Is it necessary to quit drugs?

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Moxess

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It'd probably help you a LOT if you quit. You'll need to study a lot during medical school and undergrad, but if you're too busy hotboxing, you'll be looking at a lot of low GPAs.


Forget what your friends say, if you truly want to be a doctor, become one. Just know that once you enter college, you'll see a lot of pre-meds changing to another major because they can't handle it. If you are 100% sure that you want to be a medical doctor, good luck.
 
Moxess said:
Anyway, my question here is: would it be necessary to quit drugs to pursue med school/ any career in medicine? I ask this expecting the answer to be yes.
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It is a resounding yes.
 
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Moxess said:
Yeah I got that from reading around here for a while. I've been lurking here, reading but not really posting till now. I know it'll be hard, but I'm gonna go for it. I can't really see myself doing anything else. Hell, maybe that'll change, but I have to try.
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You know, you sound like a pretty smart person. Stay clean and you'll go places.
 
Well to answer your question...

let's say 5 minutes before your open heart surgery is about to begin, you find out that your surgeon is a pothead.
 
You need new friends. You want to quit and studies have shown that simply being in the same environment as you were when you were using drugs will cause you to abuse drugs again. Your friends will remind you of the highs you got and the (potentially) fun times you had with them. Removing yourself from those cues will help you tremendously.

Also think of your drug use this way... you're right that some studies show that there are problematic symptoms with marijuana abuse and some (lousy) studies refute those claims... but just think of what if the former studies are right? What if you really are harming your memory? Your ability to think clearly? You might be doing well now but college is a different story.

And here's another reason... if you ever do anything stupid and get caught while you're on drugs after you turn 18, no matter what you do, your shot at becoming a doctor will plummet. Why wait 2 years to stop?

You can stay on weed and find yourself abusing a whole bunch of worse drugs in the future or you can be "lame" and do well in school and become an internist and one day treat those friends of yours who didn't realize what you were smart enough to figure out in 10th grade.
 
Moxess said:
I told my friends about this, and none of them are very supportive, they say quitting drugs would be lame.
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If they really think that, then they are the ones that are lame.
 
A word "necessary" sounds quite weak. I would change it to "legally required."
 
I've had many friends use drugs over the years. Some got kicked out of school. Some dropped out of school. Some never made it to school. Some ended up in jail. Some got addicted to harder stuff until their lives went to pieces.

The sooner you can quit, the better off you will be, physically, mentally, intellectually, and emotionally. Everyone experiments. I''ll plead to fifth having never done anything. But it sounds like you're deep into a habit that doesn't just "get better" and surrounded by people without the same priorities as you.
 
I was in exactly your position 5 years ago when I was in 10th grade. I smoked pot not every day but still several times a week and my friends didn't give a **** and made fun of me whenever I talked about any ambitions I had academically. By middle of 11th grade I quit drugs and all of a sudden, with out drugs as common ground, I realized my friends and I no longer had anything in common and stopped hanging out with them all together.

Going into my 3rd year of undergrad right now, I'm the only one out of that old group that's still in college (only one other even started). If I could pick out the best thing I did during high school it would be having quit smoking weed and doing drugs in general. I'm not even looking into med school (even though my grades are good enough, I'm more interested in optometry but was checking this out since the pre-opt forum isn't as exciting) but whatever you want to do, it'll come a lot easier if you quit. Don't worry about your friends thinking you're dumb for quitting, by personal experience they're pretty useless and you'll have something better to do with your time before long.
 
You're young, but quitting now will reduce your risks of getting into harder drugs, and greatly increase your motivation in life ( people can debate the 'motivation' comment if they want, but I have a handfull of friends who have lost all ambition via mary jane). Becoming interested in something bigger than you (i.e. Medicine) will really help you focus on quitting, and give you a reason to not give a crap about what your Willy Nelson buddies think. You sound to be like someone who wants a successful life, and; at the risk of sounding like a D.A.R.E. officer, pot is not the way to gain one. You wouldn't want to visit a Doctor who did drugs, so why do them yourself? This won't affect your life if you give it up asap, so just do it!!
 
usually i would go on about how stupid the op's question is. but im trying to be better with my insulting sarcastic ways. so assuming this is a lost soul etc etc. like others above me have said (which i dont have to repeat but i have nothing better to do) please stop the drugs. no one wants a dopehead physician. :thumbdown:
 
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Moxess said:
I'm only in 10th grade right now but I figure this is the place to ask, since....you know, there's doctors. Anyway, I really enjoy drugs, and all of my friends do smoke and stuff, but I wanna be a doctor. I told my friends about this, and none of them are very supportive, they say quitting drugs would be lame. The movie Requiem For A Dream really made me think about my life, and I think it helped me. I now have ambitions, and a dream/goal of being an internist (I'm pretty sure that's what they call doctors of internal medicine, correct me if I'm wrong please). I think though, out of all my friends, I've always been one of the few who still (somehow) does good academically.
Some people say weed rots your memory, and some say it doesn't. I think I'm beginning to feel my short term memory slipping a bit: sometimes I'll completely forget what I was thinking of a second earlier. I figure, you people have experience in medicine, and I know there must have been SOMEONE who either knew someone on drugs or was on drugs.
Anyway, my question here is: would it be necessary to quit drugs to pursue med school/ any career in medicine? I ask this expecting the answer to be yes.

BTW sorry if this is in the wrong section, but it doesn't go any lower than Pre-Meds.
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I highlighted your two major problems.
 
hmmm.... id say you guys are right for the most part

but im sure there are a few pothead docs that do just fine

so its definitely possible to do both if you have enough determination ;)
 
You know, even a year ago, I think this same post would have had 795683646 insulting replies....I'm rather impressed by how much more mature SDN has gotten.

To the OP...drug users, even if it's just weed, have 3 outcomes. 1) Death from too much drug use. 2) No opportunity or ambition to do anything. 3) Jail for 15-20 years since the legal system is overzealous about drug charges.

Either a life or drugs, either choice is yours.
 
I'm not going to do the gateway drug crap with weed, because that is still up in the air, but you do need to quit. I mean, if you want to smoke a joint with your girlfriend every couple of months, then there are worse things and your dreams won't go down the tubes but the constant usage is bad. Aside from spending a whole lot of money, it ends up being squandered time. I'll admit to doing it several times, but I have to add the disclaimer that I was in places outside of the united states where it was legal. (Not just Amsterdam.) Honestly, it just wasn't that great. I got stupid and hungry....although Art museums do become much cooler.

My old roommates did it on a near daily basis, and I turned it down every single time. I just felt my goals were much higher than that. My high school friends who did it a lot didn't go to college, one is dead, and two are fathers by age 17. The ones I know in college are highly succesful though, oddly enough. (Engineer, ph.D in various fields, Fortune 500 company jobs now, etc.) The difference was, they turn it off when the moment comes and are usually scary smart to begin with. Some of these guys were into harder stuff too, which concerned me but I just didn't hangout with them if it came to that.

If anything you can think of it for your health. They are starting to get people who have smoked only weed, not cigs their entire life. These people seem to be getting Emphyzema and what not...which is a downer. I believe one woman in the UK was 30-something. It isn't good for your lungs, no matter what people say. It will take some strong will, a vision of the long-term goals, and being poor to realize that it is just a waste to do that stuff. Have a beer or something (when you turn 21 of course *cough*).
 
emttim said:
You know, even a year ago, I think this same post would have had 795683646 insulting replies....I'm rather impressed by how much more mature SDN has gotten.

To the OP...drug users, even if it's just weed, have 3 outcomes. 1) Death from too much drug use. 2) No opportunity or ambition to do anything. 3) Jail for 15-20 years since the legal system is overzealous about drug charges.

Either a life or drugs, either choice is yours.
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2 and 3 are kind of iffy. ;) Whenever my old roommate's girlfriend got high she'd clean our apartment....it was very nice. I think 3 only applies if you are a minority in this country, or can't buy your way out of it. (That is crap, but seems to be true...)
 
Stop now because there is always the possibility to stop being a doctor before you start due to the legal system. Correct me if I am wrong, but a drug charge is grounds to not license any future physician.
 
The issue is licensing. They don't make you stop being a software engineer if you get busted for weed...

Marijuana is a fairly benign substance, much more so then alot of the poison that is legal. That said, it just ain't worth it.
 
Once you get to college you'll find that very few of your classmates will be able to smoke pot occasionaly while doing fine in school (at least with a pre-med course load). It's usally either an all-or-nothing type of deal. Most people who do it use it so much that it does eventualy effect their academic performance and to a certain extent, their drive/ambition.
 
Are we really posting on here to advise a 10th grader whether not to use drugs? :confused: Troll or not ..... shouldn't this be a non-issue?
 
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I think people would be surprised to see how many HS are actually on this site. We have quite a following but not many post so troll isn't an issue here. Its a valid concern of many students even in college!

The original posters question has been answered for the most part so people don't start derailing this thread.

The point to the OP is that drugs = trouble. Trouble can mean that if you want to pursue medicine and get arrested for drugs or anything of the like, there could be major consequences to your future (not even looking at the medical aspect of it).

Your smart, you know what to do just stand up to your peers and be different. Life isn't about the party, its about enjoying life no matter how you choose to live it.

Best of luck.
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNbExvU42q4&mode=related&search=[/YOUTUBE]
 
Moxess said:
I'm only in 10th grade right now but I figure this is the place to ask, since....you know, there's doctors. Anyway, I really enjoy drugs, and all of my friends do smoke and stuff, but I wanna be a doctor. I told my friends about this, and none of them are very supportive, they say quitting drugs would be lame. .
Click to expand...

Cocaine is a hell of a drug, give that a try

Don't a lot of doctors abuse drugs? and I heard from some source that drug abuse in med school is not uncommon, or are these miss conceptions?
 
Moxess said:
BTW sorry if this is in the wrong section, but it doesn't go any lower than Pre-Meds.
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Look at Cheech here, passing judgment on us all!
 
artaxerxes said:
Don't a lot of doctors abuse drugs? and I heard from some source that drug abuse in med school is not uncommon, or are these miss conceptions?
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Not in med school... though prescription drug abuse in doctors as a profession is nationally high. Which isn't too surprising since access to such drugs is so readily available to physicians.
 
Tired said:
But if the kid quits drugs, how is he going to console himself when he fails to get into med school?
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Well, if you keep taking drugs, you build up a tolerance and the reverse is true if you stop. After a couple of years of abstinence, the drugs will have the impact needed to get over failure when the time comes and he resumes his addiction. :eek::D:laugh:
 
Tired said:
But if the kid quits drugs, how is he going to console himself when he fails to get into med school?
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There many alternative ways. For example, I have heard random sex has some good therapeutic effects.
 
Most kids who experiment with drugs do it in college and it can sometimes have devastating consequences on the GPA before they get their $hit sorted.

You experimented in high school when the stakes are lower. Call your fun drug dabbling days over, chalk it away as memory, and move on. You'll have a leg up on lots of your college classmates when you get to uni.
 
notdeadyet said:
Most kids who experiment with drugs do it in college and it can sometimes have devastating consequences on the GPA before they get their $hit sorted.

You experimented in high school when the stakes are lower. Call your fun drug dabbling days over, chalk it away as memory, and move on. You'll have a leg up on lots of your college classmates when you get to uni.
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All very good advice (notdeadyet and many of the above posters), maybe somebody will listen. :thumbup::luck:

Too bad it's all wasted on what, IMHO, was originally a troll thread. :rolleyes:
 
I've always wanted to go to a live show of Cirque du Soleil while on shrooms
 
The bottom line is that drugs ( even legal ones like alcohol) can really shoot down your desire to succeed and fight the good battles. I know that if I just have a few beers at lunch, the rest of day of research is an uphill battle to accomplish anything.

If this kid has a strong desire to be a doctor and he is being slowed down by something like drugs ... He'll probably be unstoppable when he is clean (or at least the potential will be there)

In a world where legality being a non-issue, drugs are still a huge hit against productivity and clear thinking... And the kid will need to be on his game to get his foot in the door as a doctor.
 
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Moxess said:
Anyway, my question here is: would it be necessary to quit drugs to pursue med school/ any career in medicine? I ask this expecting the answer to be yes.
Click to expand...

nevermind the effects on your performance, more than a few schools require drug tests in order to matriculate...

get new friends, these ones are trying to drag you down..."misery loves company"
 
Wow, people on this forum need to get out more. To the op, if you're able to do well academically, then you have at least 5 years before you have to quit using. Just make sure you don't get caught and you'll be fine. There's really nothing wrong w/ smoking weed, drinking, even doing the occaisional line. I mean, for god's sake, you're in high school. As long as you do well enough to get into a decent college nothing else really matters so have some fun.
 
artaxerxes said:
Cocaine is a hell of a drug, give that a try

Don't a lot of doctors abuse drugs? and I heard from some source that drug abuse in med school is not uncommon, or are these miss conceptions?
Click to expand...

i've heard that ritalin abuse is an issue in med school, helps students focus or something
 
limpkitty said:
even doing the occaisional line
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In my neuro sr. seminar we had a researcher from st. jude speak and he had found that use of cocaine and methylphenidates (ritalin and adderall) leads to a significantly increased chance of developing parkinsonism.
 
In all honestly, it isn't nessecary to quit. Take Dr. Andrew Weil, a professor at the Harvard School of Medicine who is very opened about his past use of marijuana and hallucinagens. Drugs are drugs. They can be used for good or bad, its up to the user. Now drug ADDICTION is always bad.

That being said, the worse part about marijuana is that it is illegal. And you are risking a charge by using it.

I was very lucky. I used many drugs through high school but I also had no intention of going to college. I was never caught, luckily, because 5 years later is when I decided to go into medicine. It is a personal decision that has to be made with an honest look at what its pros and cons are... void of propaganda.

But, If your doing it because someone else thinks you should do it, then by all means.. QUIT!
 
You either need to quit or cut way back. Listen, pot isn't exactly the worst thing in the world (it's actually pretty much on the level of alcohol as far as I'm concerned). And I'm not going to claim it's going to kill your brain. Some of the smartest people I knew undergrad and now even in medical school were the biggest potheads. However, they've mainly done it in moderation (along with alcohol), so that's something you've got to learn. Also, if you do get busted, that will be on your record and make it that much harder to get into a medical school.
 
as in all things in life...use in moderation and don't get caught. then you're fine.

and plenty of successful college students, med students, and docs use various things. some use in moderation and don't get caught and no one gets hurt and everything's fine. and as with all populations, some overdo it, and some are stupid and get caught. just be the former, not the latter.
 
limpkitty said:
Wow, people on this forum need to get out more. To the op, if you're able to do well academically, then you have at least 5 years before you have to quit using. Just make sure you don't get caught and you'll be fine. There's really nothing wrong w/ smoking weed, drinking, even doing the occaisional line. I mean, for god's sake, you're in high school. As long as you do well enough to get into a decent college nothing else really matters so have some fun.
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You will NEED to have fun in med school and college to make sure you don't go crazy. However, if you need alcohol/weed (or in kitty's case some cocaine) just to have a good time, that's pretty sad :(. Try some other things that don't require you to be messed up, you might be suprised at how much fun you will have doing them. What I'm trying to say is that you don't need alcohol or drugs to have a good time.

Now your friends sound strangely familiar to the ones I had in high school. Guess what? All of them didn't go to college except for one (and he's in a fraternity drinking is brain cells away; no offense frat guys). The rest sit around and do the same things that they did in high school, getting high, watching t.v., and getting high some more. It's almost amusing how much they have not changed in the past 2 years while the world around them has. Ask your friends what they want to do with their lives, and then ask what they plan on doing to get there. I guarantee they really haven't thought about it, and if they have, their details about it are vague. The fact that you're thinking about any career at such a young age says a lot about you. The fact that your friends make fun of you when you talk about leading a sucessful life says a lot about them as well. Don't get dragged down by them, a friendship should go deeper than drugs.

As for your own personal use, I leave it entirely up to you. Know that marijuana makes you lethargic (tired), and it affects your short term memory. If you're in med school, chances are you won't have time to be high. I don't know about you, but it also tends to affect your interpersonal (communication) skills for the worse. Try doing a med school interview or explaining to a patient how Familial Down Syndrome occurs while you're high. And I sure as hell don't want my neurosurgeon to be a pot head.

This isn't just for being a doctor, it's for life in general. If you want to be sucessful in anything you do (unless its dealing ;) )you will have to quit.
 
Well... I have to say that of all the people I know, many big pot smokers applied and went to very good medical schools. However, all these people share the same trait: they know when to stop smoking.

They are recreational smokers who enjoys marijuana maybe weekly, but before every exam, they stop smoking, concentrate and learn their material.

To be honest though, sometimes I shudder at the thought of them someday being my doctor. I'd probably request another doctor if I find out they'll be treating me... even if they're my friends.
 
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