Short-term thinking. Drugs make me feel good now.
I have made the deliberate decision to explain to my kids that people take drugs because drugs make them feel good. It was a hard decision to make. "Hey kid, these things will make you feel great, but don't do them anyway." But I've gone on to explain they make you feel great in the moment, but screw up everything else in your life, until the only way life is bearable is to stay in that moment.
Drugs won't solve problems, they make things better until they make them worse.
I hope that's a better way to approach the subject than just saying that people take drugs because they are stupid, are wanting to take a risk.
I told my kids similarly, but, my own brother was killed by police when he was 19 (I was 18), due to drugs...cocaine sales and an armed weapon, to be specific.
That was harped into their minds from a young age.
As was the fact that I loved my brother ALWAYS, I miss him, and wished he was ALIVE to have been able to be their uncle.
Tragically, I think that my sad story hit home much better than just saying “don’t do it, even if it makes you feel good.”
They are both drug free and have no intention, from what I can see, to get involved with it or people who do it.