Drugs, alcohol, and morals

Why are people getting angry at this person? He or she has the right to their own opinion and if this person wants to think we're stupid, let 'em! At least he or she isn't trying to control us and keep everything illegal even though it's a victim-less crime. Thanks!

Yeah but when people self-medicate for "medical" reasons they're using drugs to escape rather than take responsibility for their problems. And that can lead to problems that can affect other people negatively, which is irresponsible.

For example, a woman lives in a place where abortion is illegal and there is no access to contraceptives. She has sex, which is normal, and she becomes pregnant. She is not ready to have a baby, but it is illegal for her to abort it. So she drops out of school and throws her life away. She becomes very depressed and starts drinking during pregnancy to escape her sorrow. Her child is born with birth defects as a consequence.

This woman had a psychological disease, depression, and therefore she was incapable of taking responsibility for her life. The alcohol addiction made her situation worse. The mother causing her baby to have birth defects is a negligent action that causes suffering. The consequence is morally wrong, the child did not choose to have birth defects and yet he must live with the complications for his entire life. However the mother was incapable of taking responsibility for her life, so *she* is not wrong, she couldn't control herself. Its just a sad situation.

However, we can't prohibit drugs/alcohol to try to prevent these things from happening because we already tried that during alcohol prohibition in the 30s and it didn't work. Similarly, the drug war is a complete failure. How many times have you heard: "man, if heroin was legal, I would shoot it up." People use it if they want to, whether its legal or illegal. The drug war just fills up the prisons and makes violent people rich.

Not only does prohibition fail in practice, but it isn't morally right. It sets a dangerous precedent- the government telling people what they can and can't do with their bodies. People deserve to choose how they want to feel. Many people without psychological diseases can use drugs/alcohol without throwing away their responsibilities by getting super fucked up or becoming addicted.

However, its still wrong to tell even the people that want to get super fucked up every once in a while a party- or every day- what they can and can't do with their bodies. Yes, getting super fucked up once- or getting fucked up all the time- is not making a rational decision, because the individual isn't taking care of themselves nor their responsibilities. But its still a bad idea to let the government make that decision for them. If the state wants to help with the problem, then he best idea is to provide addiction clinics and psychiatric hospitals that accept all addicts and people with psychological disease, no matter what. Even if they have drugs in their veins or in their pockets.

Point is, drug/alcohol addiction and abuse is a huge problem. You can't just pretend that drug addicts and abusers don't affect anyone when they get fucked up. When they neglect their responsibilities, they hurt other people. However, its a bad idea to try and *make* people stay away from drugs/alcohol. Its wrong and it doesn't work. The only solution that does work is providing a way out for addicts who have hit rock bottom. And have sensible laws, like the ones they have for alcohol. DUIs should be illegal. Giving drugs to a child should be illegal. Possession should not.

"take some acid and proceed to try to jump off your roof"
.....REALLY?? is that where we are?? To me that was the giveaway that yeh, you should maybe educate yourself a bit more.
It can be quite comforting to take an extremist stance on something you dont know about; its nice to have strong convictions and be self-righteous. But to get closer to truth/reality you may have to swallow pride and ditch the black and white thinking!!

I agree with you for the most part but I think you should do more research into drugs before you consider them a waste of money, time and health. I have always suffered from horrible anxiety, many nights I've spent up having panic attacks, vomiting, horrible headaches, because I'd get so worked up over things. This year I smoked marijuana for the first time, it was March 13th, I remember distinctly, and since then I've gotten ahold of myself and have control over my anxiety, it doesn't control me anymore. Marijuana helps me sleep, takes away my sick stomachs that I get from anxiety, my social anxiety is basically non existent now whereas before my heart would start racing and my head would spin just having to order my food at a restaurant because I'd be so scared of looking at or talking to the waitress. It's helped me be less judgmental of people, I've made a lot of friends and discovered so much about myself and other people and social stigmas and things like that. It makes me feel good, to me, its money well spent.

Two months ago I was prescribed Cipralex, 20 MG a day, because I went to see a psychologist to discuss my anxiety. Not only did it destroy my sex drive, make me sick, and give me trouble sleeping, but it fucked up my head big time and one night I was just sitting in my living room all alone and it was like dark clouds just invaded my mind and I had no control over what I was doing. I got up, walked into my kitchen and opened up my medicine cabinet, started calculating whether I had enough sleeping pills, anti depressants, tylenol 3 and cough syrup to just make a big cocktail and kill myself.

I had to physically tell myself "Its that medication, suicidal thoughts are a side affect, just go to bed". I went outside, smoked a joint, calmed myself down enough to go to bed, and I haven't taken those pills since.

Before you judge because we spend our money on drugs, maybe you should point your finger at all the people who spend their money on legal drugs and end up having health problems and mental health problems. Legal drugs kill more people every year then illegal drugs do.

As long as you leave the people who do drugs without causing problems alone, then yes, perfectly normal. Believe and think what you want, but let's all just keep our shit to ourselves.

Yeah, I think it is normal. I don't think I agree, though, not entirely. I personally don't think people know enough about drugs. You say they know the risks, but I don't think that's always the case. It certainly is a lot of the time, but I also don't think a lot of people know enough about drugs to make an informed decision.

I guess I sort of feel sorry for them because of all the hate they get. I usually view people who have drug and alcohol addictions as victims. I personally think anyone is capable of being in that situation, when put under certain circumstances. However, I guess most people aren't put under circumstances which would lead them down that road. Maybe I'm being completely naive, it's just that I tend to be a bit iffy about blaming someone for something that I think they can't help. Is having a self destructive personality *really* their fault?

DMT will open your mind and you will never be the same.

...after alcohol was legal again, largely due to tax revenues it becomes apparent that drug use is subjective. Yes alcohol & nicotine are drugs too & many people are hooked on those as well. But as long as they're taxed then the gov't says they're ok. And even though the other drugs can temporarily send you out of your mind, it's still up to you & others whether they're right or wrong, financially legal or not.

1914 approx., is the year that heroin & coke became illegal. Earlier those drugs were used a lot, even in old Coka Cola. Then alcohol, legal 1st then illegal with prohibition in the late 20's, then legal sgain

It doesn't sound like you're very educated about drugs or what they actually do to you. Alcohol is good for you when used in moderation (as in like, a glass or two of wine in the evening) and even if you binge drink (defined by the law as more than 1 drink per day) there's a big difference between getting a little tipsy now and then and being a bloody alcoholic.

Cannabis is essentially harmless and treats many medical ailments. Only illegal because other companies didn't want the hemp industry getting in the way of their business.

Psychedellics are fantastic when used correctly by mature, intelligent individuals in moderate doses. Losing touch with reality on psychedellics usually involves someone who is uneducated taking too much, and they can cause severe panic attacks and short psychotic episodes, which is why you're always supposed to have an experienced psychonaut remain sober to talk you down/restrain you in the event of a bad trip.

Physically speaking, Cannabis and psychedellics can't really hurt you when used intelligently.

Drugs like Meth, Heroine, Crack, PCP.... different story. When you hear about someone eating their own hands or getting naked and attacking people and shit like that? It's probably PCP. The others will destroy your body and take your life if you're not careful.

There are good drugs, there are bad drugs, and there are drugs that depend on how you use them.

If you would like to educate yourself more, www.erowid.com has a great reputation for reporting factual information about psychoactives and they cite all their sources very well.

Sure.

I've smoked and drank in my life and currently do neither (although there is still alcohol in the house so it'll probably get chipped away at but then not replenished). For anyone thinking of starting, both smoking and drinking (to excess) have caused me some symptoms that have scared the living shit out of me.

I can't sit here and recommend people don't start when I've already had my fun (plus drinking has been my only reliable cure for insomnia and my lack of intake means that my total number of minutes of sleep clocked up last night is zero and probably will be little more than zero until after Christmas).

But smoking in particular was a pointless habit to take up and I'm glad I don't do it any more. I agree with you that I was an idiot for taking it up, because my reason was that my friends smoked and also I thought I was less likely to get beaten up on dark streets if I was smoking a cigarette.