telling people "drugs are bad" doesn't stop anyone from doing drugs. normalize harm reduction and meeting people where they're at.
don't try new drugs at events. try them in comfortable spaces with people you trust first. don't do psychedelics without a trip sitter especially if you're new.
Im someone who will wont drink alcohol or take anything else but THC/weed (Which I have never had either) based on bad family history.
But I agree that normalizing being responsible while using is so much better then just straight up saying "Its terrible for you" approach.
If some random person at a con approached me offering to sell me drugs i'd most likely just decline because i'd be paranoid of them being an undercover cop
What bothers me is when people say, “I don’t do drugs.” all the while they have beer(or nowadays sometimes even weed) in their hands.
Drugs are this mysterious ~other~ that’s bad by definition, but these things that are known aren’t other, and aren’t seen as that, despite very much being that
telling people "drugs are bad" does the exact opposite of stopping them, because the second they try any of them and it's a good experience, all the walls fall down and they're SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to try others without taking measures to be safe with them