I noticed I was the only one in the poll to admit he smokes pot.  My principal interest in the drug is exploration of perception and consciousness.  In fact, I think use of certain drugs for this purpose is legitimate. 

I do not support use of marijuana or psychedelics by children or teenagers.  The teen years are a time of curiosity and exploration.  It would seem that age would be the ideal time to begin consciousness expansion---and I think it is, but not via drugs.

Unlike consciousness expansion through disciplines, such as transcendental meditation, prayer, yoga, martial arts, or studies of mysticism and philosophy, drugs are not a discipline for they bypass the will.  Other methods of consciousness expansion only pay off once you have used your own will.  By contrast, smoking a joint or dropping a tab outsources the power of will to exogenous chemistry.  Thus, in itself, the practice of meditation can increase your ability to focus your mind.  Drug use in itself cannot.

The teenage years, particularly in our society, are also a time of conflict and angst.  The majority of teens cope to a degree with pain, anger, and/or depression.  Teens often use marijuana as an escape, much in the same way they use alcohol.  Escape is the worst use of marijuana for that is when it is most likely to habituate.  I know this firsthand because I've always been prone to procrastination, avoidance, and escapism.  These behaviors only increase one's unhappiness. 

The key to alcohol use is moderation and knowing when to say no.  As hackneyed as that sounds, it is true.  Two drinks gives me a pleasant buzz and relaxes me.  Five drinks makes me silly and obnoxious.  I can get buzzed off of two drinks because I do not drink every day.  Sometimes I will go several weeks without touching a drop. 

Psychedelics*--what goes for marijuana goes tenfold for LSD, mushrooms, mescaline, and peyote.  The key is: Know yourself.  One of a few good decisions I made when I was young was declining LSD.  I got intrigued by psychedelics in my late teens.  However, I bore in mind a total freak-out I had on some hashish, so instead of buying acid, I bought books.  "LSD: My Problem Child" by Dr. Albert Hoffmann and "The Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell" by Aldous Huxley were most helpful in my decision to eschew psychedelics.  Hoffmann (the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD) and Huxley were not anti-drug, but the were not advocates of drugs, like Dr. Timothy Leary or Terrence McKenna.  They were descriptive and philosophical.  Thus, I was able to make a decision for myself without deciding for anybody else.

  It was said in the 70s, "Reality is for those who can't handle drugs..."

  Personally, I find it easier to perceive reality when I'm stoned; instead of seeing the facade, I perceive the essence.  However, responding to stimuli, especially human, is a more convoluted process that I've compensated for over the years by regarding it as entertaining.  Often, when stoned, instead of seeing the symbolism of something beautiful, I see something more pseudoscientific.  For instance, it is not so much a response to the symbolism of a rainbow as it is fascination with the natural processes that go into it; to the other, I'm not a physicist, so I'm not seeing equations or anything more firmly scientific.  One of the tradeoffs, especially in perceiving human behavior, is that I am more familiar with the patterns even if I cannot identify them.  With memory and certain other functions inhibited or altered, I generally don't get very far if I delve into the identification process.  Less surprises me when I'm stoned largely because it feels like I somehow see or know it is coming...

  Opium is a loving and quiet sense of death.  There's a reason I'll never shoot heroin.  Opium resin is as strong as I need; anything else is dangerous.  My most fearsome mistress, I visit opium very rarely, and find synthetic opiates of no proper comparison...

  Cocaine is death.  Period.  I have nothing nice to say about cocaine or its effect on perceptions of reality.  Cocaine is death and should be avoided.  Period.  At least with other drugs I've done, I actually liked the high.  Coke whispers, bends reality purely toward perpetuating the relationship.  It offers nothing, takes much and maybe everything.  At least, however, the cokehead thinks highly of himself while ignoring the shadow of death looming close on his shoulder...

  As to meth in its various forms: no comment.  I won't touch the stuff.  I won't even do MDMA.  I should have kept that philosophy with cocaine, but at least I still live on, and am able to learn that lesson.  All I can say about meth and reality is that no meth-head I've ever known has an operable sense of reality.  I don't know what it actually looks like peering through bleary eyes from the inside out...

I think there is a time and place for drug use. Today's society seem to lump all drugs into two categories: Illegal=bad, Legal=good. I don't buy into that. There are some illegal drugs that IMO could be good while some legal ones are not so good. I have said it before many, many times, I think marijuana SHOULD be legal. There are many medicinal uses for it. However, I wouldn't want people to drive after they smoked a joint or two.

I think even psychedelics like LSD has its usefulness. I heard a story about experimenting with LSD with people with schizophrenia and it seemed promising. However, because of Timothy Leary handing out LSD to the mainstream population, LSD became "BAD" so the experiments stopped. 

Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical companies has a stake in this. If it is natural-like marijuana, they can't control it so therefore it has to be illegal and be labeled as "BAD". But, if they can make a synthetic form, they can control it and therefore make $$$ on it-and be labeled as "GOOD".



Cat

People take drugs because they work - at first. Even hard core stuff makes you feel good, and this is something that is rarely mentioned. The problem is that, sooner or later, they don't work as good, and the next thing you know you're taking it to not feel bad.

If drugs were all shit from the get-go, nobody would take them.



Just one reason?  If you ever need more, send me a PM.

~~

I'm not anti-drug, I'm pro-information.

Ant


  Sounds like permastone.  Many people don't notice when they hit permastone.  I missed it, and it was something I looked forward to.  Perhaps my attention is the only reason I noticed it at all, but there comes a point when, even sober, you look at the world as if you were stoned.  No, you don't walk around with permanently bleary eyes, or the smarmy stoner grin ironed onto your face, but your perspective adjusts, and the stoner's sense of absurdity creeps into your sober outlook...

  Things I used to overlook when I was sober now stand out as significant.  Sometimes this can be the awful hair or sleek words of a cable-news talking head; sometimes it's the grandeur of the clouds or the majesty of the trees; often, it's the humor of disaster. (the old Carlin joke about the South American roller-coaster.)  Humanity seems alien from this perspective but it's easier to laugh instead of gnash my teeth when I hear President Bush's voice...

  No further reasons needed, Ant.  I've seen what it does.  Sounds like you have, too...

The federal government started using "narcotics" as a catch-all term for drugs under the scheduling system of the Contolled Substances Act of 1970, which is still in effect today with some tweaking over the years.  Thus there are narcotics in the chemical sense and there are narcotics in the legal sense. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act

I agree with the others, I've got no use for cocaine or opiates for recreational purposes either. 

As Ant succinctly put it: "Drugs work--at first."  It's not long before the misery starts and whatever problems you were trying to escape from are amplified. 

It's the same with alcohol addiction or marijuana habituation.  It takes years or decades to destroy yourself with pot or booze but only months to wreck your life with cocaine or heroin. 

I do think it's dangerous to lump pot in with harder drugs.  Pot is more like alcohol, used by adults responsibly in moderation, it's pretty safe.  It's outrageous to keep pot illegal when alchol is legal.

I noticed I was the only one in the poll to admit he smokes pot.  My principal interest in the drug is exploration of perception and consciousness.  In fact, I think use of certain drugs for this purpose is legitimate. 



I never did anything outside of alcohol... So I was being honest with that myself, I haven't done anything illegal. I've also seen how others can be on it and I don't like getting drunk enough to actually do it frequently.

My stances/opinions on drug use are this: It's your business if you want to do drugs(regardless of what it is)... If you're ignorant of the consequences, that's your fault.

I never did any illegal drugs, not even marijuana.... And I was around pot smokers(not by choice) when I lived in Beech Grove(in the same county as Indianapolis).

^
I know that this sounds strange, but just because someone is around the stuff, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will start using it.

Edit: Sorry for the self-explaination post.

It doesn't sound strange at all. The reverse is also true: just because drugs aren't around doesn't mean you won't wind up meeting them (did I just make a sentence with a triple negative?  :D)

Ant



True that as well.... ;)

As for a triple negative... I guess it was a triple, English language wasn't my biggest strength in school.

I never did anything outside of alcohol... So I was being honest with that myself, I haven't done anything illegal. I've also seen how others can be on it and I don't like getting drunk enough to actually do it frequently.

My stances/opinions on drug use are this: It's your business if you want to do drugs(regardless of what it is)... If you're ignorant of the consequences, that's your fault.

I never did any illegal drugs, not even marijuana.... And I was around pot smokers(not by choice) when I lived in Beech Grove(in the same county as Indianapolis).

^
I know that this sounds strange, but just because someone is around the stuff, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will start using it.

Edit: Sorry for the self-explaination post.


I should clarify that I am not advocating marijuana use.  I'm not condemning it either.  I have found it enhances my appreciation of music and art.  I have had some worthwhile spiritual/psychological inights with it as well.

I also gave a lengthy opinion of the drawbacks and hazards of pot. 

Some people have adverse reactions to pot; thus, it would be irresponsible of my to "recommend" it to anybody who has not tried it. 

I should clarify that I am not advocating marijuana use.  I'm not condemning it either.  I have found it enhances my appreciation of music and art.  I have had some worthwhile spiritual/psychological inights with it as well.

I also gave a lengthy opinion of the drawbacks and hazards of pot. 

Some people have adverse reactions to pot; thus, it would be irresponsible of my to "recommend" it to anybody who has not tried it. 


I didn't mean anything bad in my post.  ;)

I don't condone or disapprove of others using drugs of anytype, as I find it to be their business. I don't think pot is an evil drug, as coke, meth and opium are worse(well, with opium it depends on what form it is). I also find cigarettes to be pretty evil and it some ways to be like cocaine(due to addiction, I don't see how anyone gets a buzz from tobacco... but that's because I don't smoke).

The biggest reasons as to why I don't use pot is just because I don't want to, it's not because of some anti-drug beliefs... and since I don't smoke cigarettes, it would make me cough pretty hard to even try it(more of a minor silly part of the whole reason).

Some people(when I was living with family, but not like the situation I'm in right now) were over one time and started collecting money to give me if I would have taken a hit off of a joint(marijuana, of course). I still refused to do it, which even my mom at the time thought was silly of me to do.

Tooking a bit of pot is all right with me.  In fact I think it should be legal (the booze lobby would scream bloody murder), for sale at booze outlets, and taxed.  But anyone should be alowed to grow it for their own consuption.

Tooking a bit of pot is all right with me.  In fact I think it should be legal (the booze lobby would scream bloody murder), for sale at booze outlets, and taxed.  But anyone should be alowed to grow it for their own consuption.

I'm not so sure about that, DC.  I find pot and booze very different.  Pot turns switches on, booze turns switches off.  If I want to get a buzz on and forget about shit for a while, I'll go for alcohol.  If I want to groove out to some great music, I'll toke up.  Some pot does have a similar effect to alcohol: Low-grade crap.  Any decent weed is a whole different deal from liquor.

I don't smoke marijuana anymore. It got to the point where every toke was either instant sleep mode or "welcome to a pseudo LSD experience!".

Crappy weed made me sleep. Good weed had me tripping balls. There was no in between, and no predictability. Hence, no fun or relaxation.

Ant

I rather enjoy the trippy stuff, but the hangover gives me excessive sedation and grogginess the next day.  I quite smoking in 1991 because of excruciating panic attacks and didn't touch the stuff again until 2003.  If I still get palpitations, tachycardia, tremors, and disorientation if overdo it.  The high THC content stuff gets me "tripping balls," as you put it, which resembles a 'shroom high more than a pot high.  As long as I'm in a safe environment (that is, not in public and not driving) I can handle anything...anything but panic.  I always have my supply of Klonopin (anxiolytic) if my experience goes totally haywire.  I take a low dose of Klonopin as part of my regimen for dysthymic depression, which prevents panic from emerging in the first place.  Somebody with my condition shouldn't smoke it at all, but I figure what the fuck.  I don't use it habitually and it's not really hurting anything. 

Re your opening sentence to this topic, 'P.E.'  I'd have zero prob. admitting if I were using it. Fact is, I smoked pot for 2 years straight, 3 joints a day, on average ... back in '74-76' ..... and only finally gave it away, about 4 years back. It's dominated a GOOD portion of my life. Well ... been a significant factor, might be more accurate. Possibly, it blunted me from achieving more, by it's sedating effect ? I tend to be easily irritated / flustered in real life ... so ... it's calming effects to some degree .... ? although .. yes, I've had my share of paranoia too. Depends on the situation. I found it could turn me very much on to my 'animal' side re sex .... could get ultra horny ! Food, wine, beer ..  could taste exceptional too. Weird thought patterns as well, where I'd suddenly believe I has SO many insights. Usually faded / looked less earth shattering ... in the cold light of the next day !  ;D


Gave up, cos of so many negative memories re a bitch I used to date .... just sunk me further into depression. Further .... I find it tough to get motivated / energy, etc; ... at the BEST of times (maybe a dope legacy ?  :-\ ).  Yeah, I've had chronic tiredness for MANY years. Also, when I smoked ... I seemed to get sore throats, and colds a LOT more frequently then I do these days. So, although the smoke CAN be great / lead to a great time ... in the SHORT term ... I nowadays see the 'good' outweighs the 'bad' ... in MY case.  However .... I've got no problem if someone else wants to do ..... what's given me much pleasure and fun in the past.  8)

I personally don't like the use of street drugs, so I try to steer clear of those who use them. However, I will make an exception for those who use marijuana and/or other forms of cannabis such as hashish.

I can't see why the government keeps alcohol legal when thousands of people die at the hands of or because of drunk drivers and many more die of alcohol-related issues and of accidents, stunts and dares while under the influence, or why tobacco is still legal when the drug itself and its smoke are among the most prolific killers in the United States, if not the world.  ???

In my opinion, alcohol, cannabis and tobacco are far less dangerous than all of the other drugs, and cannabis has many legitimate medical and industrial uses. However, I drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes socially, as do millions of others around the world, but the fact that I do not abuse alcohol and nicotine shows intelligence and restraint rather than a careless attitude toward the life, limb and liberty of myself and others.

As for other drugs, just thinking about how few of the people I went to middle and high school with are still alive and not behind bars (I can count them on both hands, there are 8 total including myself) and hearing horror stories about lives, childhoods and whole families being ruined by illegal drugs makes me want to stay away from and off of drugs. I personally won't take any pill, powder, syrup or inhaler that a doctor doesn't prescribe for me or that you can't buy over-the-counter at a drugstore.

Shit.  I'm high right now!

I'm not so sure about that, DC.  I find pot and booze very different.  Pot turns switches on, booze turns switches off.  If I want to get a buzz on and forget about shit for a while, I'll go for alcohol.  If I want to groove out to some great music, I'll toke up.  Some pot does have a similar effect to alcohol: Low-grade crap.  Any decent weed is a whole different deal from liquor.


I prefer smoking pot to drinking anytime!  Alcohol takes too long, and you can't function properly on it.  I can take a couple of hits, clean my house, take a couple more, shower, get ready - just live my life.  I never smoke at work or any sort of important function, but I love the stuff.  I also smoke Damiana, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnera_diffusa  which is a legal herb sold at smoke shops around here.  (I normally see it under the name Black Mamba.)  It's pretty great.  Not as intense as pot, but really quite a lovely high.  I highly reccommend it.

Wow! Way above my head. I wouldn't be thinking that such a topic would be on a site like this. I thought the Discovery Channel might have a topic such as this one on their website.