I (Zen) decided this would be a good page to create when I noticed that someone accidently used the TextAdventure to talk about their experiance with shrooms. Drugs and alchohol are generally used as either an escape from reality or just to kick back and feel something new - depending on who you are. Whether you've used drugs or alchohol before or haven't, you most likely have an opinion (Good or bad) on them. Here is a place to discuss your feelings towards drugs and their various applications. I feel no draw towards drugs or alchohol. By the time they were ever offered to me, i had experienced so many wonderful things already that i knew i didnt need them to be accepted or to have a "good time". I struggle trying to understand others draw to them. I have only on a few ocassion been around someone high, and never on anything stronger then Weed. ... I wonder what i would do if i was in a position of being around someone who was "on" something harder then clean air and water. Im not sure what i would do. heh. -Dawn Hey Everyone, I just saw one of my old friends talking to a dealer today. I'm really
not sure how to approach the subject with him. Personally I think it's a
choice thing and that people have just as much of a right to use them as I
do to not use them.
On the other hand I would like my friend to know what I think he is
giving up by going down that road. Of course the fastest way of stopping
this in it's tracks would be by making a call to his parents but I'm really
not sure I trust them to handle the situation in an appropriate manner.
Ever since he went to school he just seems to have become such a nothing
that I can understand his desire to go off and try something exciting. Just
can't he take a trip to austrailia or some other constructive exciting
thing?
I'd be interested in hearing input from anyone who wants to give it.
-DYsk-
Often the most available "stimulation" to many, drugs can form an easy way out. Once you get high, all that matters is your high, but once the high is gone, all that matters is getting high again. Addictions are vicious circles, and they are not limited to drugs, alcohol or substances. "it is conventional choices which lead to unconventional stimulants" -Kendall Hailey. -mike I am neither pro substance use, nor against. As long as you know /why/ you want to use drugs, I believe the decision should be up to you. If its because of peer pressure-don't do it. If you just want to try it, and you feel it would be safe-do it. If you are trying to rebel against your parents - don't. Of course, it should be your decision and your alone, but its only in a perfect world in which we are not influenced by those around us. Drugs are temporary solutions to much deeper problems, that sometimes we don't want to face. They thrive in modern civilization because almost all of our decisions are on the short term, no longer than our life time. Often from a lack of control over one's life, it is easier to turn to smaller, more familiar, manageable problems than to face the larger difficulties of life, which are much harder to bear. Every single "primitive" civilization or culture that I know of, does not form strong taboo's or rules against exploration of drugs. They are present, and the discipline of these "primitive" cultures is almost all self-discipline. I think this is why when a person from this "primitive" culture moves into modern civilized culture, they encounter many problems with addictions, and their society around them may not provide the support that is needed, because these unfamiliar drugs have not been integrated into the culture. Drugs can screw up lives, but it is more often the psychological damage and judgements from others that is more damaging than the actual effects of drugs. I personally know many teenagers who started smoking or doing drugs because of peer pressure, and they don't see any way to stop, now. Or it is also a form of rebelling. If you say peer pressure doesn't exist, that it only exists in "schoolers," you are so off base. Just putting your peers into the box of "schoolers" should be enough to see how ill based your logic may be. We all want to fit in, at least every person I have known I has, and this is where peer pressure comes from, we want to be accepted. But anyways...I myself am never going to take up smoking or drinking, because I have known so many people who's lives are different because of them. I won't say that they are bad, but I do not think they are beneficiary. Passing my judgements on somebody elses habits won't help them see all the perspectives, they have to arrive at the conclusions themselves. My brother's life is changed, and forever will be, if he does ever go straight edge. I have never done anything besides drink different types of alcohol, in small quantities, or try cigarettes. I like how alcohol tastes, at least some of it, but cigarettes are the foulest thing I have encountered. -mike Dude, weed is overrated. And it really, really burns your throat. Actually, I didn't mind it too much... but it wasn't that exciting, and I've been in stranger states of mind without the help of drugs. I was told afterwards that smoking it in a pipe is much easier on the throat, maybe I'll try that someday. So I've tried marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol, and my attitude about all of them is the same: I'll take it if it's offered to me, mostly in a social setting, but it's not something that I especially need or seek out. I think that's a good attitude to have.
Well, I have had no experinces with [taking] drugs of any kind [1]... but generally, I think the Dead put it nicely when Jerry sang "It was later then I thought, when I first beleived you, now I cannot share your laughter..." For the most part, I don't think that drugs are worth the risk, I'd rather stay clean and sober, and maybe miss out on a few visions then risk sailing that crule sea of addiction... Another thought or two would be that, most of the time, It's probably not worth the effort to get someone off of allot of stuff (although I'm not saying you shouldn't try) I think it's much better to do every thing posible to prevent people from starting, making them legal, although it sounds contradictory, would remove the "Victim or the crime" [2] aspect, as well as the thrill of braking the law. so yeah, educate and remove the glory, and anything else you can think of to warn a few to not lend no hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools --Neal (Who is really sorry for including all those Grateful Dead refrences in such a serious situation) okay. i'll be first then, since nobody else is. ;) personally, i'm straight-edge at the moment, though not entirely closed-off to the idea of ever doing anything in my life. anything being marijuana essentially. i am really not interested in anything beyond that. i don't have anything i need to escape. my life is good. i am honest with myself. i don't need to lie and pretend like i'm not hurting when i am. and therefore i don't need to escape myself. i think that's what drugs really are about, after all. it isn't escaping the world. the world follows you everywhere. but when you're on drugs your mind leaves and you are seperated from your mental reality. so i'm a pontificating bastard, tell you what, i dont care. ;) i'm sure i'll ramble more about this later. xoxo. miss jenkitty. First off, I'm not sure I totally agree with this "drugs are an escape" concept, or rather I just think it's a lot more complicated than that.
I mean, we all want good sensations and more or less try to avoid bad sensations, right? We differ somewhat, of course, on what sensations we seek out, based on past associations and our personalities. And we all do things to try to make ourselves feel better. So in that sense, are drugs like pot and alcohol (the only ones I have experience of which to speak about) much more of an escape than other things? Where the problems come in is in the way they are used Your mind doesn't leave you when you're on drugs, it just starts working differently. Drugs can weaken you, addict you, or they can be used sparingly, as a tool, a catalyst for change. There is certianly a lot to know about drugs, and the more real information you have the better off you are. but I'm getting preachy here.... "Drugs are good, they let you do things that you know you not should" I personally have used marijuana and alcohol on a couple of handfuls of occasions, and I still don't have a difinitive personal policy on drugs. I'm not using anything these days because last time I smoked up I felt that I was probably not in a good state of mind or place in my life to be using them. Pot can make everything look really beautiful, make my body feel balanced and unified, has facilitated some important conversations that might not otherwise have happened. Then again, sometimes it has just made me feel confused, dissatisfied or scared. Sleep deprivation and intense emotional or physical experiences have made me wilder and freer than pot or booze have ever done. Meditation too... The only "harder drugs" I would consider using at some point are mushrooms and peyote, just because I -Reanna I doubt I'll ever use them. I'm an incredible control freak when it comes to my body, and..what would happen, in the short and long terms, is too much of an uncertainty (like that made any sense, being written after 6 am since I'm staying up all night). - Emma Ok this is where I'm coming from on drugs. I don't discourage people from taking them, but at the same time I don't promote them. I think the whole thing of peer presher is really over exagerated. People take drugs not so much as an escape but more as a way to settle their curiosity. Some people love to take drugs and others don't. I don't agree with people using certain drugs (coke and heroin) but I can't tell people what to take and what not to take. They are going to try these not as a way to escape reality but rather as a way to settle the little question in the back of their mind. I personally love toking weed. I love it because it helps me think of things that I might not normally think of. It also just relaxes me and makes me happy. I was not pushed into taking it. I wanted to try it and see what it is like. I enjoyed it and therefor I continue to smoke it. I don't chain smoke it. I will in fact go months without toking and then I will smoke for a week or so and then stop and go a couple more months. I haven't toked any weed since last month actually and I don't know when I will do so again. I went way over my head into drugs purely based on peer presure. I was part of a youth theatre program for several years, and I got in way younger than the supposed minimum age which was flattering, but it meant I was spending almost every second of every summer for my early teens with edgy folks in their early twenties, and I was already Not a very confident little camper. I always looked older than my age, I've been able to buy from liquor stores since I was twelve, so when I was invited to go to diner with them of course I ordered a beer, and of course I drank vodka with the rest of them at the cast parties and when I won a drinking contest I hated myself for being fat enough to absorb it, but I loved that it meant I was a little more grown up. on the same logic I started smoking up, and then I started slipping into the attic or the basement or whatever with the other folks dropping acid, and taking shrooms, and last year it got too far, we went to an upscale gallery and I blew my mind out. I don't know what posessed me to realize that was crossing a boundry (since when did I have boundaries) but I dumped them after that and I haven't gone back to that theatre group this year. it's weird getting pressure from the other supportive homeschool mom's to go back, because the actual productions were the bomb. but yeah, peer pressure Defenantly happens, and it's not the evil teens with sinister goatee's and black cowboy hats that do it, it just happens. -Miranda I do not find joy in alchohol, which is all I have ever tried, I do not mind the taste most of the time, but I can get a good taste from all kinds of things, so that is not a reson, and being sedaterd is not fun, it is almost like your mind being half alseep, now I understand that some people find joy in sleeping, but everything needs moderation, you should not sleep all your life away, sleep is for resting, it has a use, to me, drugs sedate you, and personly, I do not need to be sedated, I enjoy life to much to "sleep" through it. some people say it is just fun to do drugs and so on, but is that not sad? is it not sad that they need thiis, just to have fun, fun is not hard to find, and fun with drugs dose not last, and sence it dose not last, you are left with less then you started with. -Ryland Drugs fascinate me. They are one thing at this point in my life that I am just very curious about. I am not going to say a lot about for exactly what reasons they appeal to me, because they really can be anything to anyone, depending on what you expect/need/want. I'll just say that my view on them is there are a lot of experiences that could be had in life, and drugs are just one of them. One that as of right now interest me. At this point I haven't done a great deal (alcohol, pot, acid once), but I am open to experiences and opportunities that feel right, I'll say. One of the things that appeal the most to me, when I think about them, is different states of consciousness. Which can happen all the time in so many different ways for many different reasons, drugs just being another way. -courtney Personally, I think that the whole issue is respect. To respect yourself and your reality is something that's ABSOLUTELY necessary before getting realy intoxicated because if you don't, you'll be really uncomfortable. Respecting the drug is another issue. They're powerful, and that's the whole point. IF you don't treat that with a certain amount of both intention and well, respect, you're going to feel like you've screwed up. The only reason I use drugs is to shift my perception, and thus grasp new realms or angles of reality. It isn't really an escape at all, but instead a new perspective on stuff that's going on in my life. In all honesty,the only way I learned this is by messing up and terrifying myself, and putting my life in the hands of my instinct to survive. It's not a good idea. Just one of those things I had to learn.I've hung out with people who use them as pure escape into oblivion, which seems both selfish and stupid to me,now. That's the dark side.I guess my whole point is, don't take them lightly, not even pot (although it's not a "hard" drug), and if you do take them, expect to get very well acquainted with how you feel about both yourself and the universe at large. I meditate and stuff too, and sometimes it can feel like that same shift, but there's always the option of opening one's eyes, and having no chemicals lingering in your body. I smoke pot, have done mushrooms, and gotten drunk, as well as tried peyote. My culture is wrapped up in it so I would say I've had a little too much opportunity to do these things. The most meaningful night I've had was this fourth of july, on mushrooms, with my love and dear friends at a concert. Although some might argue that this "escape is just chemical reactions in our minds, and has nothing to do with reality, I now understand Leonardo DaVinci's, Rumi's, and Chaos theory's notion of everything as a microcosm of the universe. Unfortunitally, while we were discovering these things, we were also running around in the streets like lunatics and basically making fools of ourselves. See, that's the whole cunundrum.....a matter of perspective. Wow, big issue for me. For years I accepted myself as not being "the kind of person" who does drugs and really being rather high and mighty about it whenever I did (rarely) come across someone who did. But over the last year I have gradually become closer to people who do drugs and the experience has become more and more something people ask or expect of me. I've had to feel out my take on drugs and alcohol, and that has been that I'm "straight-edge". I don't like the term much right now because it implies kind of a violent uppitiness about drugs, but I still adhere to it's basis, which is that I have never and will never drink alcohol or sample any recreational drugs. Why? First of all, I'm not sure that I would react very well to them. Caffiene affects me in strong weird ways, and I've been on and off addiced to it for the last 6 years. My family has a history of addiction and I think I'd be particularly susceptible to it. Secondly, I've watched a lot of people I know become overly fascinated or obsessed with drugs once they've tried them. I guess some people become so if they haven't tried them, but I'm not particularly interested so that's not a problem for me. I'm bored and put off by people who talk about their drug experiences incessantly and encourage other people to have them, and I don't want to be one of those people. Some people here have described drugs as just another experience or escape you can have. I like that idea, but a lot of people I know who do drugs seem to have let it take over their range of experiences and don't have many others. Third, I don't really want to go there as far as the possible legal ramifications are. Fourth, a hell of a lot more people die with alcohol and pot and various other drugs in their system and memories than people who can say they've lived their life "clean" and not under that influence. Since I've never had any alcohol or other drugs, I can be in that rarer category and I rather like that. I have grown a lot more accepting and open-minded towards other's drug experiences and my boyfriend smokes cigarettes and pot on occasion, so I'm not so uppity about it. I am pretty set and happy where I am personally, though. So that's that. ~Summer ---
it's kind of a conflicted thing in my mind. on one hand, what business is it of anybody's what you do with your body? on the other, everyone affects everyone else. drugs can hurt and drugs can do good. i guess i'm of many opinions about it, all of them conflicting. i like wine, i like beer too, though not all the time. i myself have only smoked weed, and it was okay, i think i like it a lot more if i have paints and notebooks than if i'm just stumbling around with my friends. so i think some things are rather harmless, when used with caution. pot also has let me escape my mind for hours on end, at times when i really just didn't want to be in myself anymore. i'm not usually one for liking to be out of control of my entire body and mind, but it's interesting, for me it was sometimes like sitting in a corner of my brain, a little tiny me on a chair, watching myself. however, i've had a lot of friends get fucked up on drugs, so i'm not really in favor of much stronger stuff. i've wanted to do crack sometimes, but i don't think i ever would. but i have friends who are dealers or who have close ties to them, i have sat up with friends who had to decide whether to call the cops or wait and see if their friend wound up dead or on the run, ...all of that taken into consideration, i'm not in great favor of many higher drugs. i just see so many people who've wasted their lives on that stuff. i also smoke, which i loathe. smoking is horrible, doesn't taste good, and if i keep it up i'll lose my singing voice, which is very important to me I do not plan to do drugs ever. I like the feeling of control. I know where I'm going and don't care to take that detour. Even when things get rough, I'd rather deal with it another way. If I keep one eye on a firm reality I can get through anything. That's my choice, as you have your own. I've watched way too many people totally screw up their lives through a supposed means to tranquility or heightened consciousness. That's some scary shit to witness when you're a kid. Especially to people you love. I know it's not that way with everyone, but I think you can understand why the subject scares me. You may do drugs if you wish, but not so it affects my life. Do them somewhere far away from me, please. I don't want to see it. - Naela I like to drink alcohol in the forms of wine, champagne and wine coolers, but I don't like beer or liquor, etc. I don't drink often and I've never been drunk because I've never had more than two drinks at a time. I started drinking when I was about seven years old, taking a sip from my mom's glass (with permission) and so on. Why did I start? Well for the same reason I started drinking coffee and tea: my family memebers did and I naturally wanted to see what it was about. If I didn't like it I wouldn't have continued, but I did like it, although it was a bit strange at first (the coffee too.) Some folks would think that my parents are these evil or atleast stupid people, but in my opinion they did the best possible thing by allowing me to drink. I never had this whole forbidden fruit complex that so many of my peers have. So many of my aquaintances get drunk on purpose and act stupid and I never felt the need to do that. I always knew the dangers of alcohol (as well as it's possible advantages) and I don't like the idea of being out of control. I don't drink because I want to get high or because "everybody's doing it" (which isn't true), but because I like the taste and the tradition. In case you're wondering, my parents also never censored what tv or movies I could watch. I've been watching R-rated movies for as long as I can remember. This was good for me too because it helped me learn and understand certain things I think I would not have otherwise. I was always mature for my age. But, that's just me. Everyone is different. I never smoked because the idea of inhaling hot and toxic fumes just didn't really appeal to me. Plus, many of those I knew who did smoke were always saying how they knew it was bad for them and wished they could stop. Of course, I would be lying if I said I never had the impulse to try it and that I don't think it sometimes looks cool (sorry, but sometimes it does), but I decided that it is just not something I want to deal with (cancer, hacking coughs, the idea of a substance controlling my life, death.) I don't think smokers are stupid or anything. I can defintely see why one would want, or how one would be pressured, to do it. I have never tried any other drugs and I don't plan to. I think the entire "illegal substance" issue is a very complicated matter with no easy answers. Some people can get high responsibly and have good experiences with certain drugs and feel enlightened by it. Other people overdo it, have bad reactions, or take more dangerous stuff, and then they act crazy and harm other people or themselves. Maybe even die. (This can also be said about alcohol which is legal. go figure.) There seems to be more people in the second category. There are just so many people with wrecked and ruined lives because of coke and meth and heroin, etc. Marijuana seems to be the drug of choice by the masses; I think it has both good and bad properties and if used should be done in moderation. I have nothing good to say about coke, heroin, speed, or others of that ilk. I, however, am not an expert, and while I wouldn't encourage anyone to use mind altering substances (including Prozac) as a means of escape, I don't look down on those who do. There are so many people I respect that have done or continue to do so. As I said before, it's complicated. ~ KimW I just realized this, but the whole thing I wrote about drugs a little while ago has been deleted. Dammit. I don't feel like writing that again. My mind doesn't form thoughts coherently that often dammit. That sucks. Zen Well, I don't take many drugs at this point in my life. I've used caffeine to noticible effect twice that I can remember (in chai and in some chocolate coffee thing). I've never used taurine, and have no intention of. I've used alcohol to noticible effect twice, and can't see any particular appeal to it. I've used benedryl and sudafed when I've felt really sick, and prescription antibiotics when they've been necessary, which has not been often. That's about it. Recreational drugs fascinate me. I'm very pro legalization (and a very cautious supporter of locally-based MAPS, http://www.maps.org ), and there's a lot that I can appreciate about the various cultures that have moved around various drugs at various times. ~Academically, I think they're a rich topic, and brilliantly fun reading. Acid Dreams, by Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain is a good book to start with for psychedelics social history. http://www.erowid.org has an amazing archive of drug related information. (It's maintained by two alumns from my college, which also, last I heard, has the highest per capita instance of marijuana use of any college in the US). I might 'experiment' with some recreational drugs at some point in my life, but if I do, it'll be because something has told me that it's the right time and place for it. I think it's interesting the extent to which drug use can fracture people along clique or subcultural lines I recently found out a long-ago friend is back on heroin, and I don't know what to think. I mean, I always used to say that my bad experiences with drugs didn't change their general benign nature, that drugs aren't evil or even inherantly dangerous. but shit, medusa can never ever come back! she's barely even there now, and for all the rehab programs she's gone through and been all charged and positive about... so? and all this shit from a stupid mistake she made when she was ten/eleven, is it right that there's a chemical out there that can completely swallow a person? that everyone's response involves punishing her? I know there are people who've kicked heroin, as in they don't do it anymore, they pulled through the Acute withdrawl, but those folks are few and far between, and even they are still in chronic withdrawl, they'll never really be done. So? what do you do? what do I do? I've tried heroin, it feels amazing, but if you use it doesn't the blood of all the people it's killed get on your hands? that one time when I laid out my money, I was just putting a little more torc on the spinning spiraling cycle of dealer and junkie. I don't wear nike, I don't drink coke, is it so different? I oh so frantically want to make things better, but it's such a huge fucking hole in our world, heroin-positive messages seem to float all through our culture. laws don't help anything. Banning heroin just criminalizes junkies and makes them dirty and taboo. needle exchanges help the people already in the belly of the beast, isn't there anyway of making the simple reality obvious to everyone? all previous "war on drugs" campaigns have all been full of dogmatic propaganda and blatant lies, like the only way to convince people they shouldn't do something is to fool them, brain-wash them into being drugs-are-satan zombies. Why Can't You Give People Information Without Telling Them What To Think!? fuck. -Miranda [1] Well, a sip of wine every once in a while, Oh and that Morphine at the hospital, but I don't think either of those count [2] That desirves an explination: [3] "Am I the Victim or the Crime?" When someone brakes the law, the general first thought is to punish them, but I think that the resault of the drug is probably enough punnishment, anyway the point I'm tring to ake here is that we should treat drug addicts, more the way we do rape victims, and less the way we do rapists (i.e. help them as much as we can, and not lock them up, and/or beat the crap outta them while tring to lock them up). [3] All to many Dead refrences go over the heads of non heads... NBTSWikiWiki | Recent Changes Edited 57 times, last edited on March 1, 2002 by risingdawn@nbtsc.org. © 2000 NBTSC Webmasters |
