Recreational Drug Use

[Heath Winchester]

Do you think that the recreational use of drugs is right or wrong? Take out the politics behind it though. Is the only reason a person abstains from recreational drug use due to the fact they are afraid of the consequences? I say "recreational" because we all know taking anything no matter what it is to an extreme is bad for you. Is it ethical to not allow humans the right to do what they will to themselves?

[godofcereal]

Taking sex to an extreme is bad?
Its called choice, we all have it and theres nothing you can do.

[mischief]

i feel that drug use is a personal choice. it shouldn't be decided by some other person.

the body is one big system of chemicals, and if you'd like to add some extra ingredients to the experiment then..i say an individual can choose to do so.

[Spectre557]

People should have the right to decide what they do and don't put into their body, provided that they are properly capable of responsible judgement... i.e. not a child, seriously mentally ill, etc. So long as someone isn't harming anyone else, I see no good reason why they can't use drugs. Although of course, if you put a load of aggressive youths on large amounts of coke, you're just asking for a fight to start, so there needs to be some kind of balance.

I'd say that overall, some drugs that are highly addictive and harmful, like heroin and meth, just aren't worth it in the long run for anyone and cause too much damage. Whereas drugs like tobacco, marijuana, even speed, can be used in moderation and not usually seriously affect a user in their normal life. I mean, have you ever seen a less violent person than one who's stoned?

If everyone smoked pot, there'd be no war

[nosidius]

what i find funny is that the only real difference between most drugs is their short term effects, and the crash they give you. alcohol is aloud, but try waking up after taking a couple shots of everclear...... see how that feels, so pick your poison pretty much, it should be a personal decision, but the longer a government lasts the more restrictive it gets, because of those forgotten laws

[AtlasDark]

I suppose the government intervenes as a preventive measure - drugs (or rather, certain ones with non-medicinal applications that can be abused) contribute little past releasing massive amounts of endorphins into the system for a temporary exhilarated feeling. This is usually followed by some degree of damage, and if performed regularly, the amount needed to match the magnitude of the last "high" increases, leading to much larger doses; as this continues, the person taking these drugs experiences extreme adverse effects though is utterly addicted to them.

If people want to detriment their lifespan, that's fine, though drugs may drive people to insanity in obtaining more and cause harm to innocents - it is this that causes much public outrage, as someone not affiliated with those seeking drugs can be killed for any reason (or an absence of reason, given that the drug causes psychological instability).

From these, I conclude that drugs should be contained, since they are by no means beneficial - the extremely limited margin of those that can be applied (I believe some are effective painkillers and may already be in hospital circulation) are done so carefully. The sad fact is that people will revert to anything to get that experience, so they've done all kinds of stupid things; you may have already heard of jenkum and its ilk, as with overdosing over-the-counter meds.

Regardless of what any officials attempt to do, there will always be people willing to go to certain extremes to obtain such paraphernalia.

As a counter-point, some artists draw from their experiences while in such a state for inspiration, and I believe some musicians have as well (apart from those who smoke it for a more generic reason or as a publicity stunt), and as always, there's the medical arguments.

[Heath Winchester]

I see your point and I know where you're coming from with it. But I do think that drugs can have a profound experience on ones life and can in many cases help you. I'm sure all of us can agree that Marijuana does have some very good medicinal value. I remember reading an article in a men's magazine about a mountain biker who had damaged his spine a few years ago and had been using pills such as Ibuprofen to deal with the constant pain. He ended up damaging his liver (either his liver or intestinal tract) which isn't surprising as APAP and NASAID's are very dangerous and in most cases even more damaging than drinking. After he found this out he was able to try pot for his pain relief and the differences he noticed were astounding. First off, it dealt with the pain much more effectively than any of the pills. Secondly, there was no more damage to the live. He didn't have to smoke a lot to get this either and was still able to function normally. I'd also like to point out the misconceptions of pot being dangerous to your lungs. Cigarettes are much worse and are still legal which is funny. In the end, pot should be treated like alcohol. Don't drive whilst smoking it, and know that you can't do it everyday or you'll risk damaging yourself.

On the subject of more hardcore drugs such as LSD, MDMA, Cocaine etc... these can all be used recreationally with no side effects if you control yourself. Just because something can be addictive does not mean it should be illegal. That kind of argument suggests that Caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, and World of Warcraft should all be banned. I for one know that LSD can be a very mind opening experience. You have to do it properly but it can be amazing. The same goes for all these types of drugs. They can be great escapes for people when you want to get away. Why should that be illegal? A big reason drugs have such bad names is because you get really stupid people doing everything in a stupid way. Drugs are not toys you can play with but too many people see them as so. I think if we educated our kids on recreational drug use that it would work ten times better than these ridiculous anti-drug campaigns. Most kids don't give a shit and will go smoke pot anyway. I know this for a fact and if you've ever been to a highschool in America so do you.

And to talk about the really hardcore drugs like Heroin and Belladonna. These are a completely different ballgame. Belladonna (a.k.a Nightshades, Jimson Weed, Datura etc...) is in my opinion the most dangerous drug that exists. It's basically a poison that makes you hallucinate. And we're not talking about LSD type hallucinations. We're talking about full blown delirium. Having conversations with people that are a 100 miles away type delirium. And of course Heroin makes you feel like you've found God when you're on it. An insane experience but incredibly additive. I've only known one person who can control his use. He does it about 2-3 times a year. These drugs make me question my whole argument as they are so dangerous. But I still feel inclined to say that the Government has no right in telling us we can't do to our bodies what we want. The government should not have that kind of power.

Now it is no doubt that some people do some crazy things to get drugs. But in reality, would that change if they were legal? Not really. I don't think it's a valid argument because if drugs were legal they'd be easier to obtain thus possibly lowering that risk. People also do insane things for alcohol yet it is still legal. People steal cigarettes and they're still legal. That's just part of life and humans should not have people dictating how they should live their lives.

As you can tell I'm a bit biased. I have had lots of experiences that have lead me to my conclusions though. I'm not bullshitting.

[david lightman]

I am just going to assume that I wont get much thought as I am a first time poster (but I have been hanging around hts under other names for years). But this subject is so good that I just have to jump in. I have had a few drug experiences in my life, the best one left me with an undeniable sense of optimism that has never gone away, the worst one made me think I was a raptor and I had no idea where I was (even though I should have recognized the area I was in). But I think that whatever didn't kill me made me stronger.

If the goverment made an attempt to use education instead of scare tactics, then some drugs (by that I mean psychedelics) could become helpful to society instead of being treated as a problem. People will always find ways to alter there conscience (cough jenkem cough), so we might as well try to teach safe doseages and teach which drugs are the safest (pot and shrooms have incredible ED50:LD50 ratios). Drug usage wont go down that much no matter what we do, so we should try to make drug fatalities go down instead.

[Heath Winchester]

I noticed you!
Yeah you pretty much said what I was trying to say only in a shorter post.

The optimism thing is very true. I've had some drug experiences that left me in a crazy state of mind for awhile such as experimenting with Diphenhydramine. (The active ingredient in Benadryl haha. Causes severe delirium like Belladonna) But I've had others that certainly made me rethink some things and made it easier to cope with some mental issues. This was just a single thing I'm not talking about using drugs to cope with life. I'm just referring to some use of drugs for a single time can sometimes make you realize things about yourself. I most certainly do not condone using drugs to deal with life. This creates a tolerance and makes you an addict and in the end you'll ruin the effects of the drug and to cope with the addiction you'll never be able to experience the drug again.

[AtlasDark]

It makes me wonder whether a neurological stimulus could be chemically constructed without adverse effects... It's a long shot (and that's quite the understatement), though if such were possible, perhaps the exhilaration could be provided without any unsavory effects afterwards.