Serious question

Nowadays?

'bout the time they hit grade school unfortunately.

3

Teachers talk about it. I don't think the local police have yet. They may this year being the 4th grade. Next year I would hope since it is Intermediate school. I had to talk to him because I am afraid of the drug called cheese.

The one saving grace is that my oldest has a problem swallowing pills.

No kids, so take with a grain of salt: I think there's no magic age, some kids process information better and earlier than others. I remember being aware of drug related activity going on at school as early as 4th grade, or so. I don't think any time is too soon, it just might require some conversation with the child to figure out how savvy they are to what you want to talk to them about.

IMHO, while "drugs are bad, m'kay?" is probably a fine way to begin the discussion, I don't think it's the entire discussion. Some discussion about why they may be bad, what the effects are, etc. is necessary. I grew up surrounded by a very oppressive culture in which all taboos were equal, therefore one infraction wasn't necessarily any worse than any other. Smoking was pretty much tantamount to shooting up heroin. It made for some pretty destructive behaviors for some kids, once they decided to "take the plunge into sin."

I don't know about your kids, but "because I said so" was never a persuasive argument for me. When my parents gave me all the facts about why I probably shouldn't do something was when I was able to believe they weren't just being controlling for control's sake. Of course I didn't always do what they said, but at least when I smoked the occasional marijuana in high school/ college I didn't think "well, now that I'm on the drugs, I might as well try all of them."

Tell em kids, like chef said, no not suck on my salty chocolate balls, but there is a time and a place for drugs and that's college.  

As a kid that was going to do drugs if Nancy Reagan herself sat me down and gave me the drugs are bad talk, I'm probably not the best to give this advice.  I had DARE officers and my father gave me the talk too.  

At the age of 15 I feel in love with Mary Jane.  I didn't try more hardcore stuff until college which was smart.  As a teen I couldn't have handled it I'm sure.  

The drugs are bad mmmkay blanket statement loses credibility fast when they invariably try pot and realize it is no worse than liquor.  

I'd give him real stories about how hardcore drugs ruined peoples' lives maybe old friends of yours.  Meth, Crack etc is like a plague threatening many people and shouldn't be placated by being lumped into the frey with marijuana IMO.

Good luck.

We still tell the girls before they walk out the door "don't do anything to get arrested or pregnant" and they're 18 and 20.

I'm a firm believer in not giving kids adult problems, that being said, it's almost never too early to sit with them and discuss on their level just what's going on, and how do they feel, and what are you thinking, and has anyone ever approached you with...or do you and the other boys talk about...

As spacey alluded to the "because I said so" didn't work for me and the experiments began at a rather early age (12), I was able to at least tell our daughters this drug does this, and alcohol does that, and I'm messed up to this day because at 12 I should have been playing baseball and should not have been scoring weed..sorry I digress. But it seems to have worked with them anyway.

It's not too early to start finding out just where their heads are spanky, know their friends, even now, stay connected.

Karma.