Whatever Happened to PCP?
When I was growing up I knew very little about drugs, but I knew this: PCP (or Angel Dust, depending on which '70s crime drama you were watching) was the worst drug there was. People went crazy on PCP, whatever that was. Remember that scene in the Terminator, when Sara Connor is telling the cops about how the Terminator smashed his hand through the windshield just before getting smashed all to bits and then walking away? How did the cops explain that?
"Maybe he was on PCP."
It never failed. Somebody would take a header off a building or go nuts and start shooting a place up, and the explanation was always the same: Angel Dust! As a kid, the message I got was unmistakeable: Damn! PCP must be some bad shit! But let me ask you: When is the last time you were at a party and somebody busted out some Angel Dust? I could do a survey of 10 of my most hard-core drug friends and I don't think I would come across any of them who have ever done PCP, or could tell me how to get it, not that I need it, because Rock Star already makes me invincible. What's a guy gotta do to get some PCP around here?
Jane claims to know someone who accidentally smoked some pot that was laced with PCP, which I thought was just one of those Reefer Madness myths they try to spread to get people to stay away from pot. But she says it happened, so that's fine. But that had to be like 15 years ago, and I have to believe PCP is dead now, made passe by the meth craze. Friend of Pipeline Steim posited to Jane and I this weekend that somebody could get rich if they wanted to bring PCP back on the market. Somebody besides us, anyway.
It's probably for the best that PCP's not around anymore. I remember this film I saw in eighth grade that was just an hour-long interview with this guy who was a PCP addict. It was in the "scared straight" genre, so of course they find a guy who's a giant dorkass loser even before he gets high on PCP. Then, after he gets all loaded he starts listening to Steely Dan's Aja album. Mission fucking accomplished there. Anything that makes people wax poetic about Steely Dan in front of a camera for 20 minutes isn't anything I want to be involved with. (As an aside, Jane hates Steely Dan more than anything in the world. In all our years together, if I've heard her speak out unprompted 100 times about something she hates, 50 of those times have been about Steely Dan. It puts me in the awkward position of defending Steely Dan, which I don't even really like, but isn't anywhere near the Worst Band In the World like she thinks. I always tell her maybe she should start taking some PCP before passing such harsh judgement.)
I have spoken out about this before, but I think we do our youth no favors by portraying all illicit drugs with the same brush. If you think getting high on pot and smoking meth are the same thing, you're on crack, so to speak. And don't give me any of that "gateway drug" business. That's like saying getting a driver's license is a gateway to a DWI fatality.
I also don't think we do kids any favors by telling them that "only losers do drugs". They'll come to learn in short order that in fact a lot of winners do drugs, just like a lot of losers do drugs. Just like a lot of winners and losers never touch drugs.
In Linus's case, I'll probably end up having this conversation with him in the next two years. Here's what I'll tell my kids, pending approval and consensus with Jane:
Don't do PCP. Ever.
Don't do meth. Ever.
Don't do heroin. Ever.
Don't do coke. Ever.
Don't huff things. Ever.
All the above things are too addictive and have a real chance of killing you very quickly if you do too much or if something goes wrong. People die sudden deaths taking those drugs.
Don't abuse prescription medications. Taking a couple valium won't kill you, but you don't ever want to be in a situation where you have access to large amounts of the stuff. It's addictive, and you're better off not going near the stuff.
Don't drink Robitussin to get high. It's just not worth the way it makes your body feel or the taste.
Don't smoke pot or take LSD, ecstasy or mushrooms until you are out of high school, and even then only when you are with people you trust and you have a place to be where you feel safe. And if you do these things, start slow. Don't overdo it until you know what it is you are getting into. And even then, don't overdo it.
I'll also tell my kids about what each of these drugs can do to you, good and bad. If they only hear the bad from you, when they figure out some of these drugs are a lot of fun they'll no longer trust you when you tell them where the limits should be. You have to be straight with them, and you can't be afraid. Kids, by and large, will experiment with drugs. Pretending it's never going to happen isn't going to change that. It's only going to leave them vulnerable and uninformed about what they might be getting into at a time when they really need to separate fact from fiction. And most of all, they need to know they can trust you to help them, even if they've done something you told them not to do.
That kind of honesty is scary, but being a parent isn't easy.
10:28:08 PM 
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