What makes someone choose the drug free path when so many choose the drug friendly? Well maybe it is simply that, to choose the less travelled path, to be the individual. Everyone is different, and is driven by very different motivations. Most people who take on the straight edge label, have been drug free for a time before hand. Whatever the motivations people find in themselves, it is no suprise that people change and motivations also change. People who were once drug free choose to take another path in life, within the straight edge culture, refereed to as loosing the edge.

   To straight edge followers, a change in the straight edge lifestyle of their friends is sometimes seen with animosity. The reasons for this anger? some see the loosing of ethics as taking the easy path; selling out. Personally i don't feel this way towards people who choose a different path in life, this is like saying the only thing that made that person a friend in this first place was the fact that they were straight edge. If someone realizes that they are not capable of being straight edge anymore, and choose to take on a alcohol friendly life, for instance. They would in effect be selling out if they continued to live a life based on straight edge ethics, especially if they no longer believe that it is right for them.

   As people all have different motivations for choosing to become straight edge in the first place it is hard to try and justify their reasons for loosing their edge as well. In any case, when i first found out about the straight edge movement, i always considered it to be un selective. In effect all straight edge people are doing by hating people who have chosen to not be straight edge any more is socially selecting someone, this is no different then racism or sexism. To me that is not what being straight edge is about, its not about about negative aspects of life; it is about positive choices.

   People say that straight edge is more then a label; personally i don't see how it is more then a label for everyone. For some i can understand how it can be a total belief, but to me it is not, it has never been anything more then a label. I choose the drug free path at an early age; before i was old enough to know what alcohol and tabacco can do to your body, i knew what narcotics were capable at the time however. Now this raises the question what is "drug free"?

DRUG FREE vs SXE

   Drug free is a label which some people have chosen to take on in to mirror their beliefs to others, it is the same as being straight edge in practice. The reasons for this choice is not a simply choice, to understand the stand taken by people who choose to no longer take the straight edge label are complex, first you have to completely understand straight edge.

   Straight edge; for some, stands for more then its practices now days, it encompasses a wide range of ethical and moral strong points. Rather then the practice of abstaining from most legal and all illegal drugs and promiscuous sex a complex range of social and environmental issues also. To many straight edge people or people who know straight edge people this will come as no suprise. But when i mean a range i don't simply mean recycling or protesting, i mean that some people see straight edge as more then a label. Some people recognize straight edge almost as a religion, when i took on the straight edge lifestyle it didn't change me at all. Ive always believed in what i believed, i would have always continued to be drug free, and even though i believe and practice everything that straight edge now stands for; to some people, it is not because of the straight edge lifestyle at all.

   To call yourself straight edge and say that you found all these moral stand points as a direct result of finding straight edge, then you are missing the point of these principals. What you choose as a moral standing point is not influenced by a social label, and as great an ideal i think straight edge is, i strongly feel that a lot of people are missing the point of it. It is not much more then a label, unless you have changed your whole life around becasue you found out about it and made a lifestyle change directly becasue of that. If you have been drug free your whole life you cant really refer to straight edge as more then a label, becasue it isnt a lifestyle to you, you may acomadate changes based on the lifestyle, but i feel that is wrong. If you make a change based on a new education, then that is a positive change, but i dont feel it is 100% justified.

   As i said, the reasions for my lifestyle choices have never been curved by straight edge influences, and as i can respect the fact that some people can truly say that they have chosen their lifestyle based directly on the straight edge movment and nothing else, i have not. Becasue of that i hold no reasion to call myself straight edge, i will be drug free as long as i choose to be so, but that doesnt make me straight edge, if straight edge is what i belive it to be. Iam not anti straight edge, and i will continue to promote the scene, but i dont feel it is an active title for myself.

   Becasue of that i choose the drug free label, i do think straight edge is a good thing. I dont feel that straight edge militancy is a good thing, however, but that is another story.

LOST EDGE

   The loss the edge, as refered to ealier means the loss of drug abstinence. Now what motivates the loss of moral stand points? at a young (teen) age, this is easy to understand. Peer presure could be to blame, or personal change, personal aceptance, overcomming personal fears, the range of reasions someone might have for loosing their abstinence is broad.

   To loose your edge, to some straight edgers, is a discrace and something to hate someone for. To me straight edge has always been a personal choice, that is what i have always belived and that is what i will always belive. To directly force straight edge ideals onto someone against their own will is meaningless, becasue if you use guilt or your fists its not going to stick if that person has their own mind. Of course some poeple are easily lead, and that is not so much of a bad thing, at least not as bad as physicaly abusing someone to make them straight edge or acept straight edge idealism. To alot of older straight edgers there is no suprise that there is a problem with the straight edge movment right now. But to newer edgers it may come as a suprise that the movement is practicly being divided into militants and others (the ethical). When i refer to militants i dont just mean the ones who physicaly harm drug users or drinkers, but the people who belive that if you have lost your edge then you have sold out; no comprimise. This is completly against what straight edge means to me, i dont belive anyone should be judged, becasue they drink or smoke after being straight edge.

   If they are pregnant and smoke, or get drunk and drive or beat their kids, thats different. But that isnt a part of straight edge thats a part of civil rights, and personaly i feel that poeple who loose their edge are no different then straight edgers themselves, they just dont belive in that part of their life anymore. It doesnt make them a different person, it doesnt make them a traitor or a sell out, i really think that a lot straight edgers need to get a reality check.

   My freinds are my freinds no matter what they do with their own bodies, as long as they dont cause harm to anyone eles then why should i care. If one of my freinds wants to drink or smoke, and for a part of their lives they were straight edge, that is their choice. Iam not going to judge them or do anything but support their choices, becasue that is _their_ choice.

CONCLUSION

   The motivations for me writing what you have just read is in an effort to educate people that there is a problem with being straight edge today. Most of my negative experinces regaurding straight edge have come from the newer people who have only just discovered straight edge. If you dont agree with what i have put forth here then please email me, iam open for debate at all times.