After smoking weed for years with him, my best friend of 16 years recently became a big druggy within the last few years and I'm starting to hate his guts. All he does is try to get me to get messed up with him and I have to tell him no a dozen times every time we hang out. He is becoming a hollow, zombie version of his former self and cannot hold a conversation unless he believes he is being philosophical (which he never is) or if it's about drug usage. He has become so dull and mindless that he oftentimes says jokes, phrases, and anecdotes that I told him just days before. Whenever we're with a group of people, I can pretty much assume one of my own anecdotes will come out of his mouth, which is pathetic. This wasn't always the case, as he used to be funny and original once upon a time. Now, all he does is use hard drugs and tries to get others to join him in his downfall. He is my best friend so I stick by him, but I won't let him bring me down with him, the way he did with one of our mutual friends. Let's call mutual friend Al. Al stated that he has an addictive personality and therefore should not buy oxycodone. My long-time friend insisted that it'd be fine and eventually ended up giving him several pills for free because he was too insecure to be alone in his usage. Now Al is a full blown addict, seeking rehab. My best friend is a real big piece of shit, but I know he's still there deep down inside.

Going along with your comment, I don't think you are at fault for your friends' usage. You introduced weed to them, not hard drugs. Those friends chose to use hard drugs, the same way they chose to try weed with you. I chose to smoke weed and chose to stay away from harder stuff. It all comes down to the individual and his own decision making. You are not at fault for your friends' own hangups. This is a case of correlation versus causation. There is a correlation of hard drug using friends and people you introduced weed to, but that doesn't mean them smoking weed caused them to turn to harder drugs. Similarly, weed is wrongly labeled as a gateway drug because many people that end up doing harder stuff started with weed. However, that isn't to say that smoking weed will lead to harder drugs, but that there is a tendency of would-be-drug users trying pot first before trying any other drug.

What I'm saying is that it doesn't make sense for you to blame yourself for them using hard drugs. All you did was introduce weed. My best friend, on the other hand, should feel guilty for introducing hard drugs to susceptible friends. Introducing weed is like showing a future-murderer how to gut a fish. If you didn't show him how to gut a fish a long time ago, would he have still became a murderer? Possibly not but probably yes.