Richard,
I must admit, my brother was certainly a role model and poster child for what NOT to do. There were definitely lessons to be learned there. The only bad thing about that weekend was that we were on vacation with my parents staying at our vacation home in Sedona AZ when it happened. My brother had been through rehab once and my parents thought he was clean. It probably was a good experience for them also, although they ended up selling that house because of the bad memories of that weekend. They were clueless about drugs. My brother used to nod off all of the time in front of them and they thought he was just extremely fatigued or suffering from that sleep disorder where you fall asleep while standing up (narcilepsy)?. I remember seeing him nod off while he was standing up smoking a marijauna bowl. It was hard to tell if he was awake or asleep, he just looked like a zombie. He used to nod off while driving and had several car accidents - he is lucky he didn't kill himself or someone else. He never was a big drinker, but after that weekend my parents took him straight from Sedona to Hazleton in Minn. and they caught him stealing the miniatures off of the booze cart on the plane. He was looking for that last buzz before they shut the doors behind him. I used to smoke pot occasionally but since I started having some health problems (unrelated) I pretty much gave it up. I have smoked once or twice the last 2 years and don't really miss it. The big thing for me was giving up nicotine three years ago this May. I have bad circulation and I had some chest pains one day and went to the hospital to be safe. I am only in my thirties and am pretty fit but there is a history of heart disease in my family so I figured better safe then sorry. The EKG they did showed I had a perfect heart but the experience was enough to make me quit cold turkey that day, and I have never looked back. I used nicotine everyday from 1985-2004 but quit very easily. You couldn't pay me to do that stuff again. It was only after quitting that I saw the dangers and nastiness of the habit. I don't miss it all. When you are addicted you don't see that. I guess you could say that in a way I hit rock bottom with nicotine and one health scare was enough to bring me to my senses while I was still young.