Drugs can, and they will, kill you.  In MY opinion, smoking a joint 4 times a year doesn't qualify as "drug use".  But allowing drugs to become a part of your daily life does.

The pattern never changes.  You're nervous at first, but you try it anyway - everybody else is, so you do, too.  You like it.  Pretty soon, you're spending money, and actively seeking and buying drugs.  You're not "trying" it anymore - you've graduated.  You're "using".  In the beginning, maybe drugs were "just for the weekend".  In time, "weekends" last all month.  Months add up to a year.  You take it from there. 

I must be the most fortunate musician imaginable.  I lived in a world overflowing with drugs.  I smoked pot for the first time in 1963.  I was still smoking pot until early 1970.  I snorted up piles of coke, experimented with almost every drug you can think of (and maybe some you can't) - but I could see what regular drug use did to other people. 

I was afraid of drugs 

ONCE in my entire life I bought drugs for my use - one ounce of pot - and that's the absolute, gospel truth.  People always offered me drugs - all kinds of drugs.  I've NEVER gone looking for them.  When drugs (pot or coke) were offered to me, sometimes I enjoyed them.  Sometimes I declined.

I make no denials, and never did

I started to really change my thinking by about 1975.  In 1980, I left California and moved to Florida.  In Florida, I smoked pot (approximately) twice, and I snorted coke about six, maybe seven or eight times. 

AND THEN I GREW UP

No more drugs for me.  No matter who offered, or what the circumstances - no.  Absolutely NO.  I don't even want to be in the vicinity of drugs or drug users.

LISTEN to me: if cocaine was legal, and a police officer offered me a kilo - for free - I couldn't get away fast enough. 

If there were NO DRUG LAWS AT ALL, all I can say is this:

NO.  NO DRUGS FOR ME.

Drugs - any drugs - are for those that want to live that life - and ultimately, deal with the consequences. 

I have more than enough problems - I'm assuredly not going to add drugs to the list.

It took less than 20 minutes to edit this list.  It's not even the tip of the iceberg - I'd have to spend days, even weeks, researching drug related deaths.  That's something you can do if you're interested.

Look at this, and think about it.  These people are dead, many at a very young age - thanks to drugs. 

If you have the time, work out the average age of all these dead people .... it's enough to make you cry.

Flo Ballard (age 32) - (The Supremes) - long-term drug abuse 
John Belushi (age 33) - (The Blues Brothers) - heroin and cocaine

Mike Bloomfield (age 36) - (blues guitarist) - heroin
Tommy Bolin (age 25) - (Deep Purple) - drugs and alcohol

Lenny Bruce (age 40) - (comedian) - morphine
Paul Butterfield (age 44) - (blues guitarist) - drugs and alcohol
Brian Cole (age 29) - (The Association) - heroin
John Entwistle (age 57) - (The Who) - cocaine
Brian Epstein (age 32) - (manager of the Beatles) - drug overdose
Howie Epstein (age 47) - (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) - heroin
Rick Evers - (married to Carole King) - heroin
Andy Gibb (age 30) - (The Bee Gees) - cocaine and alcohol
Bobby Hatfield (age 63) - (The Righteous Brothers) - cocaine
Jimi Hendrix (age 27) - alcohol and barbiturates
Billie Holiday (age 45) - alcohol and heroin
Brian Jones (age 27) - (The Rolling Stones) - alcohol and barbiturates
Janis Joplin (age 27) - heroin
Frankie Lymon (age 25) - heroin
Jimmy McCulloch (age 26) - (Paul McCartney and Wings) - heroin
Robbie McIntosh (age 24) - (Average White Band) - heroin
Keith Moon (age 31) - (The Who) - anti-seizure medication
Jim Morrison (age 27) - (The Doors) - heroin and alcohol
Brent Mydland (age 37) - (The Grateful Dead) - cocaine and morphine
Gram Parsons (age 26) - (The Byrds / Flying Burrito Brothers) - morphine and tequila
John Phillips (age 65) - (The Mamas and Papas) - alcohol and narcotics
Elvis Presley (age 42) - barbiturates
David Ruffin - (age 50) - (The Temptations) - drug overdose
Joe Schermie - (age 56) - (Three Dog Night) - long-term drug abuse

I met several of the people on this list - not all of them.  I didn't know any of them, they weren't my friends. 

I played at the same shows with them, and met them very briefly.  I met Elvis plenty of times in Memphis. 

There's a message here, please learn it well.  It's only four words:

STAY AWAY FROM DRUGS

It always starts the same way: "chipping" was a word we used back in the 1960s.  "Chipping" equates to "just playing around - just getting high.  Just having a little fun." 

Nobody - not any addict - ever started out believing their world would revolve around drugs.  Everybody - every addict - believes the same bullshit: "It's nothing - I can control this.  I can stop any time I want."

If they can stop any time they want, then why are so many dead?