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TOLERANCE

So, despite how deeply I 
feel the argument against
drug use, I have to admit
that the arguments that 
persuade me are far from 
complete.  Hence, I try 
to be very tolerant of 
other people's choices 
about this.  I don't, and 
never will use recreational
drugs, but if other people
do, that's okay by me.

Mostly this works okay.  I've spent
most of my life hanging around with
people who use some sort of drugs.
It's really only recently that I've
found people who also tend to avoid
them (though usually not as
fanatically as I do).
     
The one case where I've been know to 
have some problems is with people who
are really close to me, e.g. girl 
friends.  

There was a girl I was seeing who       
did a transition from being a    
complete abstainer, to being           
someone who would experiment with      
just about anything her friends        
were doing.                            
                                       
It was a lot of work to break off the 
self-identification, to try to respect
what she was doing as being at least 
possibly valid for her.  

Since then, I've never quite fallen
into the trap of expecting my girl
friends to be mirrors of myself.
Though I still have a hard time
with friends who claim to be casual
cigarette smokers... once-a-weekers
who claim that there's no way
they'll ever become addicted to
them.








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