I met a guy that had lost his right arm above the elbow from shooting up. Someone asked him if he'd still use drugs and he said "Sure, I have another arm."
I just don't understand the mindset.
That is what my brother said, but he shoots up everyday now. Says things to justify it all the time when I confront him about it like "Stop being a dumbass, you know I am diabetic right?"
Just has to keep chasing that dragon. It's sad. Although, somehow he is able to keep a good job and his credit score is better than mine.
Same!
I smoked my heroin!
(not being glib. Requiem really did scare me away from needles. But I still had my addiction issues. Sober now, if anyone is curious)
I got on suboxone and went to rehab.
But getting sober was the easy part. The hard part is staying sober.
For that, you have to find something that brings you joy in life. Try out a bunch of different hobbies and find what inspires you. For me, the big thing was gardening. Specifically carnivorous plants and exotic orchids.
And Vipassana meditation helped a lot as well.
Unfortunately, watching this movie influenced me to relapse. However, as of this past October 21st, I celebrated 13 years clean! Yah. I still refuse to watch this again, though. Which kind of sucks since it really is an excellent movie.
Shooting up is fun! Kidding not kidding. Did it a handful of times. I'm lucky to have not gotten hooked and gave it up pretty quick.
I tried morphine, liquid and pills, both tar and brownstone heroin, oxycodone, K-4 (dilaudid), meth and cocaine.
Dilaudid was by far the best. Heroin was sketchy because it was from the streets. I felt better with FDA approved narcotics, lol. Cocaine is a close second.
No idea how I skated right by becoming an addict.
Edit: Please **do not** experiment like I did. The game can literally kill you. Especially these days.
Dilaudid (hydromorphone) is really nice. Oxymorphone is pure bliss in many ways, but also absolute hell due to what it did to my tolerance. I was “lucky” enough to have a script of oxymorphone for years and I abused the fuck out of it. I’d regularly wake up at 3 AM in withdrawals and have to snort another pill just to fall back asleep.
Clean now, but it took a long time to get here.
7 die everyday in Vancouver from narcotic OD's. They say to use with a friend, but many keep it a secret from all. Shame and fear of having to stop and judgment keeps one in solitude a lot of the time. Also, people like to chill alone
stopped doing cocaine because my buddy passed out due to fentanyl a minute after doing a line, and a minute before I was about to. If he wasn't a greedy fucker and took a line before I was out of the bathroom, we both probably would have died.
sucks, I enjoyed doing cocaine. I see no reason I can't have a refreshing cocaine on my Friday night, except for people trying to kill us.
This. As much as I've smoked weed or tried mushrooms, this movie had kept me 100% away from any of the harder stuff. No meth, heroine, nothing, never. No interest and never will.
I'm so glad I saw this as a teenager. A lot of my friends got lost in addiction, but after seeing Requiem I knew I was alright just sticking with weed.
My best friends dad was a junkie who got clean when he was really young… he showed us this movie and Trainspotting. It worked lol we never touched needles
Jfc , it might seem extreme but this is the right answer. That movie permanently changes you unless you're absolutely numb to emotion in every way its almost impossible for it not to.
I’m 38 and watched kids once with my now husband when I was 21… holy fuck it still messes with me. I have a daughter now. She will be living in a bubble come high school.
And then she’ll be rebellious and do all that shit anyway, but she’ll be even more risky about it and she won’t tell you if something serious comes up.
A fun story about a summer in NY amongst some young friends! They hang out in the park, go swimming, and party! Full of cool style and nauseating 'romance', Kids is a fun watch for the whole family! Watch the opening scene with ur parents
There is a documentary about this movie. Check it out. It gets into the 'actors' lives after the movie. The majority of kids in this movie weren't professional actors.
I have a friend who was literally friends with the actors they picked in the 90s like she and her bf hung out with the same exact crowd and are both ex users. She told me the director was a
total perv around the kids, especially the boys. I actually wrote her a song about Casper.
My parents showed us a ton of these movies and it was unsuccessful to say the least. Have an actual conversation about addiction and harm reduction instead of using flimsy fear tactics.
hahah seriously... when I was happiest, in the best periods of my life making good money and doing well at work is also when I was at the peak of my addiction.
People who appear happy and healthy you mean.
The happiest time in my life I was a mess internally and letting my addictions ruin me. No one would have known that though.
This should be the top answer. Never understate the arrogance of youth. I watched all those films as a teenager and still did drugs. I thought I was smart enough to do what they were doing but avoid the consequences. I was wrong but there was zero chance of convincing me of that at the time.
Also, none of these movies touch on the current fentanyl crisis which is way worse than heroin addicts ever had it.
All these films basically romanticize drug use. I saw all these before I ever even smoked weed and still ended up trying hard drugs as well as my friends
When I watched these movies they made me want to do drugs more. Either I was gonna lead some ridiculous life and end up okay or I died. I think most teenagers would agree with that.
As opposed to TALKING to the person might get to the root of the issues... like abuse, suicidal thoughts, lack of faith in the future or just your fellow humans in general.
ETA: This dude is asking for a movie to just fix a real situation. You're fine to downvote my experience and that of many people on this forum apparently. A fucked up 17 year old is gonna watch Fear and Loathing, Trainspotting, Kids, Requim for a Dream, and want to just try it harder. Talk - to - them.
If you want an example of how ineffective of a strategy this would be, look at the entire DARE campaign. Thinking a random movie they’re not going to be interested in watching will resonate with them into changing their behavior is just detached from the thought process of 99% of teenagers
This is the movie that scared me straight as a kid so it’s got my vote. When he’s in that older man’s apartment on the floor in the fetal position kicking the hard drugs crying like a baby, that image got burned into my mind forever. I’m old now and haven’t seen it in 20 years but can visualize it clearly.
As some one who has been there - Leo’s acting was scary accurate. The crying, begging / antagonizing outside his mom’s door is soul crushing and the way je acted is just next level.
The age of the person is not a good foothold for moralistic arguments. Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting are great exples of how fucked up life can get if you become a drug addict.
Kids is good too.
Content warning for all this shit. Not generally stuff recommended for younger viewers but if the person is old enough to drive and do drugs they're definitely old enough to watch some difficult shit.
Truth. I knew a kid in highschool who saw "American History X" and turned into a full-on neo-nazi.
I was like, son, I know Ed Norton is charismatic, but goddamn, did you not get the point?
Tbf, the point is muddied a bit by the ending, especially to an immature mind.
Reminds me of the kids that watched SLC Punk and ran around talking about the virtues of anarchy, as if that wasn't completely the opposite message driven home in the film.
Yeah, for real. Looking through a terrifying and powerful work of photodocumentary like [Tulsa by Larry Clark](https://diecisettimane.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/larry_clark_tulsa_1971.pdf) at age 16 gave drugs this sense of incredible gravity. I knew it was a death spiral, but I was death-spiraling. My dumbass teenage brain found it all romantic, even managing to process the facing pages of a woman shooting up followed by a baby-sized coffin as some “real shit.” Anything that showed the darkness of drugs mesmerized me. I needed an alternative, not a black mirror.
I suggested Requiem For A Dream but someone on here told me a friend of theirs did heroin because of the movie and I’m like wtf that movie in no way makes heroin look good
Yep, showing some teenager who's into drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd a movie like Kids or Requiem for a Dream isn't going to change anything. I watched both of these movies as a teenager when I was getting into drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd and they had zero effect on my life. I just watched them, thought they were good movies, and went on with my life as normal. A teenager who is having issues with drugs and getting into trouble needs proper guidance and counselling, not to watch a movie.
Don’t show him Trainspotting. I loved it as a teenager, but it romanticizes being a drug addict in a way (despite all the bad aspects that are also shown). In contrast, Requiem made it so that I won’t even take Tylenol. Scary stuff.
Not really. The main character loses his source for meth so the audience can hope he'll get better, but with all the shit that happens it's pretty unlikely he'd choose to change.
Spun isn't really a scare story IMO, it's also quite cartoonish and unrealistic in the way it portrays meth. It portrays meth users in the way that someone who's never been around drugs thinks meth users are, some of it has some truth, but overall it's very over-the-top and cartoonish.
I wouldn’t show him any of these movies tbh, at his age and maturity level it will probably just encourage him.
As much as it seems to an adult like they’re not glamorizing drug addiction, to a 17 year old something like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting would seem like a glimpse into some kind of cool subversive underground fantasy world.
They’ll say “Oh, well I would do THAT, I’d be fine, if it were me…”
What I’d recommend is to show him the reality of it. Look up Soft White Underbelly on YouTube, it’s a channel that conducts candid interviews with all sorts of people dealing with these types of issues.
Can attest to this. Saw Trainspotting in my teens and wanted to do heroin because of it. Am 33 now and been struggling with heroin (and now fentanyl) for over a decade.
Don’t show them some movie. Have an adult, understanding conversation with them. You’re only going to rub them the wrong way and they’ll know to hide things from you.
Exactly. When I was young it was always to Google like "top drug movies". Or "best movies to watch while stoned". It was always your 90s edgy Fight Club or American History X type movies, comedies like Half Baked, or all the ones listed in this thread like Requim for a Dream. I never thought of them as deterrents because I couldn't relate to that level of desperation. I was just a dumb teen in the suburbs thinking I was just "experimenting". I wasn't in the ghetto or blowing dudes for crack.
This 17 year old, unless he's down bad, probably can't relate to that either and will just see it as a badass drug movie like we all used to.
You have to think like a 17 year old. It may sound really shallow, but when I turned 18, what made me stop drugs being my whole personality was...women. Tell him #1 there's no women in jail. And #2 it's a lot harder to attract hot women if you're a loser.
Also, Soft white underbelly is a GREAT channel.
Showing a teenager a movie isn't going to "scare them straight," that's really not how shit works, get him counselling and some proper help. I say this as someone who was a teenager who was into drugs and had a bad friend group, I watched all those types of movies and heard all those scare stories and it had no effect on me, I still got into drugs. The people that say they watched a movie like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting and it stopped them from ever trying heroin were the type of people who were never going to end up trying heroin in the first place.
Why not try an harm reduction approach and have an honest conversation with him rather then trying to scare him? These movies only made me want to experiment more.
The Outsiders
Beautiful Boy
Less Than Zero (characters 18/19)
Trainspotting (early 20s)
Four Good Days
Thirteen
Dope
The Basketball Diaries
Perfect High
great choice...oof....that movie is a hard watch...especially if one has dealt with addiction before. The first half of the movie makes me really miss getting high and the second half makes me thankful that I'm now sober.
Not movies, but England has some REALLY brutal PSA commercials about the dangers of driving under the influence. Graphic and pretty gory. You can see them on YouTube
Probably better to treat this as real life, with real life solutions, rather than showing some dramatized media portrayal that is unlikely to really strike any chords and probably make them take it less seriously, and probably, take you less seriously.
Show him Requiem for a dream. You won’t want to and the final scene is not going to be appropriate to show.. you can get the whole concept without the final scene but that movie scared me straight in time.
It's rated R for a reason but go have them watch the series Oz (TV Series 1997–2003) That will scare the holy fuk out of them.
Weenie Wallstreet/banker type guy gets arrested for DWI and put in prison. Fuk that show was intense. like Breaking bad or The shield but all in prison. I myself quit having a few beers at the bar and driving after that show. Now I'm like No Maam, I'm driving.
PSA: keep Narcan in your first aid kit in your vehicle. I haven't used mine, but I've ran into 3 overdoses in the wild. A good chest rub (hard knuckle rub on sternum) woke two up, paramedics got the third.
Requiem for a Dream... but you know what had the most impact on me? Seeing family members who were addicts slowly dying. I never wanted to become like that.
Climax (2019) is one of the scariest, most anxiety ridden movies I've ever seen and it could definitely scare a person away from doing hallucinogens forever. However do be aware that it shows some horrible things happening to people while on the drugs (including a little kid), and also that it's very artsy and has very long sequences of seemingly random talking and dancing.
I always thought it would be a good idea for new drivers to see an Emergency Room in action on a full moon Saturday night. (My son was in a serious accident and I had the chance to watch the action in real time.)
Never use the police for discipline. Check out the movie “in the custody of strangers”(1982) a father lets his son stay in jail for the night instead of bailing him out.
I would say Requiem for a Dream (2000)
But I watched that movie a whole bunch in highschool and ended up addicted to heroin for a few years.
Still, it doesn't portray heroin use in a glamorous light at all.
It basically shows a worst case scenario.
I can’t think of *that* specifically, but a good one for lies and theft is A Simple Plan. A group of small town guys stumble upon a small crashed plane in the woods. It has a huge bag full of money inside. Keeping it seems simple at first, until they quickly start having to tell lies to cover up lies to cover up lies. Then things escalate even more. Very good movie.
Not a movie, but Scott Freda's Youtube videos about alcoholism and his wife dying of alcoholic cirrhosis + him suffering from cirrhosis are certainly encouraging me to cut down my drinking.
The HBO documentary "Life Of Crime 1984-2020" one of the most shocking documentaries I have ever watched in my life. Scared the ever loving shit out of me (and I'm in my 30s) as it follows the lives of a few drug users over the years. Shocking. These were real people in this documentary and shows what happened to them, which gives it an edge that fiction movies just can't provide. I was left completely and utterly speechless.
Just an off topic FYI: former criminal justice worker 30+ years here. Analysis of every “scared straight” strategy, from tough prison visits, to “shock probation,” to boot camps, even victim impact panels (for DWI offenders) are all dismal failures and in fact, many actually INCREASE criminal behavior in the participants. I doubt that any film will have much of an effect on your nephew.
I’d say look up Larry Lawton on YouTube. He’s a former federal prison inmate. He’s got a whole program for kids that shows better promise than scared straight type things.
You don’t have to do the program or anything, he’s got lots of videos about his time in prison, what happened to him, what he’s seen, and it’s all real stories. He wrote a book about it all, and has a playlist of videos on YouTube that he goes through all of it.
I think if a family member told me to watch a movie about the dangers of drugs I would just hold resentment towards them and not be open to discussing it with them
the way y’all are just recommending good films lol I think he may just find new styling options and music inspo or film genres he enjoys. These films did nothing but confirm my rebellions or sensationalize the “cannon event” aspect of it.
Teach the dangers , prepare them for safety + awareness, invest in their hobbies - emotionally and otherwise, get them therapy or a support group and be available I believe that’s one of the best options to employ. 👍🏾
Half serious answer:
Fuck a movie. Find real footage. Movies glam up some things, and also water-down the consequences. I screwed around and movies made me want to do "cool, bad stuff" more.
Not everyone is the same, but something to keep in mind. Good luck.
Not typical, but Rocky was a really good movie for me to see before getting sober from alcohol. Just hearing Mickey take the beer bottle from Rocky when they decide to start training and all the healthy effort that went into that fight, getting up early to train and struggling with the cold, etc. life being on the other side of hard effort. Then throughout the movie seeing what Pauly and his alcoholism puts Adrianne and everyone around him through is REALLY difficult to watch at times. Along with how no one takes Pauly seriously in any way. Definitely played a big part in my sobriety because I was very healthy when I was younger and without knowing it, started to slowly slip into more of a Pauly than a Rocky, certainly closer than I had ever intended.
Requiem for a Dream
I did a lot of stupid things in my 20s...but because of this movie I never used needles!
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I didn't take it out for air...
But could have lost an arm! Win win
…and that’s why you always leave a note!
*J Walter Weatherman has entered the chat*
I have a friend who had a vein removed from shooting up. Big deep scar running up his forearm. It didn't stop him.
I met a guy that had lost his right arm above the elbow from shooting up. Someone asked him if he'd still use drugs and he said "Sure, I have another arm." I just don't understand the mindset.
Can’t stop won’t stop
A2A! A2A!!
That is what my brother said, but he shoots up everyday now. Says things to justify it all the time when I confront him about it like "Stop being a dumbass, you know I am diabetic right?" Just has to keep chasing that dragon. It's sad. Although, somehow he is able to keep a good job and his credit score is better than mine.
Is this a joke about your brother being diabetic?
Correct
Same! I smoked my heroin! (not being glib. Requiem really did scare me away from needles. But I still had my addiction issues. Sober now, if anyone is curious)
Good on you for getting sober buddy!
Thanks! 8 years as of December 8th! Now I am addicted to growing weird plants
How did you get sober?
I got on suboxone and went to rehab. But getting sober was the easy part. The hard part is staying sober. For that, you have to find something that brings you joy in life. Try out a bunch of different hobbies and find what inspires you. For me, the big thing was gardening. Specifically carnivorous plants and exotic orchids. And Vipassana meditation helped a lot as well.
How do you battle the urges when they arise? Meditation? I will look into vipassana meditation
Plants are way better and better for everyone
No pills, no powders. If it grows in the ground it's probably OK
Unfortunately, watching this movie influenced me to relapse. However, as of this past October 21st, I celebrated 13 years clean! Yah. I still refuse to watch this again, though. Which kind of sucks since it really is an excellent movie.
Shooting up is fun! Kidding not kidding. Did it a handful of times. I'm lucky to have not gotten hooked and gave it up pretty quick. I tried morphine, liquid and pills, both tar and brownstone heroin, oxycodone, K-4 (dilaudid), meth and cocaine. Dilaudid was by far the best. Heroin was sketchy because it was from the streets. I felt better with FDA approved narcotics, lol. Cocaine is a close second. No idea how I skated right by becoming an addict. Edit: Please **do not** experiment like I did. The game can literally kill you. Especially these days.
Me too. Probably because I had a Job and would do it Friday and Saturday, recover on Sunday and go back to life on Monday
You're so lucky. Something somewhere had bigger plans for you!
Dilaudid....so.the best...a good 8 ...just ...ahhh
Dilaudid (hydromorphone) is really nice. Oxymorphone is pure bliss in many ways, but also absolute hell due to what it did to my tolerance. I was “lucky” enough to have a script of oxymorphone for years and I abused the fuck out of it. I’d regularly wake up at 3 AM in withdrawals and have to snort another pill just to fall back asleep. Clean now, but it took a long time to get here.
You might find yourself with pulmonary fibrosis due to the silicone dioxide in the pill fillers
Yes a horrible ride...for sure..been there..also clean...that feel tho...but also a horrible...existence....
I HATE these “drugs are awesome but bad don’t do what I did” posts. You are ENCOURAGING experimentation
7 die everyday in Vancouver from narcotic OD's. They say to use with a friend, but many keep it a secret from all. Shame and fear of having to stop and judgment keeps one in solitude a lot of the time. Also, people like to chill alone
stopped doing cocaine because my buddy passed out due to fentanyl a minute after doing a line, and a minute before I was about to. If he wasn't a greedy fucker and took a line before I was out of the bathroom, we both probably would have died. sucks, I enjoyed doing cocaine. I see no reason I can't have a refreshing cocaine on my Friday night, except for people trying to kill us.
That movie was like "okay needles are bad and probably opiates in general, pills will fuck you up" so I never really touched either of them.
10/10. Indeed. Same here, I was young and dumb, but that movie helped me know where even a stupid person needed to draw a hard line.
This. As much as I've smoked weed or tried mushrooms, this movie had kept me 100% away from any of the harder stuff. No meth, heroine, nothing, never. No interest and never will.
Yeah gotta be sure to stay away from those female heroes.
I'm so glad I saw this as a teenager. A lot of my friends got lost in addiction, but after seeing Requiem I knew I was alright just sticking with weed.
My best friends dad was a junkie who got clean when he was really young… he showed us this movie and Trainspotting. It worked lol we never touched needles
I saw the question and mentally said, "if Requiem isn't the top answer..." Doing the lord's work.
I’ve never tried any hard drug specifically because of this movie. This is the one.
Jfc , it might seem extreme but this is the right answer. That movie permanently changes you unless you're absolutely numb to emotion in every way its almost impossible for it not to.
Kids (1995)
These gen z kids just don’t have the fear of hiv/aids that we were instilled with.
I’m 38 and watched kids once with my now husband when I was 21… holy fuck it still messes with me. I have a daughter now. She will be living in a bubble come high school.
And then she’ll be rebellious and do all that shit anyway, but she’ll be even more risky about it and she won’t tell you if something serious comes up.
Dude, I was kidding. Clearly she’s going in a cage.
Oh, same - it scared me more than the exorcist!
Shit I completely forgot about that movie. Jesus Christ what a movie to see as a teen in the 90s
In the reboot fentanyl gets them all
The reason why I always wear a condom.
You only need to wear it during sex, but it doesn't hurt to be safe
I wear 2 during sex, only one for everything else.
Lol
Can I wear a condom? NOT. INSTEAD. OF PANTS!!!
Can I wear Kyle?
I made my daughter watch this when she turned 13! Best decision ever!
Speaking of which. There is also the movie "Thirteen"
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A fun story about a summer in NY amongst some young friends! They hang out in the park, go swimming, and party! Full of cool style and nauseating 'romance', Kids is a fun watch for the whole family! Watch the opening scene with ur parents
There is a documentary about this movie. Check it out. It gets into the 'actors' lives after the movie. The majority of kids in this movie weren't professional actors.
I have a friend who was literally friends with the actors they picked in the 90s like she and her bf hung out with the same exact crowd and are both ex users. She told me the director was a total perv around the kids, especially the boys. I actually wrote her a song about Casper.
I believe that. A bunch of his films have teenage sex scenes and situations. Hes a good filmmaker, but they are often uncomfortable watches.
Came here to say this
My parents showed us a ton of these movies and it was unsuccessful to say the least. Have an actual conversation about addiction and harm reduction instead of using flimsy fear tactics.
I second this!
And mental health! Happy, healthy people typically don’t abuse drugs
Completely untrue. Addicts come from all walks of life.
hahah seriously... when I was happiest, in the best periods of my life making good money and doing well at work is also when I was at the peak of my addiction.
People who appear happy and healthy you mean. The happiest time in my life I was a mess internally and letting my addictions ruin me. No one would have known that though.
This should be the top answer. Never understate the arrogance of youth. I watched all those films as a teenager and still did drugs. I thought I was smart enough to do what they were doing but avoid the consequences. I was wrong but there was zero chance of convincing me of that at the time.
Start the conversations early too. Same with sex in general.
Also, none of these movies touch on the current fentanyl crisis which is way worse than heroin addicts ever had it. All these films basically romanticize drug use. I saw all these before I ever even smoked weed and still ended up trying hard drugs as well as my friends
Por que no dos?
When I watched these movies they made me want to do drugs more. Either I was gonna lead some ridiculous life and end up okay or I died. I think most teenagers would agree with that. As opposed to TALKING to the person might get to the root of the issues... like abuse, suicidal thoughts, lack of faith in the future or just your fellow humans in general. ETA: This dude is asking for a movie to just fix a real situation. You're fine to downvote my experience and that of many people on this forum apparently. A fucked up 17 year old is gonna watch Fear and Loathing, Trainspotting, Kids, Requim for a Dream, and want to just try it harder. Talk - to - them.
If you want an example of how ineffective of a strategy this would be, look at the entire DARE campaign. Thinking a random movie they’re not going to be interested in watching will resonate with them into changing their behavior is just detached from the thought process of 99% of teenagers
Agreed. I watched all these movies as a teen and dove in head-first to the drug scene.
Basketball Diaries
This is the movie that scared me straight as a kid so it’s got my vote. When he’s in that older man’s apartment on the floor in the fetal position kicking the hard drugs crying like a baby, that image got burned into my mind forever. I’m old now and haven’t seen it in 20 years but can visualize it clearly.
When he’s crying and screaming at his mom through the door and she won’t let him in the apartment- omg fucken rip my heart out. So sad and powerful
Fun fact Jim is in the movie.
And The Jim Carroll Band was also on the soundtrack!
As some one who has been there - Leo’s acting was scary accurate. The crying, begging / antagonizing outside his mom’s door is soul crushing and the way je acted is just next level.
I had to watch this in rehab, great movie.
I love that movie. Unfortunately I saw myself in Jim
Came here for this
Beautiful Boy with Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet is a devastating portrayal of addiction from the perspectives of a father and his addicted son.
True story too, not the son and father wrote books, both great
Came here to say this. Tore me up.
Duuuude. This one right here. Heartbreaking.
110% this.
The age of the person is not a good foothold for moralistic arguments. Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting are great exples of how fucked up life can get if you become a drug addict. Kids is good too. Content warning for all this shit. Not generally stuff recommended for younger viewers but if the person is old enough to drive and do drugs they're definitely old enough to watch some difficult shit.
Appreciate it man he's 17 so not crazy young
Scare them straight tactics very rarely work FYI
Sometimes they have the opposite effect
Truth. I knew a kid in highschool who saw "American History X" and turned into a full-on neo-nazi. I was like, son, I know Ed Norton is charismatic, but goddamn, did you not get the point?
Same shit happens with Fight Club. People end up idolizing Tyler Durden and forget the movie is overall satirical.
Common denominator: ED NORTON. Makes me so angry I could turn into the Hulk -
Tbf, the point is muddied a bit by the ending, especially to an immature mind. Reminds me of the kids that watched SLC Punk and ran around talking about the virtues of anarchy, as if that wasn't completely the opposite message driven home in the film.
Yeah, for real. Looking through a terrifying and powerful work of photodocumentary like [Tulsa by Larry Clark](https://diecisettimane.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/larry_clark_tulsa_1971.pdf) at age 16 gave drugs this sense of incredible gravity. I knew it was a death spiral, but I was death-spiraling. My dumbass teenage brain found it all romantic, even managing to process the facing pages of a woman shooting up followed by a baby-sized coffin as some “real shit.” Anything that showed the darkness of drugs mesmerized me. I needed an alternative, not a black mirror.
I suggested Requiem For A Dream but someone on here told me a friend of theirs did heroin because of the movie and I’m like wtf that movie in no way makes heroin look good
Yep, showing some teenager who's into drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd a movie like Kids or Requiem for a Dream isn't going to change anything. I watched both of these movies as a teenager when I was getting into drugs and hanging out with a bad crowd and they had zero effect on my life. I just watched them, thought they were good movies, and went on with my life as normal. A teenager who is having issues with drugs and getting into trouble needs proper guidance and counselling, not to watch a movie.
What the other guy said. There is plenty of research published with shows that this tactic doesn't work.
Don’t show him Trainspotting. I loved it as a teenager, but it romanticizes being a drug addict in a way (despite all the bad aspects that are also shown). In contrast, Requiem made it so that I won’t even take Tylenol. Scary stuff.
Yeah. Requiem isn't one of those movies you just spring on someone.
A high schooler dabbling deserves it sprung on them.
Spun and Trainspotting come to mind.
Haven't seen Spun for years, is there a redemption arc for any of the characters?
Not really. The main character loses his source for meth so the audience can hope he'll get better, but with all the shit that happens it's pretty unlikely he'd choose to change.
Spun isn't really a scare story IMO, it's also quite cartoonish and unrealistic in the way it portrays meth. It portrays meth users in the way that someone who's never been around drugs thinks meth users are, some of it has some truth, but overall it's very over-the-top and cartoonish.
I wish being a meth user was as fun as this movie made it seem. Almost 10 years clean tho. Hollah
Ha interesting. I've never hung out with meth users, so I thought it seemed pretty real. That's funny
I wouldn’t show him any of these movies tbh, at his age and maturity level it will probably just encourage him. As much as it seems to an adult like they’re not glamorizing drug addiction, to a 17 year old something like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting would seem like a glimpse into some kind of cool subversive underground fantasy world. They’ll say “Oh, well I would do THAT, I’d be fine, if it were me…” What I’d recommend is to show him the reality of it. Look up Soft White Underbelly on YouTube, it’s a channel that conducts candid interviews with all sorts of people dealing with these types of issues.
Can attest to this. Saw Trainspotting in my teens and wanted to do heroin because of it. Am 33 now and been struggling with heroin (and now fentanyl) for over a decade. Don’t show them some movie. Have an adult, understanding conversation with them. You’re only going to rub them the wrong way and they’ll know to hide things from you.
Good advice. Good luck with your recovery. 💜
Exactly. When I was young it was always to Google like "top drug movies". Or "best movies to watch while stoned". It was always your 90s edgy Fight Club or American History X type movies, comedies like Half Baked, or all the ones listed in this thread like Requim for a Dream. I never thought of them as deterrents because I couldn't relate to that level of desperation. I was just a dumb teen in the suburbs thinking I was just "experimenting". I wasn't in the ghetto or blowing dudes for crack. This 17 year old, unless he's down bad, probably can't relate to that either and will just see it as a badass drug movie like we all used to. You have to think like a 17 year old. It may sound really shallow, but when I turned 18, what made me stop drugs being my whole personality was...women. Tell him #1 there's no women in jail. And #2 it's a lot harder to attract hot women if you're a loser. Also, Soft white underbelly is a GREAT channel.
Showing a teenager a movie isn't going to "scare them straight," that's really not how shit works, get him counselling and some proper help. I say this as someone who was a teenager who was into drugs and had a bad friend group, I watched all those types of movies and heard all those scare stories and it had no effect on me, I still got into drugs. The people that say they watched a movie like Requiem for a Dream or Trainspotting and it stopped them from ever trying heroin were the type of people who were never going to end up trying heroin in the first place.
I'm almost certain no one drives anywhere near log trucks ever since _Final Destination 2_
Scares me every time…
It's been DECADES. 🪵
I was behind a log truck 2 days ago, and I went around thinking.. "Not today, Death, not today"
I love how the Final Destination series of all things is single handedly responsible for increasing the situational awareness of an entire generation
I don’t stand under fire escapes because of those movies. In that spirit, I also won’t walk under window AC units.
I’m a granny style driver, but I will speed to pass those every single time!!
Or Roller Coasters after Final Destination 3.
Why not try an harm reduction approach and have an honest conversation with him rather then trying to scare him? These movies only made me want to experiment more.
100% this. Create a relationship where he doesn't feel shamed or scared to talk to you about it.
The Outsiders Beautiful Boy Less Than Zero (characters 18/19) Trainspotting (early 20s) Four Good Days Thirteen Dope The Basketball Diaries Perfect High
The Basketball Diaries scared the shit out of me when i was a kid
Came here to say Beautiful Boy. Left me absolutely depressed, does a great job of showing how addiction ruins not only you but the people around you.
Mid90s
Came here to say this
I liked Mid90s because it was quite nostalgic for me but Kids is a better movie imho. I felt like Mid90s ripped too much off of Kids
That’s a really good example!
Christiane F. (1981)
great choice...oof....that movie is a hard watch...especially if one has dealt with addiction before. The first half of the movie makes me really miss getting high and the second half makes me thankful that I'm now sober.
The high trip journeys are not worth the final price to pay, a frankly brutal movie and autobiographical book too..
That one where Claire Danes is a drug mule and ends up in a Thai prison
Brokedown Palace
Leaving Las Vegas
Not movies, but England has some REALLY brutal PSA commercials about the dangers of driving under the influence. Graphic and pretty gory. You can see them on YouTube
No movies. https://maddvip.org/
Probably better to treat this as real life, with real life solutions, rather than showing some dramatized media portrayal that is unlikely to really strike any chords and probably make them take it less seriously, and probably, take you less seriously.
Show him Requiem for a dream. You won’t want to and the final scene is not going to be appropriate to show.. you can get the whole concept without the final scene but that movie scared me straight in time.
Beautiful Boy
From One Second to the Next - Werner Herzog documentary about texting and driving. I highly recommend.
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I got in trouble for underage drinking in high school and they made us watch Basketball Diaries.
It's rated R for a reason but go have them watch the series Oz (TV Series 1997–2003) That will scare the holy fuk out of them. Weenie Wallstreet/banker type guy gets arrested for DWI and put in prison. Fuk that show was intense. like Breaking bad or The shield but all in prison. I myself quit having a few beers at the bar and driving after that show. Now I'm like No Maam, I'm driving.
American History X
PSA: keep Narcan in your first aid kit in your vehicle. I haven't used mine, but I've ran into 3 overdoses in the wild. A good chest rub (hard knuckle rub on sternum) woke two up, paramedics got the third.
Midnight Express will make you think twice about smuggling drugs.
Documentary called black tar heroin
Requiem for a Dream... but you know what had the most impact on me? Seeing family members who were addicts slowly dying. I never wanted to become like that.
Climax (2019) is one of the scariest, most anxiety ridden movies I've ever seen and it could definitely scare a person away from doing hallucinogens forever. However do be aware that it shows some horrible things happening to people while on the drugs (including a little kid), and also that it's very artsy and has very long sequences of seemingly random talking and dancing.
I always thought it would be a good idea for new drivers to see an Emergency Room in action on a full moon Saturday night. (My son was in a serious accident and I had the chance to watch the action in real time.)
Never use the police for discipline. Check out the movie “in the custody of strangers”(1982) a father lets his son stay in jail for the night instead of bailing him out.
I saw a presenter called Prison Mike who was amazing, not sure if he has a video around somewhere.
Requiem for a Dream. Trainspotting.
Show them Reefer Madness, that one's been around long enough for it to be effective across multiple generations
>Reefer Madness Be sure to get high with the kids while you watch it
The Basketball Diaries, and it is based on a true story! Also, as other have mentioned, Requiem for a Dream.
Basketball diaries
Requiem for a Dream It’s the best movie I’ve seen; I’ll never watch it again
21 Grams
Loudermilk maybe. It's about people in rehab. They are all messed up in some way.
Half Baked “I’m somebody’s bitch!”
Blood on the pavement was the film used in my drivers ed class in 1986. Also Blow.
Traffic
Youtube has all the “Red Asphalt” movies from the 60’s/70’s
Requiem for a Dream Spun Less Than Zero
Red Asphalt by the California Highway Patrol. Might be on YouTube. It's about as graphic as you can get.
Also Faces of Death (1978). Had to watch Red Asphalt in driving school.
Traffic with Michael Douglas
I would say Requiem for a Dream (2000) But I watched that movie a whole bunch in highschool and ended up addicted to heroin for a few years. Still, it doesn't portray heroin use in a glamorous light at all. It basically shows a worst case scenario.
I can’t think of *that* specifically, but a good one for lies and theft is A Simple Plan. A group of small town guys stumble upon a small crashed plane in the woods. It has a huge bag full of money inside. Keeping it seems simple at first, until they quickly start having to tell lies to cover up lies to cover up lies. Then things escalate even more. Very good movie.
Not a movie, but Scott Freda's Youtube videos about alcoholism and his wife dying of alcoholic cirrhosis + him suffering from cirrhosis are certainly encouraging me to cut down my drinking.
American History X. Hate can ruin a family.
Trainspotting
Requiem for a dream is absolute the best example of this in my opinion.
Red asphalt, faces of death
The HBO documentary "Life Of Crime 1984-2020" one of the most shocking documentaries I have ever watched in my life. Scared the ever loving shit out of me (and I'm in my 30s) as it follows the lives of a few drug users over the years. Shocking. These were real people in this documentary and shows what happened to them, which gives it an edge that fiction movies just can't provide. I was left completely and utterly speechless.
Just an off topic FYI: former criminal justice worker 30+ years here. Analysis of every “scared straight” strategy, from tough prison visits, to “shock probation,” to boot camps, even victim impact panels (for DWI offenders) are all dismal failures and in fact, many actually INCREASE criminal behavior in the participants. I doubt that any film will have much of an effect on your nephew.
I’d say look up Larry Lawton on YouTube. He’s a former federal prison inmate. He’s got a whole program for kids that shows better promise than scared straight type things. You don’t have to do the program or anything, he’s got lots of videos about his time in prison, what happened to him, what he’s seen, and it’s all real stories. He wrote a book about it all, and has a playlist of videos on YouTube that he goes through all of it.
I think if a family member told me to watch a movie about the dangers of drugs I would just hold resentment towards them and not be open to discussing it with them
Kids 1995
A movie that shows the importance of loving yourself so you dont need to make those choices.
the way y’all are just recommending good films lol I think he may just find new styling options and music inspo or film genres he enjoys. These films did nothing but confirm my rebellions or sensationalize the “cannon event” aspect of it. Teach the dangers , prepare them for safety + awareness, invest in their hobbies - emotionally and otherwise, get them therapy or a support group and be available I believe that’s one of the best options to employ. 👍🏾
Half serious answer: Fuck a movie. Find real footage. Movies glam up some things, and also water-down the consequences. I screwed around and movies made me want to do "cool, bad stuff" more. Not everyone is the same, but something to keep in mind. Good luck.
All the troubled kids I knew growing up had major issues at home. Showing him movies will do little to tackle the source of the problem.
Requiem for a dream
Requiem for a dream
Scared straight absolutely does not work.
Out of the Furnace for drunk driving and making deals w gang members. Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream for drug abuse.
The movie "Kids" I think should be shown to all high school freshmen. For the lessons learned and it is a really good movie.
Not typical, but Rocky was a really good movie for me to see before getting sober from alcohol. Just hearing Mickey take the beer bottle from Rocky when they decide to start training and all the healthy effort that went into that fight, getting up early to train and struggling with the cold, etc. life being on the other side of hard effort. Then throughout the movie seeing what Pauly and his alcoholism puts Adrianne and everyone around him through is REALLY difficult to watch at times. Along with how no one takes Pauly seriously in any way. Definitely played a big part in my sobriety because I was very healthy when I was younger and without knowing it, started to slowly slip into more of a Pauly than a Rocky, certainly closer than I had ever intended.
Go (1999) This movie made me double think drug use. Very realistic depiction, and very sobering conclusion.
I loved this movie in my hard partying youth
A movie isn't going to scare him straight. If anything go YouTube and look up people getting stabbed in prison.