Will people respond better if you say you're teetotal, or straight edge?
Will people respond better if you say you're teetotal, or straight edge?
Or just "I don't do drugs", or "I don't do recreational drugs"?
Or "I don't smoke weed" and "I don't drink alcohol" when they come up, separately?
I wouldn't generally say it at all unless I'm in a situation where I'm offered recreational drugs such as cannabis or alcohol.
My understanding is the term 'straight edge' might be more well known than 'teetotal', but neither are completely known by everyone.
I take straight edge to mean not doing any recreational drugs. However I read that straight edge can have punk culture connotations that some people might maintain are part of it. Like I might meet a punk straight edger who claims I'm not really straight edge unless I have connections to the punk scene. They also apparently often claim you need to be vegan to be straight edge, I am vegan though coincidentally but not for reasons relating to straight edge culture.
Teetotal I believe most often means abstinence from simply alcohol, but can be used to mean abstaining from all recreational drugs (I think). It may be more well known as just not drinking alcohol. For example teetotallers often still smoke weed.
Apologies if I misrepresented any of these terms.
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There is nothing wrong with using substances (that do not cause a debilitation addiction/dependency)
However, that doesn't mean there is something wrong with NOT doing them either. There isn't. It is absolutely your choice, if someone cannot respect that then you probably shouldn't hang out with them at least in that context because they will keep pressuring you.
For instance, I do not like alcohol, when I go to get fucked up with my buddies, I am not drinking alcohol because the high sucks and the comedown+after effects suck even more. My buddies who know understand this, but I have had friends who absolutely did not understand this and would pressure me into doing it all the time. Needless to say, I don't go and get fucked up with them anymore.
Oh, absolutely. I have no problem with other people doing recreational drugs. I see it as entirely their choice as it only really affects them personally. I don't think it's immoral or "sinful" (whatever that really means) or whatever.
And I think most people do respect that. I do appreciate these responses that make it clear that we should respect if someone either does or doesn't want to consume recreational drugs.
But I really was just looking for a term to explain abstinence of recreational drugs to people who I know won't judge or care, but without the baggage or misunderstandings that may come with saying "sober" (possible assumption: former/recovering alcoholic/addict), "teetotal" (possible misunderstanding: doesn't use alcohol, might still be fine with other recreational drugs), or "straight edge" (possible misunderstanding: not only doesn't consume drugs, but also is into the punk music scene).
After gathering data, the best term I could come up with is quite a simple one: "drug-free". To be clear, we could say "recreational drug-free", though that's rather wordy and the meaning of "recreational drugs" is often understood by just saying "drugs" anyway.
I know you didn't ask but I just thought I'd say this anyway lol.
I agree with most of what you said. I think the only time drug use can become immoral is if your usage brings legitimate suffering upon others.
Right, like smoking in front of a baby (and exposing them to second-hand smoke). I guess that's a good example. But that's more to do with the way you're going about doing the drugs, rather than the drug use itself as an inherent component, I suppose.