everything, for quite a long time. Seemed to just grow out of it, and now don't even have a toke. Drink too much though probably….

hmmmmm
back in the day
coke- now and again, yummy but turns you into an arse
speed- did too much, had a dealer friend at home, i ended up taking some back to uni to sell to mates, messy times, stopped when mates started not being mates anymore
pills- a reasonable amount , they bore me a bit, im just not a dancer
now
weed- still cant say no
beer- too much too often, still, infact right now
have mates that are still living the 90s club scene2 trips a year to ibiza etc, heavy and regular abusers they all earn top money in the city but none of them are (or ever were, even b4 the drugs) particularly well balanced
i think that is an important point do the drugs make you unstable or do the unstable seek out drugs?

just booze, rather a lot in my teens. i was never interested in anything else.

Pretty much most of what you can think of, and those that you've heard of. Bit of a geek about it and always enjoyed dabbling with making my own preparation for a night or two out. (including making GHB, Ketamine, THC oil, coke+vodka in an inhaler for a quick 'bit' whenever I fancied, a rather enjoyable drink "bhang")

I'm far from proud of it, not am I ashamed, just stuff in my life that makes me, me!

Used to grow a bit including mushrooms (I got pretty good at that!)

Now, a glass or two of red and if i'm over in Holland, a little smoke or two – have sourced stuff here and its just been anywhere close to what i've indulged in while in holland.

Once seriously considered steroids when I was just a club roadie!!

Got quite an addictive personality and tend to drink more than i ought to, but i'm now a reformed character and very well behaved!

Please don't think i'm boasting, just commenting.
jt

Living in the north west of England during the whole Acid House/Madchester thing, it was pretty much compulsary. Everyone was doing massive amounts of ecstacy (proper E's too – not the crap they're dolling out to the proles nowadays), wizz, acid, MDMA and (money permitting) coke.

I just don't recognise the hysteria in the press about drugs. As a few people have pointed out, it's just like nipping out for a pint for a lot of people. With no particular come-back as long as you treat it with a bit of respect.

used to do quite a few things but not touched anything in years – other than a couple of bongs 4 or 5 years ago. I can certainly vouch for the 'weed has got stronger' thing! Used to turn you giggly and send you to the shops for oreos, rather than making you comatose

Used to do them, loved it!

Mainly e's, , acid/mushrooms, speed, weed and coke. The odd bit of brown and DMT as and when.

Nowadays I don't do anything except mushrooms and only then about once a year. Life changes and taking drugs kind of lost its relevance for me as I got married, got a proper job, became a father and got out of the habit, so to speak.

Don't regret a single second of it though : )

I used to be totally anti-drugs, then went through a depressing time and did a few Es on nights out. Every time was fantastic. Great music on an E is an experience I'll never forget (as is sex, but best not go there!).
Underworld at Creamfields: Phew.
Anyway, that period is over and haven't felt the need for about 10 years now. Apparently they are easy and cheap these days dammit!

On one of these nights out we went to someones flat where all the others did some coke. I had to leave the room as it was the most sordid thing I'd ever seen. Utterly vile. Just my feeling at the time, dunno why. So, anyway, never touched anything else.

Wife is a college lecturer and her students have told her they do 5-10 Es in a night. Christ, if they are like the ones I've had.. well, you'd be off your head for days on that amount!

From 17 to 23 I spent every weekend and some weekdays caining recreational drugs going to raves all over the place. Mainly Ecstasy, acid, speed and coke but strangely, given the company I kept, never touched dope. It just didnt agree with me. Never touched alcohol during this time.

Looking back it scares me how much crap we used to take, and like a previous poster I blame this for a pretty shocking short term memory. Still, I have absolutely no regrets about it. I had the time of my life, whilst all my old school mates were doing the same old, same old, going out to shitty clubs getting blindingly drunk and either copping a girl or copping a fight.

I do now have a dilemma as to what I would do if I found my kids were going in that direction though. It is a pretty thin line that we walked between holding it together and living for the weekends whilst still working. I saw loads of people fall off and sink into the shitty world of hardcore drug abuse. Heroin claimed 2 of our friends in the end, and the devastation that it caused to their families and our circle of friends was almost unbearable.

Binners… we need a get together to compare old times mate.

Boots Cold & Flu capsules for me every time. That little bit of va-va-voom.

Over the years I've tried or been given the following;
Penicillin
Erythromycin
Co-Amoxiclav
Paracetamol
Lignocaine
Metclopromide
Ibuprofen
Diclofenac
Thiopentone
Suxamethonium
Atracurium
Diamorphine
Morphine
Ondansetron
Sevoflurane
Isoflurane
Nitrous Oxide
Propofol
Amphetamine
Cannabis
Caffeine
Alcohol
Nicotine
and Evostick when I was very young…

Living in the north west of England during the whole Acid House/Madchester thing, it was pretty much compulsary. Everyone was doing massive amounts of ecstacy (proper E's too – not the crap they're dolling out to the proles nowadays), wizz, acid, MDMA and (money permitting) coke.

I lived there then too. Never once felt the need. Very much a peer pressure > sheep following thing I think, and I never liked being part of the crowd. As SFB said, I like being in control of my senses too much, and I really enjoy life without mind alteration so feel no need.

Very much a peer pressure > sheep following thing I think, and I never liked being part of the crowd.

You just liked being part of a different crowd – no need to be so smug and superior.

You just liked being part of a different crowd – no need to be so smug and superior.

I wasn't part of any crowd, I was very much different from pretty much anyone else I knew and was friends with. As a straight bloke in Wigan with no liking of either football or rugby, or drugs, or even alcohol, and who liked going out biking on his own, I'd say I did pretty well to come out alive from that area at that time! And I personally feel my own self-control and common sense during my teenage years is something to be proud of, it's not smugness.

Very much a peer pressure > sheep following thing I think, and I never liked being part of the crowd

Quite the opposite Coffee, all my mates who I grew up with got stuck into the rut of drinking and going to shitty town center clubs. I started going to the Blackburn Warehouse parties on my own, but, with E's it take precisely 2 seconds to become best mates with complete strangers. 😀

lowey – that's just *wanting* to be part of that crowd instead and using chems to do it 😉 😆

Never done them but working in this madhouse i am certainly tempted to stop off in Amsterdam on the way back and do the top shelf. 😉

Careful, the next STW meet will end up getting raided!

Coffeeking – Very much a peer pressure > sheep following thing? Not at all. I'm from Warrington and the culture there is drink til you stink then have a fight outside the kebab house. We all got into ecstacy and clubbing as you weren't likely to get punched for looking at someones pint wrong. The complete opposite in fact. As Lowey said.

I had the time of my life. The atmosphere at the time (89 onwards) at the warehouse parties was absolutely fantastic!!!! Loved every minute of it!!

And Lowey – we will have to get together and compare notes 🙂

Not at all.

….

We all got into ecstacy

? errrr

But slightly odd, Warrington is a drug-riddled hole for the most part, I even know people who have dealt around there as their main income stream.

And…

clubbing as you weren't likely to get punched for looking at someones pint wrong.

From my experience, drugs and clubbing are not held at different locations to alcohol? The only times I've ever been caught up in a fight while out was when clubbing and completely sober because some knob on all sorts of drugs was upset about something I had no awareness of and was completely unreasonable, suggesting that the two are not mutually exclusive either in location or consumption.

Its whatever flouts your boat really fella. And there are very different types of 'clubs'. Some people like to go out, drink 20 pints and batter the hell out of each other. Myself and my mates, who had more delicate sensibilities, wanted something different.

On my birthday one year, 18 of us went out and did our first E together and went clubbing in Manchester. It was an absolute epiphany for all of us. I'll never forget it. And we never looked back.

And none of us touched any alcohol while out

DUnno about dope getting weaker.
I remember walking through a field after eating some space-cakes and watching the corners of the field start to fold up around me. It was very beautiful.

PLus a little acid, speed once or twice, etc.
I don't even drink that much now and when I've tried weed recently it doesn't seem to do anything to or for me. One day I will try coke, but haven't yet.

binners – I'm not questioning your choice or judging any more than to say I think it's not a good idea and not for me, I'm pointing out that a) you were following your peers and b) warrington is (and was) just as drug-crazed as the rest of the country – I dont think you were pioneers in that area.

.

It was an absolute epiphany for all of us. I'll never forget it. And we never looked back.

Amen brother. Mine was at a warehouse party off the Motorway in Nelson with about 3000 people. Some of the best nights of my life.

Happy hazy days.

I don't think for one minute we were pioneers. I think the whole Madchester and Acid House thing kicked off because a lot of people (myself included) were heartily sick of the alcohol-fuelled violence of the town centres at night.

Then a real alternative came along. If you went out into Warrington on an average saturday night, you'd not struggle to see why the warehouse parties offered a diffeent world. And a much more appealing one.

Nowadays people take drugs, while drinking, in the town centres and its all back to square one in my opinion

I feel rather "twee". My happy hazy days were spent camping and hiking, surfing in the sun, biking in the rain. My life was too full of those things, or trying to achieve those things, to waste time being hung-over or spaced out. I sometimes wonder if people are actually that different, and what makes one person enjoy one thing and another enjoy something completely different.

Yes Ton, I've done my share of persian rugs – you were probably there on several occasions, given that we used to drink in the same classy venues (!). I havent bothered for years now, partly because of my job, partly because I got bored of being the only one in the group off my head on whizz and driving everyone else berserk, but mainly because I felt the need to be responsible for my kids sake.

My happy hazy days were spent camping and hiking, surfing in the sun, biking in the rain.
aye, likewise (well apart from the surfing bit). But it was great to do a day's hike, set up camp and share a joint in the evening around the fire.

Couldn't agree with you more fella. Its whatever makes you happy. Nowadays I'd much rather ride my bike. Wouldn't entertain the idea of a night like the ones i used to have.But I have some great memories of some amazing times

My happy hazy days were spent camping and hiking, surfing in the sun, biking in the rain.

The two lifestyles aren't incompatible – in fact, they mix rather well. There was a point in my life where a ride / camping ride wasn't complete without a smoke, or occasionally a bit of dodgy powder!

We had many a happy night way up in the Cairngorms enjoying a couple of acid tabs in a bottle of red. Nom nom nom. Ruined the wine but we just didn't care 🙂

i still smoke a lot of weed each day. i have done since i was 14/15 (i'm 27 now).

at 17 we used to sit down the snooker hall ripping lines off the side of the tables. it usd to get very silly and wasn't helped that one of our group knew the son of a large coke dealer (A128, fishing place just after the Dog & Partridge, anyone?). it got to the point where one of our mates was stealing from his family shop to pay for it. we decided as a group not to bother with it after that. a fw of us keep to it, others not.

for two years or so i was picking up and distributing large quantities of pills when i was 18-20. 400 or 500 pills in one go then cycling like a loon through london to drop em off at a friends house in camden before we hit the clubs.

we used to party at a friends place whenever he got some tabs through the post. they used to be very interesting parties.

one of our friends made contact with a guy who dealt almost exclusively in ketamine and MDMA. nights out in the clubs got very messy after that. one aussie girl i knew went off the rails and lost her PE teaching job because she got hooked on ket. she may well be living on the streets of london now. so, hailey, if you're reading this; "hello".

i knocked all the bad stuff on the head once i moved to germany. probably the healthiest move i've ever made. i've got a lot fatter since being here because of the beer.

oh yeah, i've got shit short term memory….

Loddrik.
Some choice comments here, but why you think it's got anything to do with the Press is anyone's guess!

Some clearly think it's "normal". Others seem to have dabbled. I'm sure the vast majority simply aren't at all interested, not then, now or in the future.

“Apart from the normal red & gold lebanese”
“but grew out of it around 13 years old”
“I look back now and just think what an idiot”
“but I personally know about 100 who are f**ced up because of drugs!”
“been offered loads of others but was never interested.”
“drugs – it is just part of normal life,”
“ive seen families(inc my own) torn apart through addiction etc”
“I'm old and boring now and find it **** with my riding.”
“when i do they're still caning it, secretive, lying to each other, its pathetic”

Each of us draws our own conclusions. I still maintain that if your life is fulfilling, you have a modicum of self discipline, have some clarity of thought and purpose, drugs don't ever get a look-in.

As you can imagine, and this is given, the older we get, the wiser we become – & pertinent to this particular forum, any drug will adversely affect your riding, be it a skin-full the night before, a 20 pack of smokes or other stronger stuff, it matters not. It also seems to have real knock-on effects into family life and also work.

Is Brother Binners now a tee-total, non-drug taking monk?

erm… not quite 😀

yeah, with the money i could have saved by staying 'clean' i could have bought a Ti29er…

wouldn't have been much fun though.

I still maintain that if your life is fulfilling, you have a modicum of self discipline, have some clarity of thought and purpose, drugs don't ever get a look-in

I think thats rubbish. Some people want to experiment and experience things outside the norm.

. I still maintain that if your life is fulfilling, you have a modicum of self discipline, have some clarity of thought and purpose, drugs don't ever get a look-in.

Yeah and drugs can make people more tolerant and understanding of others, and less uptight too. 😉