Christopher Hitchens was an atheist and political writer who used to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes all the time. He said that he did this because life is boring.
that’s the same reason I smoke a pack of cigarettes every day, and also drink several times a week. It’s not that life does not have anything interesting in it, it’s that it’s still not interesting enough to not be boring all the time.
Why hasn’t anyone invented any pills that give you the same effects as the nicotine in cigarettes or the depressants in alcohol? yes, I know they make nicotine pills and patches, but those are not to replace cigarettes but merely to make it easier for someone to gradually get off nicotine.
With all the medications and pills and drugs that have ever been invented in recent times, you would think they would’ve invented some kind of pill or something that could give you the same amount of nicotine in cigarettes or the same effects of alcohol without having to use those dangerous items.
There are certainly people who use nicotine patches or other delivery systems long-term, without the goal of eventually giving up nicotine entirely.
Benzodiazepines have an effect fairly similar to alcohol. I don’t know that I’d say they’re less dangerous in general, but at least you can’t fatally overdose on them (unless you combine them with alcohol or opiates).
But if what you mean is the “danger” of addiction, nobody is ever going to invent a drug that immediately relieves anxiety and induces euphoria, but that nobody is going to get addicted to.
Not trying to fight the hypothetical - but for years people have been promoting MJ as less damaging to health of self and others than other, existing legal drugs like the two you just name.
I think that’s the issue - alcohol and nicotine are quite addictive, while simultaneously being comparatively cheap in the US. Yet they are historical legacy drugs, that are deeply embedded in culture, and thus only minimally regulated in comparison to their health consequences.
Any ‘new’ drug on this level would almost certainly be prescription only for the reasons above, and be much more tightly regulated/expensive.
It’s a given that whatever drug stimulus you give the brain to bring pleasure and/or alleviate boredom will be addictive and/or have detrimental effects sooner or later.
Except for soma.*
*“all the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects.”
This is a good point. People have invented plenty of other drugs that make life more interesting and are almost certainly less addictive or harmful than a pack a day cigarette habit, but they’re invariably outlawed by a combination of anti-drug rhetoric and lobbying from legal drug manufacturers.
I used to get high on life. But then I developed a tolerance.
…
As to the OP: this is why many people gravitate to cannabis. And it’s also why cannabis is oftentimes considered a gateway to harder drugs. It’s called chasing the high (spoiler alert: you never actually catch it)
Yes, life is boring. But it’s sometimes interesting. Whereas the alternative is death. Which isn’t boring, but is also never interesting.
Historically there were many such drugs tolerated, even by polite western society.
Famously Sherlock Holmes mirrors his creator’s use of cocaine, and one story has Sherlock pulled from an opium den where he is escaping life’s boredom. Conan Doyle made it clear that Holmes was either bored and using cocaine, or on the scent of a problem, excited, and clean.
The 80’s and 90’s saw the rise of many “designer” drugs that were basically minimal variants on a theme to avoid existing laws, but all basically intended for the OP’s purpose. Still around, but not so much in vogue.
Cannabis seems to be the default alternative drug, and worldwide we are seeing a relaxing of controls and proscription. It is an old problem.
Vaping is a good alternative to smoking (unless your vape has chemicals in it that your lungs can’t handle, which is an issue some people are facing. Vape liquids with oils in them that build up in their lungs). You can always buy nicotine pills too if you want.
Good alternatives to alcohol include benzos, GHB, MEAI, etc. Benzos however are much more dangerous than alcohol and aren’t really recommended recreationally. Also the recreational dose of GHB is pretty close to the lethal dosage.
I guess your question is more why these things aren’t more widespread, I think its because society is generally opposed to conscious alterations with pharmaceuticals. I’m guessing in part because it forces us to confront the fact that our emotions, thoughts and sense of identity are not due to some etherical soul but due to chemicals in our brains.
I challenge the notion that alcohol is per se addictive. For some people it seems to be a problem, but for a large fraction it is either not appealing or merely somewhat habit forming. This compared to nicotine, which does seem to have a stronger, more consistent addiction profile.
And addiction is much less simple than “start using this and you will be forever hooked”. There are social factors that drive/exacerbate addiction that have not adequately been studied because addiction is a moral failing that is your fault so why bother looking any deeper.
Do you speak from first-hand experience? How dead are you?
Don’t ignore the social aspects of smoking and drinking. Offering drinks and cigarettes was a common ploy to start a conversation. Buying ‘rounds’ and offering smokes to members of a group was one of the aspects of being social.
Smoking has become pretty antisocial these days and while vaping may not be hazardous for others, it can still be pretty unpleasant. Most places that ban smoking also ban vaping and I for one would not eat or drink anywhere that permitted either.
Alcohol consumption has remained pretty constant, although, with more people drinking at home due to stringent drink/drive laws and enforcement, it has become less of a social activity.
I think there’s a distinction between your life being boring to you and your life being boring to other people.
I don’t know whether cigarettes or alcohol or other substances make your life any less boring to you—I’ve never gotten them to work that way for me—but they sure don’t make your life any less boring to anyone else. For that, you definitely have to “lead an interesting life.”
Yeah, the OP had me thinking of Sherlock Holmes and his use of cocaine to combat boredom. Although I thought I remembered that the time he was in the opium den, it was because he was working undercover on a case.
Well, there are two broad types of addiction - physical and psychological. Consumed in moderation, alcohol doesn’t produce physical dependency. But you can absolutely develop a psychological dependency, which can lead to building a tolerance, which leads to needing more to get and stay drunk.
At a certain point, physical dependency does occur and people suffering from severe alcoholism will experience physical withdrawal symptoms.
But you’re right that it’s different than other drugs. You don’t need to smoke very many cigarettes to experience cravings and withdrawal symptoms when you stop. Nicotine is a really insidious chemical.
However, nicotine is poorly absorbed from the stomach, because of its acidic environment resulting in greater ion-ized nicotine. Unlike when it is swallowed, nicotine’s bio-availability is greater through the lung or through the oral mucosa because nicotine reaches systemic circulation before passing through the liver (first-pass metabolism).
In other words, nicotine pills simply wouldn’t work very well and you’d need a lot more of the chemical to get the same effect as smoking (or using a patch).
