Who has never tried drugs?

In My Humble Opinion
81

So everything except cannabis is a hard drug and is therefore “extremely addictive”. This is nothing more than a myth. Of course some drugs are “extremely addictive” and are widespread/well known for this reason. However there are many drugs besides marijuana that are either only psychologically addictive or not addictive at all. Most people would claim that mushrooms are a “hard drug”. However myself and many of my friends have used this drug and none of us are addicted. Maybe we are and just don’t know it? I don’t think any of us have ever done it more than once a month and in many cases there are years seperating uses. There are plenty of other substances with similiar track records as well.

To summarize: If addiction is the basis for defining the “hardness” of a drug, there are many “softer” than marijuana, and some of these people would otherwise consider hard (out of ignorance?). Personally I consider shrooms,LSD, or ecstasy to be harder than marijuana, but neither is even as close to how “hard” cocaine or heroin are, and neither is especially addictive, barring the common “well that was fun… when do you wanna do it again?” which, while perhaps by some definition is addiction, is no more so than people who like playing soccer a lot or like the rush you get from skydiving a lot.

82

I should point out that I’m trying to avoid hijacking this thread, so most of my posts regarding the topic are in this thread…which has quite a few responses so far.

The only reason I remain in this thread is to dispell misconceptions if (when) they arise. Even though this thread is mainly for the purpose of non-users patting themselves on the back, I still feel its necessary to eradicate ignorance whenever possible.

83

I personally consider LSD and psilocybin to be relatively “soft” drugs (I’m not so sure about “X”…it can be pretty hard on the heart)…but even these happy hallucinogens are risky for folks who are emotionally unstable.

2centPeace,
TN*hippie

84

I did not start this thread for that reason. It was a simple pole because I was curious, and could just as easily have been started by one who does partake of drugs.

85

Granted. I shouldn’t have said “purpose”. My bad. That is, however, what this thread had effectively become by the time I posted my first few responses.

86

I never tried drugs. Never felt the need to mess up my life.

87

Yeah. That attitude baffles me too. I’m not against beer per se, but I can have plenty of fun without it, thank you very much.

It also baffles me when people say that they must drink “in order to be sociable.” Since when is alcohol a prerequisite to being sociable? If people can’t handle the fact that I’d rather have a Diet Coke than a glass of champagne, that’s their problem, not mine.

BTW, I’ve never taken illegal drugs either, and I’m nearly 34 years old.

88

Another square checking in.

29 yrs old. Tried Alchohol a few times when I was 16 stopped on my 17th birthday, haven’t touched it since except for one beer on my 27th birthday. I thought it would be amusing to have one on my 10 year anniversary and then go dry for another 10 years. I only managed a couple sips though, it tasted so bad.

About 5 years ago an apartment I was staying in was right next to a heavy smoker. There was a gap in our separation wall where his smoke could get through. Twice in the two years I lived there I woke up dying for a cigarrete. Both those times I bought a pack, had half a ciggie, and threw the rest away.

Never tried any other drugs.

I guess there are various reasons for not doing the stuff.

  1. My uncle commited suicide before I was born and the family blamed it on his drug use. So from a very early age I had it drilled into me that drugs were evil (imagine the mother from “Almost Famous”).

  2. I don’t like feeling out of control. This is what made me give up booze.

  3. I don’t want to risk being someone who can’t do these things in moderation.

  4. There are more interesting experiences in this world.

4a) I’m not as smart as I’d like to be, I need all the brain cells I have.

89

I’m 31 years old. I have never been attracted to liquor or street drugs of any kind, but I have given in to a strange desire to smoke cigars about half a dozen times. (The inability to taste anything but cigar smoke for the whole next day is a powerful deterrent.) I finished a whole glass of wine once to be a polite guest.

On the other hand, when I was in the hospital for a broken leg, I got some morphine. The intended effect (killing pain) was certainly there, but I also got to learn first-hand about exactly a “smooth muscle relaxant” does. Nurses seem pretty harmless and benign, except when they tell you “If you keep having trouble voiding your bladder, we can always use a catheter”. Then they seem pretty scary even throught the opiate haze.

90

Oh, how glamorous is the world of alcohol and other mind-altering substances…

The Saturday after September 11th, we were very wired. We being me, husband, and some friends. We had had enough of reality. I remember that the evening began with an uncomfortable charge in the air. No one felt safe and everybody wanted to cry. We wanted to escape for a bit.

So we ordered margaritas. And we kept on ordering them. And then we smoked some pot.

That night, after we went home, I played a game called “Dear God, please let me fall asleep instead of throwing up.” It’s a game I’ve played before, often in college. Not a fun game, in case you were wondering.

FTR: I lost. About seven times.

Now, some might liken this experience to hitting oneself on the head with a hammer in order to ease the pain in one’s foot. Maybe.

I’ve only done booze and pot and I’m still trying to quit smoking.

91

Actually, I’m like that. I’m pretty shy in real life, and tend to sit quietly at parties unless I drink. I’m pretty happy with sitting quietly, though, so I don’t usually drink anyway. But I understand the idea of having to drink to party.

92

A 38-year-old checking in.

The only drug I use to what might be considered excess is caffeine in the form of, usually, cola drinks. The reason I think I may be using it to excess is that my sleep patters are considerably screwed up these days, and I’m sure it’s contributing. But there’s a lot else going on there too.

I do not smoke anything.

I strongly dislike tobacco smoking. I think it is one of the most unsexy and unattractive things someone can do. I grew up with smoking relatives and hated the hourlong winter car rides with the parents smoking, no fresh air, and the windows sealed against the -20 cold. Not a good thing to do to a kid. So I can endure a smoky atmosphere, but I definitely don’t like it. Later I lost one relative to emphysema and another to lung cancer and… too many in total.

Oddly, my attitudes towards marijuana are less severe, possibly becasue I’ve heard more about good effects it can have in some cases, than I have about tobacco-smoking. I’m aware of the medical-marijuana controversy and how medical marijuana was recently legalized in some circumstances in my country.

I didn’t know a lot of people even at university who smoked pot; I met more later. Though I had one roommate who would regularly fog our shared room in residence with pot smoke. I took to sleeping at someone else’s apartment or just staying at the studio all night (the building was open 24h and we tended as the year wore on to live there anyways)…

Alcohol? I will occaisionally take a sip of it, usually at ceremonial or religious occaisions. But I do not drink it regularly. I don’t remember anything more than ‘social’ drinking in my family. We kept a liquor cabinet (quite an impressive piece of furniture too) stocked with bottles for guests, but in their abscence, they bottles would usually stand around from year to year and gather dust.

Various family members do drink beer though. I found I didn’t like the taste.

Somewhere around the age of ten or twelve, I remember deciding that the pleasure of drinking alcohol, whatever it might be, just wasn’t worth the pain of the hangover, which I imagined as a really bad headache plus being ill. Also, I had (and have) a fear of what I’d be like if I was ‘out of control’ because of being drunk.

Being stoned? A while back, I had an abdominal operation under local anaesthetic. An hour before, they gave me a very small white pill, and I went to sleep.

When they woke me to go to the operating room, the drug had taken hold. I was perfectly aware of my surroundings, but completely tractable: I followed the directions of the nurses and didn’t really care what happened to me. They put me in a wheelchair and wheeled me along; they could have pushed me off the balcony and I would have looked at the approaching ground with mild disinterest: ‘Oh, that’s cute… <drifts off>’.

The operation took about 45 minutes, but it felt like 15, because I didn’t have the willpower to maintain much attention on individial things. (I do remember the surgeons discussing what they had for dinner the night before… :eek: )

I assume that was some form of being stoned; I have nothing else to compare it to.

These days, I’m wading through so much crap in my life–emotional, financial, work, family–that I need all the internal resources and willpower I can find just to keep on top and not go under. I’m on a thin edge already; I can’t afford alcohol or illicit drugs, in any sense of the word. So I don’t use them.

BTW, tobacco-smokers: what are the good effects of smoking? What benefits does it bring you now (or did it bring you when you started, if it brings none today)?

93

I never have, because I see no need to.

94

Well, okay. I’ll grant that that’s an important distinction (although I would urge such people to overcome their shyness, rather than rely on alcohol).

I guess my beef is against people who say that drinking is NECESSARY in order to be socially gracious. I think that’s just plain dumb.

BTW, I have had people foist drinks upon me, and insist that I should drink along in order to be sociable. I won’t necessarily argue with such people, but I do think it’s a dumb idea.

95

Ack ack foooey! Scuba diving? A while back I went on that submarine ride in Disneyland (before they closed it…the bastards!). I assume that was sorta like scuba diving. Come on now… All drugs are different… one of the worst fallacies you can make is forcing comparisons or parallels that simply don’t exist. Was your feeling somewhat related to the sensation of smoking pot? Only in that both were induced by the addition of chemicals.

I do it for the smell.

Well, using alcohol to be social all the time to the point where you think that you can only have conversations while innebriated certainly sucks… but often all it takes is breaking the ice. First week of freshman year I went and had a few beers at a big lame frat party… however in our innebriated states a few of us ended up striking up conversation… and now over a year later we still hang out any time we get teh chance and alcohol hasn’t been a part of it since (granted most of this hanging out is during the day on campus, if it were at home on a weekend it might be a different story, but not for the purpose of being social)

96

These are definitely my reasons as well! (Except that I don’t drink, so I never have had to “give up booze!”)

I don’t want to feel out of control. I did get a “buzz” once at a birthday party. I was given some vile beverage, and told I should drink it as part of a “tradition”. I did, and felt dizzy and out of it for the next few hours. IT WAS MISERABLE. I waited a very long time (late into the night) before I drove home - hours after the dizziness left. I am just not cut out for drinking!

I never saw any reason to get high, or drunk. I’ve never taken an illegal drug, ever. It seemed like the reason for doing it for many people is that “everyone” does it. Good enough reason for me not to - who wants to be a sheep? I have never seen any other compelling reasons to start using the stuff.

I also worry about trying something, and realizing I can’t use it in moderation. I eat too much as it is, why do I need another vice? Phooey. I also never wanted to smoke - it’s expensive, and smells. Why bother?

I have had this too. I just got it a few months ago, when I was on a fun camping outing with a lot of friends. It came up somehow that I didn’t drink or take drugs and didn’t want to. I got some “attitude” for this, like “What’s wrong with you? You think you’re better than us?” I was put in the uncomfortable position of trying to not ruffle feathers because I don’t drink or take drugs! How bizarre. But I’ve gotten this a few times. Some drug users definitely have a chip on their shoulder.

97

Well obviously some people that don’t use drugs look down upon those who do.

Kaje: I’m sorry if i’ve offended you by saying that most illegal drugs other than cannabis was probably addictive, but that was the impression i was given, and i honestly don’t want to risk it. But some drugs even without the addictiveness is dangerous simply because of the fact you might over-dose. But you’re obviously a more daring person than i am and more willing to take risks.

98

See that’s the funny thing…I’m not a risk-taker. I’m actually a very cautious person… Any time I do something I weigh out the risks (even the ones other people don’t think of) and only end up doing the things with the least potential for harming me. Some people call this paranoia, and assume its because of my pot-smoking… except I was always like this.

So what am I getting at? Again…If you don’t want to do drugs…DON’T. Don’t let anybody talk you into changing your mind. But if it’s based on misconceptions and these misconceptions lead somebody to conclude that I am a bad person who should not be allowed to make my own choices or should be thrown in jail, THEN IT’S A PROBLEM.

99

Nope, nothing. Not even the legal stuff (alcohol and tobacco).

100

A am a risk taker (wilderness wild water paddler, past national ski team member, career litigator). Drugs would limit my ability to take risks, for they harm performance, and by doing so would harm my ability to identify and mitigate unacceptable risk in high risk activities.