So what's YOUR problem with drugs?

The BBQ Pit
21

dingely dinely ding! non drug user with no DARE brainwashing checking in.

my non use is for a number of reasons. one, i already (always have, always will) know that alcohol et al is not for me. i’ve seen what it can do to people, and i want no part of it.

however, marijuana (and possibly LSD) interests me. the only reason i have never tried these is because i have had no opportunity to.

also, i’d rather try it with friends in a safe, private enviroment rather than at a party or somesuch. just in case i am one of the unlucky few who is allergic to it.

22

Gottta defend the Buddhist mditation here. One of the main teents of Buddhism is Ahisma, meaning non-harm. Doing stuff like heroin or other drugs will harm your body. Also, we meditate and control our bodies without outside chemicals.

Reasons I don’t do drugs:[ul]

[li] In self defence classes, the first thing they teach you is to always be aware of your surroundings. Not so easy when you’re shrooming. With the way I piss people off, I need to know when to run.[/li]
[li] They are TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE![/li]
[li] I have seen so many people burn out. Even on pot. Smart people jus fuzzed out, like their brains don’t fire anymore. Too much waste.[/li]
[li] I have seen what even legal drugs like booze do to people. I stay away from those for that reason.[/li]
[li] There is no way to check the purity. Think that coke is pure or cut with strychnine?[/li]
Drugs cause a lot of violent crime. I know about how if they were legalized we wouldn’t have that, et. al. But kaje? Government regulated drug ingestion? Ever read Brave New World? A gram is better than a damn.[/ul]

23

My problem with drugs was that I enjoyed them too much but detested myself for what I had to do to get more of them.

24

red_dragon60 wrote:

Well, I agree with this statement if we’re talking about mushrooms, or other hallucinogens. However, as someone who’s involved in the martial arts, I can tell you that pot has never affected my performance. Sure, a first time user would probably be affected, but a habitual user can break someone’s arm with one hand, and hold a joint with the other.

Aside from a certain loss of short term memory, I have never seen anyone who was intelligent burn-out because of pot. I know people who’ve been habitual users for over 50 years, and are still as sharp as ever. Sure, I have seen some people who seemed rather lethargic after a few years of consumption, but these people were idiots before they started smoking up.

“Some drugs cause a lot of violent crime” would be a more accurate statement. Marijuana rarely leads to crime. The only cases I’ve heard of were instances of dealers being attacked by gangs who wanted their stash and cash. Similarly, I’ve never heard of a single case where the consumption of marijuana led to a violent crime.

25

I don’t do drugs, and I do look down on those who do. Want to know why? First of all, I think it’s stupid to buy ANYTHING from a street vendor or any sort of shady character whatsoever- which most dealers/drug connection people that I’ve had experience usually are… and then, to put that substance into your body for fun? I don’t understand the justification. If I buy a VCR or anything else sold “underground” I’m going to treat it with a bit of skepticism. I don’t understand those who don’t. To me it shows a PLAIN disregard for health and wellbeing, and I don’t respect that. If you grow your own, it’s different. However, reason number 2 is that people can’t seem to use drugs responsibly. You hear stories ALL THE TIME about “the stupid thing I did when I was high”… someone tells about how they fell down the stairs, everyone gets a good laugh. The thing is, I don’t want to live in a society of people that may or may not have control over themselves at a given time in public. I don’t want to be with someone drunk, and I don’t want to be with someone high. In your own house is one thing, but when you come out into society under the influence of something you can’t control and it creates a dangerous situation for me and everyone else. People drive drunk, people drive high, and it disgusts me. Disregarding your heatlh is one thing, but disregarding mine is another. That’s why I consider drug use something to be thoroughly ashamed of. I’ll fight to keep it illegal, thanks.

26

Kaje I’m not quite sure why you would be upset about the thread you referenced. In that thread you made a statement about the opportunities that college offers. If I’m wrong, please excuse me and feel free to correct me. College may offer opportunities, but you will notice that many people that responded to the thread were well out of college (myself included). Opportunities are presented in all situations in life and how you deal with them is how you deal with them.
Personally I do not use drugs, even prescription ones if I can avoid it. I don’t approve of using drugs for recreational use. That’s only my opinion. I don’t preach it and I don’t discuss it unless someone desires to.
People think that drugs don’t affect them, but how do you really know? You are on drugs so you can’t really judge for yourself, you only ‘think’ you know how you act. Zaphod made the statement that he knew people that had been habitual users for 50 years and they are fine, but according to his profile he’s a student, so how could he know someone from 50 years ago and the fact that they truly weren’t any different now than when they started using drugs?
I find it hard to believe that people using drugs and claim that it has no effect on them and they act no different on drugs than normally is true. If you are using a mind altering chemical how do you know because you aren’t in your normal state of mind. I’ve had many IRL friends on drugs or alcohol or both claiming they are the same, but observation makes it clear that they are not. They abilities are altered, especially their judgement.
My experience with drug use if limited, my son did his share. My words and opinions had little effect. One thing that he did learn, probably the hard way, but it was his choice: my favorite saying, that is true, ‘every action has a consequence and you had better make sure you are willing to accept the consequences of your actions.’
Everybody pays for their actions, one way or the other. May not be now at the present moment, but pay time will come.

27

I’d usually avoid posting in something like this, but since I’ve been dragged into it anyway, I may as well.

I meant what I said in the original message and I have many friends who have in the past or currently do drugs. I look upon that as most everything else - if it’s not hurting me or someone else, I don’t care what they do in their free time. If I felt it were hurting them, I’d speak up. That’s more or less it. For me personally, I’ve never had even the remotest interest in drugs - I’ve never done drugs for the same reason I’ve never watched “The Practice” - it doesn’t interest me.

That being said, you know what’s more self-righteous than someone looking down on you for doing drugs? A bunch of pro-drugs people looking down on those who don’t because the non-users just aren’t cool enough for the rebellious lifestyle, or are ignorant of the “truths” about drugs, or have all kinds of morals, or “can’t handle” the drugs, or are too paranoid, or whatever. I feel like I’m back in high school again.

I’m sorry if people have preconceptions about you because you choose to recreationally use drugs. But you know what? They also have preconceptions about you based on your music, or your hair, or your clothes, your political beliefs, your car, your religious beliefs, your typing style, your font size, and pretty much any other detail they can glean about you, given the circumstance. Your use of drugs is just one item on a list. So quit getting all bent out of shape about it. You want to use drugs? Fine, go ahead, most people couldn’t care less. But my opting not to use them doesn’t make me any more or less cool, rebellious, logical, hip, fun-loving, easy-going, sane, or anythign else than your opting to do them.

Let’s get a grip, folks.

28

I’m glad Kaje started this thread…that other one was beginning to irritate me mightily, as well.
An early impulse was to post

strolls in, observes the squares patting each other on the back, rolls eyes and saunters out

and I’m glad I didn’t, 'cause it would have raised all KINDS of shit.

29

I really shouldn’t have checked this thread…cause I don’t have time to respond to the many things I want to before heading off for some sleep after studying all night… I do want to respond to this though:

Believe me, if I had the potential of being thrown in jail because somebody didn’t like my haircut, I’d be starting a pit thread about that, too. Preconceptions are one thing, and certainly I would like to eradicate those as well, but its a far different thing when people choose to punish you because a choice I made that doesn’t involve them in any way somehow makes them squeamish.

also…
Not that you were implying me specifically (or maybe you were i don’t know), but I’ve never once thought somebody wasn’t cool because they didn’t do drugs. I’ve never been nor ever plan to be “cool”, and I certainly wouldn’t make that any part of my judgement of a person. But hopefully more on that later tonight… must sleep.

30

I don’t think this has much to do with what Kaje posted about meditation. Please read again the meaningful point she made in her post.

Let’s try to avoid propagating the drug myths. I don’t think that you could provide evidence that there is a high risk of encountering drugs tainted with strychnine. If you take a moment to think of drug producers and distributors as businessmen maintaining a customer base, you will see why the risks are not as high as many choose to believe them to be.

Additionally, many drug users know the sources of their substances. If they do not manufacture or grow, they are likely only a few steps away from those who do. An interesting effect of the War on Drugs, which has effectively blown away any possibility of traditional branding and quality control, is the encouragement of close-knit communities of users dedicated to the maintenance of quality in their chosen substances and the collective safety of the community. I’m not referring just to the sort of communes that cut themselves off from the rest of the world to avoid persecution, but also to the tight communities of socialites and professionals who keep in contact for the sake of a common interest in a particular drug or set of drugs.

Quality control is an issue for those who have not given enough thought to what they are doing.

I am not trying to dismiss the validity of your decision to not take drugs. It does not affect my life in any way. I simply prefer that incorrect assumptions not be tossed around as facts.

Ulterss,

I don’t think there are a lot of drug users who claim that drugs do not affect them. It is, after all, the effect of the drug that the user pursues. Those expecting to take a drug to think, act or feel the way that they do when sober must have fascinating and bizarre reasons for taking drugs.

The latter part of your post seems to address unintended consequences and some sort of karmic wheel of retribution. I agree with you to a point. Those who act carelessly will suffer the consequences of their carelessness while those who act carefully reap sustained rewards.

While I do appreciate the, um, permission in the spirit in which it was offered, I didn’t expect that I might have to point out that drugs are illegal. See, the drug user has been America’s number on enemy for decades until the terrorist strolled into our living rooms. You say most people couldn’t care less? I see federal agents hunting us down in the night to uphold the laws that most people seem to support. Apparently, most people do care. They care enough to hate, to hunt, and to kill.

Thanks. Good thing you spoke up to keep this thing from getting out of hand.

As a general note to those who like to suggest that the drug user needs drugs to find happiness: Piss off. Some folks like jam on their biscuits too. They won’t starve without it.
Thanks for opening this, Kaje.

31

The name is ultress, tymp, and I’ll sleep a lot better tonight knowing that drug dealers are big on quality control.

32

Sorry about fouling up your name, ultress. Note that my comments on tainted drugs were directed to the poster who brought up the subject. Do sleep well, though, and have pleasant dreams.

33

How one knows is by looking at the world around them and how they react to it, and it them. If you use drugs and your life falls apart at the seems, well, then yeah, you have a problem. But those of us who do you them recreationally, and find our lives going along pretty well, we believe that they are not affecting us negatively.

I smoke pot. I also have a great wife, great friends, have consistently made good grades when in school, have had stellar reviews at every job and stage of my career (and yes, it is a tough career- international hedge funds are not an easy arena to be working in), etc. From this I can surmise that I am not detrimentally affected by said usage. When presented with tough times, I stop, not necessarilly because I fear the effects, but because I generally don’t have time to relax. “Beer tastes better when the paperwork is done” type thinking.

Would stopping usage make me a ‘better’ person? No, because I’m not a bad guy now. You could torture the analagy and say that I’d be “that much better,” but so would going to bed at 10 and waking up at 6 and eating properly, exercising daily, etc etc. I choose this path, and am happy with the results.

Responsible attitudes would foster responsible results. Truthful, factual information would lead to better choices.

The problem I have with the negative attitudes and information is that they create more problems than they resolve. Telling children that “Drugs are bad, M’kay?” and filling their minds with dis-information will only lead them to not trust you or your views when they are presented with the truth. How can a teen believe the parents when they fill their heads with obviously false consequences? “If you smoke dope, your life will be ruined” gets thrown out the window when they see people like myself handling it just fine. It then sets up a negative view towards other pearls of wisdom that you have that are factual and correct. If 1 out of 5 things I tell you is false, wouldn’t you suspect the other 4? But if you are level with me on all fronts, then I’ll have a hard time punching holes in your ideas. You see this problem in many other areas- e.g. sex education is so horrible that simply getting the message across that condom use is a GOOD thing is difficult.

Gotta run-
-Tcat

34

I’m another non-drug user.

I could never understand why people who don’t know how their body will react and don’t have a medically compelling reason to find out, would put something in their body that they know will drastically affect their brain chemistry and has the potential to do great harm to them. I know that not everyone is affected by a drug the same way - but the point is that you have no way of knowing exactly how it will affect you until you take it.

Why put yourself at that risk?

I do agree with this wholeheartedly. I plan to be very honest with my daughter about drug use, but I also plan to tell her that I would be strongly disappointed if she chose that path. I feel the risks are just too high.

35

well, as a chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, I thought I’d chuck some verbage into this hideous thread.

First off, I read about the first 3 or 4 comments (OP included), and said, “uhh… yeah”

To vastly over simplify things, all drugs are bad. All of them. From aspirin to morphine, from tylenol to crack. None of them are truly “good” because they are all foreign to your body and your body does not like intrusion. Thus, your liver and kidneys get a good workout. And in time, your liver and kidneys get tired of this, and decide to take a break, also known as renal failure and kidney failure, which is often accompanied by its dear friend, death.

Drugs, be they illicit hallucinogens, mamby-pamby analgesics, or euphoric opiates are all bad for you. Its just a matter of how bad, what the side effects are, and will you get either physically or mentally hooked on them, thus increasing the potential for damage.

Again, I’m way over-simplifying this. But the point stands: there is no truly “good” drug. Tylenol OD will kill you. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories can give you ulcers. Some decongenstants can blow up your heart or give you a heart murmur. Some antiphychotics can irreversibly fuck up your brain. The list is unending.

so really, all the petty crap I’ve read about drugs thus far (and my apologies if I’ve missed a few well informed posts in there) is just that: crap

cut out the “moralistic” issues, get off your various high horses, and come down to earth. No drug is good, and if you don’t need to take them, really, you shouldn’t.

again, over-simplified (how often will I say that?). sure, we all take something from time to time, be it caffiene in various food products, be it ibuprofen for tendinitis, be it sudafed for a stuffy nose… it matters not: excessive use, unnecessary use, and abuse of any drug is not a good thing, and in the end, they’ll all fuck you up.

cordially,

MFS

36

Thank you Nightrabbit, you took the words right out of my mouth!

37

Huh? aside from memory loss? sound pretty goddamn serious to me! the second comment reminds me of the commercial on tv of the kid sitting in his mom’s basement at 30 years old, claiming “nothin’s happend to me from smoking pot” and you can hear mom in the background asking her son when he is going to look for a job.

“Marijuana rarely leads to crime.” I cry “BULLSHIT!” i bet pot leads to alot of petty and serious crimes. i can tell you for sure that it lead to the burglary of my home by my doper neighbor. sure, he broke into my home-- not a violent crime-- but had i caught him, one of us would now be dead, and the other’s life pretty screwed up. why did he break into my house? to support his drug habit, period!

to answer the question in the OP: drugs inpair your judgement and may be hazardous to your health.

38

Two completely seperate issues. Please find ONE person who supports legalization of drugs who supports DWI.

Also, by that logic, I assume you are fighting to get alcohol prohibition back. Right?

39

Wall up the gateway, I say. You give me a safe, legal, taxed-up-the-yingyang venue for purchasing my cheeba, and I’ll never visit the guys who sell marijuana and all the bad shit ever again.

This is one of the few opportunities I know of where a state could theoretically transform hundreds of thousands–even millions–of its citizens from criminals into law-abiding citizens with a simple relaxation of the statutes, and generate huge amounts of money to fight the abuse of drugs which really do ruin people’s lives at the same time.

All you have to do is make the law reflect what any anthropologist will tell you–recreational drug use is a fact of life that cannot be legislated away. Until we turn that corner, kids will be able to run straight up the drug ladder, and the war on drugs will continue to be a forlorn hope.

40

I do drugs, some are illegal and some aren’t. Can you say that you don’t do any drugs? Do you drink coffee or alcohol, do you take apspirin, ibuprofen, or prescribed medication? If you anwered yes to any of these questions then you are a drug user. If you take prescription medicine your doctor, in a way, could be considered your dealer…How well do you know your doctor? Do you know where your prescription medicine comes from? Do you know, without a doubt, how your body will react to the prescribed medication? There is always a chance that your personal body chemistry could react with medication in an unexpected way.

I do drugs. I research drugs before I do them. I find out what these drugs will be doing to my body. I look at warning signs and proceed with caution. I do not put myself into harmful situations (having to drive being a prime example).

You also hear stories ALL THE TIME about the stupid thing I did last night, the stupid thing I did at work, the stupid thing I did at the movies. People do stupid things all the time…sober or not.

On the same note…there are plenty of people out there that can’t control themselves and drugs have nothing to do with it. I don’t take heavy drugs that would make me lose control of myself.

I don’t want to be around people that think they’re better than me without knowing anything about me. Yes, people drive drunk and that’s wrong. Don’t you think that with the legalization of Pot they would be able to regulate it and create laws to stop Stoned driving…just a thought.

I don’t disregard my health or yours.

If you answered yes to any of the questions at the beginning of this post then you should be ashamed of only yourself.