Party Vibe

I think family plays some part in whether someone chooses to use substances but not so much with the individual substances themselves.

My late father took various pharms (mostly prescribed – although he worked for the NHS in his younger days (1970s) as a pharm/lab tech).

back then things were more like the USA today and especially if you were Asian you just needed to wear a white coat and could gain access to all sorts of store cupboards no questions asked. He was (like many other men from Malaysia) a notorious smoker – although this was normal for the era. Mum smoked for a few years although stopped when she was pregnant with my sister.

Both my parents tried to discourage me from taking substances although like many European born kids of Asian ancestry who grew up in this era parents put a lot of pressure on you to do well in education; it was to some extent this which enticed me towards drugs – although I always preferred stimulants to any depressants.

The only vice myself and my sister may have inherited from our parents is smoking; although our family medical history hints it is unlikely either of us will reach late middle age even if we both quit tomorrow.

Here in Europe evangelist Protestant rehabs are uncommon.

Christians and other faiths do run rehabs but I think there is some EU and UK laws restricting the amount of preaching they can do.

European Catholics and Lutherans (a less miserable type of Protestant widely found in Northern Europe) discourage “vice” but at the same time put up with it to some extent if a person using substances otherwise behaves well.

Lutherans (unlike more modern Protestant sects) also have convents and nuns – the European public health services were formed by combining the hospitals run by both the Catholic and Protestant sisters and employing new migrants from former colonies; traditionally they have always been multicultural but respect the work of faith based care organisations.

On my mums side of the family all the males have had issues with alcohol (I rarely drink nowadays but am able to drink an unusually large amount for someone of Asian ancestry).

Dad did drink occasionally (and in his younger days was even able to drink the Irish under the table on top of all the benzos) but his love of motor cars and family responsibilities meant he stayed sober if he had to drive anywhere, our local constabulary at that time Thames Valley already had advanced tests for DUI (there are 3 motorways in the region which borders London) and Dad actually enjoyed driving more than booze.

Martin Luther (the fat old German dude, not the black American Martin Luther King) did not discourage “moderate” drinking and said beer was a gift from God; although some forms of Prohibition in Europe started at the same time as the Reformation (500 years ago).

The (still current) purity/quality laws for German Bier did address problems with genuinely toxic adulterants added to some brews but also prevented use of various other non toxic but psychoactive herbs in breweries of (mostly Catholic) regions – what often got added to gin in NL and BE back then was often interesting 😉

Temperance/Abstinence movements are relatively new in comparison – these only arrived in Europe during the late 19th/early 20th century and outside of Sweden were never that popular. Even the British didn’t think much of them. Unfortunately with the rise in cheap travel especially passenger aviation and a backlash against the “socialism and permissive society” of the 20th century a lot of these folk crossed the pond and have infested great swathes of the USA.