Boomers vs. Millennials and the drugs that define us
I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. I grew up with a mother who told me that she “really liked cocaine” and a father who found his favorite marijuana pipe hidden in the basement ceiling and said, “I was looking for that.”
Kids on the school bus would call my mother a “dirty hippie” because of her penchant for tie-dye and a Pocahontas-esque long, black braid. I brought fruit leathers and edamame in my bagged lunch, and on birthdays I celebrated with “special” brownies — cannabis-infused and delectable.
I grew up with parents who, while not drug addicts, were very open and honest about their years of herbal indulgence and chemical experimentation. When it came to drugs, alcohol and sex, nothing was forbidden. Everything was out in the open: how drugs make you feel, which ones were good, the importance of finding a reputable dealer who didn’t have “laced” pot, and the best music to listen to while stoned (“Sparks” by The Who, or the entirety of “Tommy”).
I was given one simple rule about drugs: be careful and be smart.
I was never forbidden from sparking a bong or downing tequila, and I never really did. Yes, I will admit, I’ve smoked my fair share of joints, and I’ve indulged in a select beverage or two, but I never got into trouble like some of my peers. I never got thrown out of prom for getting wasted on the “party bus.” I never got caught with a bag of weed in my locker, and I never became Courtney Love-heroin-chic.
And I’m far from being alone.
According to an article on Slate.com, drug use is down in Generation Y, as opposed to our peers from the ‘80s (despite what neophyte Millennial novelists and reality TV barons may have us believe).
Also, an informal survey on the University at Albany campus in Albany, NY, revealed that more Millennials had parents who were open about drugs than those that completely forbid them.
We’re the kids of the Baby Boomers, who are notorious for young and continued drug use. Based on many, many studies, the people of our parents’ generation are still using drugs and using them often.
If our parents are so open about drugs, or even still using them, then why do we, the Millennials, stray away from them?
For me, it was because of my parents’ openness that drugs held no mystery. But for others it was a way of rebelling. Just as our parents used drugs to rebel again their parents, some Generation Y-ers are not doing drugs as a different form of rebellion (think Michael J. Fox in “Family Ties”).
“My parents are hippies. They smoke weed and they want me to. It’s like family bonding, but I just won’t. I don’t want to be like them,” said one straightedge friend of mine.
How much have our parents influenced our use (or non-use) of drugs? Are we Alex P. Keaton or are we Lindsay Lohan? Are we rebelling or bonding?
It’s very interesting and about as complicated as a Facebook relationship. We’re not doing a lot of drugs (outside of a Dave Matthews concert tailgate), but our parents are, and if we are, drugs are not defining us as a generation as they did our parents.
One University at Albany student from my informal survey admitted to using drugs, but never on a regular basis. Why? Because he didn’t want photos turning up on his Facebook page and his parents seeing them.
Everyone’s reason for using or not using drugs differs, but it really all does stem from our parents.
Mine always told me that they were glad they weren’t in my generation because we have so much more being thrown at us (college, grades, competitive job market, recession, etc.). Actually, they used this as a reason to smoke weed…you know, to “calm the nerves.”
Why aren’t we doing drugs if many of our parents are “O.K.” with it? Because we’re so stressed out that we’ve found a different coping mechanism: legal, over-the-counter drugs, which don’t count in drug use statistics. Generation Y saw the largest increase in the usage of anti-anxiety pills. It appears that we’re doing fewer drugs, but we’re really not — we’re just doing fewer illegal ones.
To each generation their own drug of choice, I guess.
Photo by FLVVV (bottom)
My experience was the opposite in some ways, yet with the same result.
My parents are suburbanite Midwesterners–narcotics weren’t and aren’t a part of their life or mine. My family NEVER drank (even wine or beer) or consumed other drugs. But I grew up with my father, who’s been in AA for almost as long as I’ve been alive, being very clear and open with me about his history of alcohol abuse. His transparency about his own overuse was enough to inspire my choice to abstain. I never took a drink before I was 20 years old (a miracle, as there is little else to do in rural illinois) and I very rarely overdo it now in my adulthood.
So I think personal transparency on the part of our parents plays an even bigger role than early exposure. They were never hypocritical, and never lied about the sometimes pleasing effects of drugs, and that gave me the ability to make my own informed decisions.