its natural for parents to worry about anything their children do, particularly as life becomes more and more pressurised, and perceived risks increase
my dad was a recreational drug user for much of his life; although mostly using benzodiazepines and the occasional stimulant (he was also a fairly heavy smoker).
He made no attempt whatsoever to hide this from the family, and in the end it did cause him chronic and ultimately terminal health problems (although I suspect these were exacerbated by a stressful and unhealthy lifestyle and his own personality)
My mum did try to discourage me by referring to my dads health problems – but It didn’t stop me from indulging at all.
Both my parents were once “hippies” but gave up most of their hedonism when my sister was born as things got a lot tighter financially during the late 70s/80s with two kids to support.
My dads health problems (which did not however stop him working and/or enjoying life when he could) did make me slightly more aware of my own health and is one of the reasons why today I try to regulate my lifestyle and ensure I get exercise (by cycling whenever possible), eating decent food and catching up on sleep during the week.
Both parents did also try and discourage me throughout my teenage years but this was mostly because drug use was a distraction from academic progress and in my family academic progress was seen as something of an obsession (I think the fact both my parents were teachers had something to do with this).
That said when things did go wrong and I took too much or got in trouble with the law my family still stayed by me and that IMO is the important thing. Too many families are stubborn and people become estranged over drug use; move away from their parents at too young an age and thats where they get into addiciton and crime.
I remember reading a report from the South London press where a man who had to bury his teenage daughter after an overdose regretted how he had refused to accept it when she had first started taking party drugs and kicked her out of the home..
As for “raver parents”, I feel that as you have helped contribute to this countries drug culture you have to live with it and that includes supporting your children when/if they take drugs, same as my parents did.
