
Friends, alcohol and drugs
- Age at interview:
- 17
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Emily goes to college full-time and lives at home with her mum, dad and two siblings. White British.
I think a lot of people get into the wrong groups and start taking drugs to look good or to just to fit in with a group or get peer pressured into it by joining that group so I think that’s got a lot to do with it as well.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Ben is a first year university student who started drinking heavily in his gap year. He has occasionally taken drugs when he has been drinking.
- Age at interview:
- 16
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Bekky studies full-time and lives with her parents and her sibling in a small town in the north of England. British.
Using drugs regularly and experimenting with different drugs was a big part of making new friends at university where drugs and alcohol are easy to get hold of.
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- University student, taking a year off and working as a volunteer with a student drug reform organisation called Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
I didn’t use drugs in high school. I had some friends who did cannabis, mostly. There was friend of mine who went to lots of raves and did an astonishing variety of drugs when she was 16. I’d say university is the place where lots of people do get introduced to drugs. I know more people who use drugs now than I did in high school.
Of course there’s probably a few reasons for that – my social group is very different now. At uni, you get to choose who to hang out with in a much bigger way and so I’ve gravitated towards other people who have an interest in drugs.
- Age at interview:
- 28
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Sam lives with his partner and their child. He is a part- time youth worker and has just started university. Ethnic background: White British.
It’s horrible to think but I think I’m responsible in a lot of ways for a fair number of my friends taking drugs because I was in there and I was getting involved in it and they were coming like they were coming from where they lived to where I live and coming out for a drink or whatever. And then I’d be like, ‘Do you want some drugs?’ like you know, and I weren’t forcing it on them but it was there and if I hadn’t have been in that situation I wouldn’t have put that on them. And you know, some of the states some of them have got in like. And I got in some states, you know, but I just, I feel responsible, I do. You know, I’d never do that anymore though like but...
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Full-time student, single. White British. Harry is on treatment and recovering from psychosis. He blames cannabis/skunk for his illness. He said that his parents have been very supportive throughout this episode.
It’s the same with my best friends now sort of there’s a massive group who are like so into drugs it’s unreal like more than most people I’ve ever met. And they’re such party animals and but they have their own problems individually well they’re still, some of them are in denial about it and stuff, don’t like to admit that there’s drugs that’s actually having this affect on them. They just think if they have like a little break from it then they’ll be fine and find I have conversations with some of them and like some of them, one of them in particular, he’s having massive problems at the moment, he’s having similar problems that I had. And I try and warn him but the thing is I don’t know him as well as my other friends we’re very familiar with each other and we know who each other are, we have like fun when we go out. But I don’t really know him on a personal level so I can’t be too I feel like I’m almost being a bit intrusive even though I really want to say to him “Look” and I do like I do open up and I say “Look mate if you, you don’t want to end up like how I felt like when I was like younger and then like a few years ago because that’s this is the start of it this is the start of paranoia and this is the start of something serious” and then one of my other friends I remember the other day like who was with us at that point when I said that who is so pro drugs it’s unreal, he would he’d just butt in and go “No, no don’t be so don’t be so like up in the air about it like it’s not that bad” and you need to what’s the name, “You need to have a break, just have a break and then you’ll be fine and you can get back into it” or whatever but, he’s a he’s not seeing he’s in denial himself with his own, but he doesn’t want to admit that there is a massive like connection with their problems there and that he needs to knock it on the head and this is something more serious than it actually is.
Mixing with older people in the workplace or simply ‘growing up’ and realising they needed to earn money and pay bills made some people realise they had to drink and smoke less. Several people still enjoyed social drinking with their friends/partners but generally took recreational drugs less often.
- Age at interview:
- 25
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Jen is married, a university graduate, and works full-time as a press officer. Jen grew up in a small village and her school friends would go out to drink vodka on weekends, which her parents didn't like. Some people she knew took ecstasy and speed. She tried cannabis but avoided drugs like ecstasy because she was afraid of what would happen. Ethnic background: British
For those who used drugs with friends, finding a new social group could be important if they were going to stop taking drugs. It could be difficult leaving old friends behind, but everyone we talked to said it had been the right thing to do. Several people realised old friends were seriously at risk of getting addicted and not being able to stop
- Age at interview:
- 18
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Lauren is a student is finishing Health and Social Care course at college and afterwards she plans to work for a year and then go to university to study social work. She lives with her mother and older brother. British.
- Age at interview:
- 23
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Jim lives with his partner and their baby. He works as a retail assistant. He plans to study and wants to work as a drug education practitioner. Ethnic background: White British.
- Age at interview:
- 27
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Peter works full time in publicity. He is single and has one child. White British.
Young people described what friendship meant to them. Being supportive meant really looking out for your friends and stopping them getting into trouble with drugs and drink.
- Age at interview:
- 19
- Sex:
- Female
- Background:
- Emma is a first year university student and is on a University sports team. Heavy drinking every week is part of team building. She tries to be responsible by knowing her limits with alcohol. Ethnic background: White British.
I think the case there is look out for each other, maybe that should be something that’s encouraged, you know, the idea that you’re each looking out for each other, not just holding your friend’s hair back over the toilet but maybe more than that, watching how much each other’s drinking, knowing each other’s limits, knowing what each other can handle, and also being aware of, I don’t know, guys around that, you know, perhaps don’t have the most honourable intentions. Maybe that would a good approach to take of the, the kind of, take the kind of social side of, you know, drinking together and turning that into looking out for each other, and maybe this is how you should look after them if they’ve done too much, you should try and stop them from drinking too much, that might be more of a motivation than looking after yourself [slight laugh], if you know that people are watching out for you it might, you know, make you feel, you know, try to be more responsible because everyone, you know, to be the person looking after someone who’s really drunk the next day they can’t be more thankful, and you feel terrible to have impeded on someone by being in an absolute state and an embarrassment to yourself, you feel like an absolute idiot to have done that to a friend, you know, to ruin their night, and to have them have to take you home and make you drink lots of water and, you know it’s, maybe if that was emphasised the idea that you’re not just affecting you’re night you’re affecting all your friends night as well, that might be perhaps a good approach to take.
- Age at interview:
- 20
- Sex:
- Male
- Background:
- Hugh is a first year university student who found that drinking at university was very different from drinking as a teenager. Ethnic background; British.
Last updated: January 2015
Review date: January 2017