Kim - Interview 31

Age at interview: 21

Brief Outline: Kim used to drink in the park during her early teens and started going clubbing around the age of 15. She would smoke a small amount of cannabis if offered when she was at school, but she wouldn't have bought it. She didn't like the effects of it. She doesn't do drugs because she is concerned about being addicted, and it doesn't interest her at all. She doesn't going out drinking with friends as much as she used to because she is trying to save money.

Background: Kim is a full-time customer service officer, and is engaged to be married. She drinks less alcohol now and says that she enjoys it more because she can remember what happened the previous evening. She is also trying to quit smoking, and has cut down to two or three a day.

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Kim started to drink alcohol at about thirteen or fourteen – vodka in the evenings with friends in the park. She drank with friends who were older, and says that she drank “because everybody else was doing it”. She was curious to find out what it was like. Her mum wasn’t happy with her drinking under age, and would often ground her.
 

When she was fifteen or sixteen, she and her friends started going to clubs on Saturday and Wednesday nights. She was studying and worked in a hairdresser’s part-time after school. She says that she could cope with going out drinking at night and going to school when she was younger. 

 

Now Kim doesn’t drink as much when she goes out, and enjoys drinking wine more. It was always vodka when she was younger. She goes out more to enjoy a drink rather than to get hammered. She doesn’t remember getting any information on alcohol in school, but thinks that there was more information on the effects of drugs. She says that it wasn’t as much as they get now in schools. When she was at school she may have smoked a few cannabis joints, but never touched anything else. She says that a lot of people take cocaine and things in clubs, but she isn’t interested in anything like that. She says that it’s too much money and it's addicitive. She doesn’t do drugs because she is concerned about being addicted, and it doesn’t interest her at all. When she tried cannabis when she was younger, she never liked the effects of it.

 

Kim doesn’t go out much with friends, as she and her fiancé have a new flat and are getting married soon. So, to save money, she doesn’t go out drinking much. She has new plans and responsibilities. She will go out for dinner and have a couple of glasses of wine. She says that she enjoys drinking more now that she drinks less and can come home at the end of the night and can remember what's happened. She is also trying to quit smoking, and has cut down to two or three a day. She and her fiancée have decided to continue smoking cigarettes at the weekends if they’re having a drink.

  

Kim's mother didn't approve of underage drinking and she used to get into trouble every time she arrived back home a bit tipsy.

And were your parents at that time aware that you were drinking or?

 

Yeah I think so. I think they realised when I came home [laugh] and I used to get in trouble all the time but I still went out and did it. So...

 

What do you mean get in trouble?

 

For drinking under age. My mum wasn’t happy about it at all but. I used to get grounded and things but I still done it [ha]. I still managed to go out and do it.

 

Ok so they tried. Did they try to talk to you about it, about why not to do it?

 

No. No I think it was more just I wasn’t to do it [ha].

 

So apart from getting sort of grounded what else were they trying to do?

 

Trying not to give me as much money as what I used to do because I got caught smoking quite young as well. So my mum just stopped giving me money and so.

 

Ok so what were you doing for money?

 

Sometimes I would keep my lunch money [laugh]. So and also I worked for my dad on a Tuesday so I used to get money for that as well.

 

And did you get into much trouble with your parents as a teenager because of drinking or not?

 

I suppose, not that much like I mean I would get grounded and things but nothing major nothing really bad. I just live with my mum, and my dad are split up but my mum’s not really a drinker so I don’t think she really knew what to tell me.  

Kim has smoked cannabis a few times but would never consider using other drugs. She is concerned about becoming addicted.

To be honest when I was at school I maybe smoked a few cannabis joints but nothing. I never, I’ve never ever touched anything else so.

 

Have you been offered anything else?

 

Yeah.

 

Where?

 

Probably in more, recently in the last maybe three years and a lot of people take a lot of cocaine and things in clubs but I’m not really interested in anything like that. It’s too much money so.

 

So it was a financial thing?

 

Yeah and it’s very addictive as well so it doesn’t interest me at all.

 

Did you continue smoking cannabis or?

 

No it was just if you were out and somebody was smoking a cannabis joint you would maybe have a couple of draws of it. But I would, would never have bought it myself or anything like that.

 

And what are your views on drugs? I mean why don’t you do it? Is it just the money or are you concerned about something.

 

I’m probably more concerned about being addicted to drugs and things and you see what drugs do to people also. It doesn’t interest me at all, drugs. 

Kim has never used drugs because she is afraid of addiction and the other effects of drugs.

And when you refused what was their attitude to you?

 

Nothing, nothing at all. They respected the fact that I didn’t want anything.

 

So they didn’t put any pressure on you?

 

No.

 

And how did you feel when you refused drugs?

 

Not sure probably quite glad I did. [ha ha] Yeah.

 

But it was sort of you were not interested in drugs because of what you had heard, you were concerned about?

 

And addiction.

 

You were concerned about addiction?

 

Yeah.

 

So you were more than concerned you were scared of getting addicted to it?

 

Yeah I’d say that was the biggest factor.

 

And why do you think you were concerned about that?

 

Just because I know drugs are addictive, [ha] yes very addictive.

 

What I am trying to understand is why you at that age as a teenager why you were concerned about becoming addicted? Because you were afraid?

 

I don’t know it was just

 

Anything else?

 

No I’d just say it was more addiction. I suppose afraid as well to see what the side effects were once you’d taken it yeah I suppose.