It is time.

[kingfrnk]

Well amat...I'd be cautious about pushing how insginificant it is, and promoting its use. Most of my 'cool friends' I had 2 years ago, who were older, smoking weed regularly...that I got rid of, are now into the crack, doing B&Es and getting regularly arrested to support the habit.

For many I do believe it is a gateway drug. It certainly was here, and for the people I know. Glad I ain't a part of that shit or their lifestyle any more, becuz for a while I was. I was 12 and already getting in deep shit and headed that way. Most of them are already dropping out of school and going absolutely no where in life. Now you can likely claim it was not simply the weed, and I will likely agree...but I suggest it sure didn't help as it's lifestyle lead to where they are...first dealing to support its use, then robbing when they came short...then before they knew it...was the crack. A couple of them I know are even into the needles now. Others in jail.

Our city is plague with drug use and the crime surrounding it, and the best way to avoid it and the shitty consequences, is to avoid it all.

The me preface this by saying I used to do a ton of drugs, I'm hard pressed to think of one I haven't done. I used to abuse them on a regular basis when I was younger.

I find alcohol to be much more of a gateway than weed. I have never gotten stoned and thought to myself, "Hmmm, I could really go for some hard drugs right about now...". However, if I get drunk, those type of thoughts occur frequently. I haven't done hard drugs in years now, but when I get drunk I still have those thoughts, though they are nowhere near as powerful/compelling as they used to be.

In fact, when I was younger and I was getting off drugs, I used to smoke weed to calm myself down and to help me put things in perspective. It honestly helped me quit hard drugs. For a long time afterwards, I would crave dope and if I smoked some weed it would seriously reduce those cravings. Call it harm-reduction or whatever, but it really helped. I don't smoke weed anymore because of my anxiety, but it did help a lot at one time.

However, one way in which I feel that weed is a gateway drug is that there is so much fear instill in children about drugs, including weed. I remember being scared shitless the first time I tried it, thinking all sorts of bad shit might happen, and when I found out how benign it was, how it didn't make me go nuts, hallucinate, or turn in to a schizo, I started think that maybe I had been lied to about all the other "harder" drugs as well. So I guess what I'm saying is that the very people telling me not to smoke weed because it was a gateway drug were the same people who basically made it a gateway drug by lying to me about its effects and thus eroding my trust in the other, more truthful things they had said.

Well I am not lecturing, I am giving my experience. And yea...I started at the age of 10 smoking cigarettes, and by 12 was already doing thefts, smoking weed and drinking, and with druggy friends helping beat up other kids who owed drug monies to make a few $$'s. Also had already sold a bunch of my stuff for weed. And yes...at 12.

My story is sorta known around here. I made a joke about a "used to be a rebel without a cause" article in the paper a short while ago, because of my age, in our local paper, because I admit it seems ridiculous, but having the police stop by my house 2-3 years ago was a regular occurance.

I feel a fuk of alot better about myself now, and watch as my old friends are sinking further and further into lifestyle with few opportunities. They are all 16, 17 and 18 now...and juvi won't be a factor for much longer. Will be doing hard time soon. I also went to a funeral not long ago for a girl I know, who too was apart of the same clique. She decided to play car/pedestrian chicken stoned on acid. She lost.

damn thats kinda fuked up. i use to be a fuk up too. i was in a gang who would kill somebody on sight if they had problems with you. wats even more fuked up is that the sign is on my hand and will never come off.

Why don't you get it covered up by another tattoo? If it's on your hand I assume it is relatively small, so it should cost less than $100 to do. One of my best friends is a tattoo artist, if you want I can ask him if he'd design a cover up for you.

maybe if i ever move out of texas i will get it covered up. its not wise to get a tattoo removed neither is it safe. if u knew the background i come from its kinda insulting to cover your shit up i dont know why but thats how shit is over here.