# Drug Users: Ever Feel Guilty **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2012, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588 "2012-08-06T04:36:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/21 "2012-08-06T15:18:59Z")
I’ve never spent money on drugs, just taken hits of someone else’s. But no, I wouldn’t feel guilty anyway, the government is the one who should feel guilty. ETA: Also, who cares if kids smell some stranger’s weed? ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/22 "2012-08-06T15:28:16Z")
Nope. Simplistic thoughtless answer for a simplistic thoughtless question. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/23 "2012-08-06T15:38:03Z")
I feel more guilty about drinking too much beer because it makes me fat than I do about smoking marijuana. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/24 "2012-08-06T16:04:01Z")
Nope. Should I likewise feel guilty because some of the money I spend on consumer goods goes to criminal mobs who control the docks? Or to the Chinese government? Or to bad people? Should I feel guilty because when I drive my car, I’m burning gasoline that came from nasty countries that oppress their people? Because a small amount of the raw materials in pretty much any product (especially electronics) comes from disreputable or downright evil sources? Because many small animals and insects were killed in the process of growing the corn on my plate? Honestly, if I wanted to try hard enough, I could find a way to guilt the fuck out of you for anything you do. But that isn’t how I want to live. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/25 "2012-08-06T17:42:35Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I know that… If you already knew that, why did you phrase your OP to imply that all monies spent on drugs ultimately support murder? ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/26 "2012-08-07T01:50:13Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > For those of you who have used illegal drugs have you ever felt guilty not because of the fact that you used them but because some of the money you used to buy them went to criminal gangs who regularly commit murder and lesser crimes? When I did drugs, honestly, I never thought about that. I think that since then, I briefly thought about it on rare occasions. But never when I was discussing drug use. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/27 "2012-08-07T01:53:27Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > If you already knew that, why did you phrase your OP to imply that all monies spent on drugs ultimately support murder? I’d say he _didn’t_ know that. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/28 "2012-08-07T01:56:10Z")
> [@Enginerd](#): > > Nope. > > Simplistic thoughtless answer for a simplistic thoughtless question. I think it’s a valid question. Although I also think that, regarding pot at least, putting the blame on the government’s shoulders is also a valid answer. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/29 "2012-08-07T02:08:30Z")
Of course not. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/30 "2012-08-07T02:18:27Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Should I feel guilty because when I drive my car, I’m burning gasoline that came from nasty countries that oppress their people? > . Hmmm. That’s interesting. There’s some parallelism, here, but on the other hand, a lot of people pretty much _have to_ buy gasoline in the modern world. And for many other items, it’s essentially impossible to tell whether they were produced by enslaved children working in horrid condition or by people who benefit greatly from getting this steady job for what is locally a good pay. There’s no doubt that our lifestyle in the west is supported in part by misery in other places, and might sometimes exacerbate this misery. On the other hand, even though drugs often are produced/sold by unsavory characters, it’s also true that farmers growing coca or opium benefit from it. I’m not sure what the solution is. I’m totally favoring legalization for some drugs because it’s an obvious solution for an artificially created issue. Just let people grow and smoke pot, and be done with it. For others (“hard drugs”), I’m not very enthousiastic about legalizing them but it might be the only solution. You won’t ever prevent people fom using drugs, and you won’t ever prevent people from trying to make a buck by providing them (be them poor farmers, powerful drug lords or “inner city” dealers). ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/31 "2012-08-09T19:18:27Z")
Kind of a false assumption on the part of the OP. In the case of pot, at least, it’s fairly easy (in Colorado where medical is kindasorta legal and the cops pretty much don’t care as long as you’re not obviously baiting them to hassle you) to obtain your stuff from local growers with no connections to illicit operations. I suppose some of the R&D that’s led to the strains currently being produced might have some blood involved, but at homeopathically low levels–like eating an aspirin today is pretty far removed from the bunny that had some trial meds stuffed into its rectum back in 1970 or whatever. Even _I_ know how to get a couple of _very_ kind buds for $20 so I can’t imagine going to the street for smuggled Mexican weed of uncertain and unwarranted quality and provenance. If I were into opiates or cocaine I might have some conscience about it, but judging from the smackheads I’ve known I don’t know how much I’d really care how many nuns and orphans were skinned alive as long as I got my fix. In any event, given the US spends about 20% of its annual budget on “defense,” I pay more in one tax year to support our military presence abroad, and all the destruction thus wrought, than I ever will on weed. And I don’t feel guilty about paying my taxes. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588/32 "2012-08-09T19:32:58Z")
No. Never really considered it until now. I think this goes for just about anything that’s sold in the market place. Do you feel bad about the clothes you buy that were made in a sweatshop by some underpaid worker or kid? Or the meat you eat from animals raised in horrible, horrible conditions? Or the products you buy that contribute to massive amounts of pollution? We live in a fucked up world what can you say. Drugs, at least, are a harmful and dangerous industry strictly by design. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drug-users-ever-feel-guilty/630588.md?page=1)