Assuming we go by the premise that there are some drugs which might be okay despite government propaganda and societal stigma to use.
Almost everyone here has I assume used alcohol, lesser smoked weed, and MDMA, mushrooms (psilocybin), salvia, LSD etc…are somewhere in between. Things like opiate pinkillers (hydrocodone, oxycodone) have probably been used as well.
It seems that for people bold enough to venture into recreational drugs the “worst of the worst” online and in real life all seem to be heroin (or any kind of opiate), meth, and crack cocaine. Would you agree?
Any opioid. It’s a potential pathway to madness and death. Doses and strength of substance escalates 90+% of the time, and then life’s hell. One can get hooked through the bag real fast.
And I’m speaking not only as an MD who treats a TON of opioid addicts and has since circa 1981, but as a former opioid addict, clean since 1990.
Well, even well shy of “This might kill you” is something I learned as a kid, and passed on to my kids:
Don’t get addicted to anything.
So “recreational” is fine, as long as you can put it down and Do The Shit Ya Gotta Do.
I have an addictive personality. Even the lighter stuff can mess up my life. The second that I can’t stop doing weed or Red Bull or p0rn or Pokemon or cheap whisky or posting in the Pit, it scares me.
I had friends in college saying “YOU have got to try cocaine. You would LOVE it!” I said “That’s the problem, innit? If you could guarantee me I’d KINDA like it a LITTLE, I might try it…”
So for me, the answer is almost everything. Certainly anything harder than one joint and another single-malt scotch.
I was disappointed by Fentanyl. I was given some for an angiogram/angioplasty and I swear I didn’t feel a thing. I asked the anesthesiologist if he gave me saline so he could take my dose home, but he swore he gave it to me.
Cocaine is dangerous, if you have enough money to buy cocaine regularly. An occasional special occasion binge is okay…at least it was for me when I was in my ‘20s. One of my best New Year’s Eves was an at-home evening with two couples, a half-case of Dom Perignon, and an eight-ball of “snow.”
I’ve heard absolutely awful things about morning glory seeds. Like, the trip never really goes away.
Matters little what you choose to swallow or snort. It is not worth the risk. You are not buying good s**t.
Do not assume that the ______ you bought is ______. Street drugs are not manufactured under clean conditions, inspected or purity tested. you have no reason to trust that you are getting what you expect.
There are stats about the dangers and costs of different types of drugs to the person taking them, and to larger society. For both legal and illegal drugs.
From worst to less bad:
Alcohol
Heroine
Crack
Meth
Tobacco
Amphetamines
Cannabis
GHB
Benzodiazepines
Ketamine
Methadone
Metphedrone
Bhutaan
Qat
Anabolic steroids
XTC
LSD
Mushrooms.
Herbal psychedelics like ayahuasca, and huasca, and iboga root, aren’t even on the list. They are rarely taken recreationally, but always in a ritual setting with a careful sitter, who -if it is done right- prepares the triptakers and prevents and helps if problems arise.
And none of these herbal psychedelics are considered addictive by professionals studying drug addiction. On the contrary, they are used to combat addiction. And the therapeutic potential of such drugs is more and more researched.
Such herbal psychedelics are even produced in an responsible way. Having taken them a couple times I can understand why. Such plants and the experience they yield command respect from everyone who experiences them.
This probably isn’t in the spirit of the thread, but why do any? I guess I’m kind of puritanical about things like this, but I don’t see the point of any of it. I enjoy life and I don’t want to be anesthetized through any parts of it. My husband drinks sometimes from mostly boredom, and that isn’t really any fun for either of us.
I’d probably make an exception for medical cannabis, but if I thought I needed to use it, I would look for whatever benefits I could get without getting high.
There are those substances that are supposed to enhance reality and open up your senses to new experiences and so on. Maybe. But I’m skeptical about those claims, and the possible consequences like psychological damage are too dire for me to consider doing them.
Opioids. I took some for a medical procedures and they were just nasty. The constipation was nearly as bad as the pain, and I doubt withdrawal would be much worse.
It’s going to be difficult to answer your question without violating board rules about promoting illegal activity.
You mention being anesthetized: It’s true that the worst substances tend to be depressants like opioids and alcohol. Those should largely be avoided and only carefully used.
So, you 1) want to know what the benefits are 2) are skeptical of other people’s claims 3) don’t want to try it yourself.
I’m not clever enough to see a solution to that conundrum.
Fentanyl is subtle. I’ve had it a number of times for my cardiac caths. As a recovering addict I was both apprehensive and anticipatory about that. Each time there was no rush like the old days with IV demerol, morphine, dilaudid. But suddenly I would recognize the fact that it brought me to that calm, contemplative and mildly euphoric state I always desired in my life, but without the initial nirvana the other drugs gave me.
And fentanyl is super short acting, so in 10 minutes it was all gone. Which was for the best.
BTW, dilaudid is waaaay too euphoria-inducing. Heroin addicts will often choose dilaudid over heroin, as many feel it works better than heroin. I had it most recently about 10 years ago for broken ribs that hurt so much I could no longer breathe adequately, due to pain and spasm. I’d tried for 3 days to get by with tylenol, NSAIDs (even injectable toradol), rest, binding, etc. But I had to give in. Dilaudid made all the pain and the worries become completely irrelevant, as I got a great big hug from the Goddess herself, telling me I was good enough, smart enough, and dog gone it, people liked me!
I tried Dilaudid and I just found it blunting and it made me sleepy. I went to bed in the early afternoon, woke up 8 hours later feeling underwhelmed and having difficulty seeing what people like in strong opioids.
I’ve gotten that too although not from depressants or typical stimulants. Maybe part of what makes some people more susceptible to addiction is which substance or activity does that for them. If it’s opioids, you’re a lot more at risk than if it’s exercise, meditation or psychedelics.
What factors could influence which substances bring someone to that state?
I have two close friends who used meth only on occasion that had strokes with permanent damage. I know countless others who used recreational y for a while before it escalated and destroyed their lives. Marijuana and alcohol seem to be the only ones that don’t escalate in an otherwise normal person. Things like mushrooms and MDA I am not so sure about, I do know a lot of people who seem to get by using recreationaly but then again it seems to be a pathway to other things.
Some folks are deficient in native endorphins. Getting a hit of opioids really changes their outlook on life. Buprenorphine helps here.
Some folks don’t convert folic acid into N methyl folate very well due to enzyme problems. This causes a decreased dopamine release to stimulus, and hence not much gratification in their lives. Opioids stimulate the dopamine release so this too changes their outlook on life. Taking N methyl folate supplements can help a LOT.
Some folks have opioid receptors that are abnormal and don’t recognize their own endorphins, but they recognize external opioids just fine. This too changes their outlook on life when they get exposed to opioids. Buprenorphine helps these folks a lot.
There are other situations too, but those 3 affect a lot of folks
My 23andme analysis showed that I am one who is deficient in being able to convert folic acid to N methyl folate, and hence more susceptible to opioids. I now take N methyl folate supplements. I find myself far less restless, irritable and discontent on them than I was, even during my years of clean time. they don’t elevate my mood, they just keep me rather more realistic. I still get dark moments, but they’re far briefer, and easier to get out of.
I’m an advocate of medication assisted treatment. Counselling and peer support is still vital, but fixing the defect in the brain makes such other interventions far more likely to succeed.
