Kim – Interview 31
Kim used to drink in the park during her early teens and started going clubbing around the age of 15. She would smoke a small amount of cannabis if offered when she was at school, but she wouldn’t have bought it. She didn’t like the effects of it. She doesn’t do drugs because she is concerned about being addicted, and it doesn’t interest her at all. She doesn’t going out drinking with friends as much as she used to because she is trying to save money.
Kim started to drink alcohol at about thirteen or fourteen vodka in the evenings with friends in the park. She drank with friends who were older, and says that she drank because everybody else was doing it. She was curious to find out what it was like. Her mum wasn’t happy with her drinking under age, and would often ground her.
When she was fifteen or sixteen, she and her friends started going to clubs on Saturday and Wednesday nights. She was studying and worked in a hairdresser’s part-time after school. She says that she could cope with going out drinking at night and going to school when she was younger.
Now Kim doesn’t drink as much when she goes out, and enjoys drinking wine more. It was always vodka when she was younger. She goes out more to enjoy a drink rather than to get hammered. She doesn’t remember gettingany information on alcohol in school, but thinks that there was more information on the effects of drugs. She says that it wasn’t as much as they get now in schools. When she was at school she may have smoked a few cannabis joints, but never touched anything else. She says that a lot of people take cocaine and things in clubs, but she isn’t interested in anything like that. She says that it’s too much money and it’s addicitive. She doesn’t do drugs because she is concerned about being addicted, and it doesn’t interest her at all. When she tried cannabis when she was younger, she never liked the effects of it.
Kim doesn’t go out much with friends, as she and her fianc‚Äö√†√∂¬¨¬©have a new flat and are getting married soon. So, to save money, she doesn’t go out drinking much. She has new plans and responsibilities. She will go out for dinner and have a couple of glasses of wine. She says that she enjoys drinking more now that she drinks less and can come home at the end of the night and can remember what’s happened. She is also trying to quit smoking, and has cut down to two or three a day. She and her fianc‚Äö√†√∂¬¨¬©e have decided to continue smokingcigarettes at the weekends if they’re having a drink.