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Is intoxication a basic human need?

This thread was awesome till its recent derailment lol

I think for me, altering my conscious has always been a need.
not in the same way shelter food or whatever is but in a way that it was bound to happen.
my life wouldn't be the same with out drugs and there is so much insight and knowledge from drug use of all types to be gained I cant imagine a life with out them.
i also think they have helped me make it threw some very hard times in my life where I had no where else to turn to.

I believe everyone has this need but drugs arent always the answer for them there is a certain breed of us (many I believe have become bluelighters) that thrive and have had the need for drugs all along.
 
NSFW:
Addiction, dependence & the ‘4th Drive’

“Addiction is not a chemical reaction. Addiction is an experience – one that grows out of an individual’s routinized, subjective response to something which has special meaning for them – something, anything that the human finds so safe and reassuring that they cannot be without it. If we want to come to terms with addiction, we have to stop blaming drugs and start looking at people, at ourselves, and at what makes us dependent. Addiction is not an abnormality in our society, it is not an aberration from the norm - it is itself the norm.” Michael Gossop, ‘Living with drugs’

The original Latin meaning of addiction was bound or surrendered to; by the time of Shakespeare it had also come to mean devoted to and by the Victorian age, it had been defined as simply meaning lacking character. The concept of physiological or metabolic addiction, as opposed to the idea of over-indulgence or moral weakness, evolved from the mid-eighteen hundreds. It remains a commonly used, albeit poorly defined term which can carry considerable stigma (indeed, addiction has been demonised in the recent past as a form of possession – albeit resulting from an evil substance rather than an evil spirit). Nonetheless, it continues to be used as a descriptive term by many people, including politicians, journalists, professional drug workers and by some drug users, most notably those involved in or influenced by the Recovery Movement (Fellowship/12 step programmes).

The 2007 RSA Commission report on illegal drugs points out that “any culture that celebrates individualism, free will and independent self-hood is liable to regard loss of control as an iniquity and a threat”, and considered within this context, dependence is not a neutral term either. It is considered to be more precise one, however, as it can be separated into its physical and psychological components. According to a 1997 government report, “Drug dependence describes a compulsion or desire to continue taking a drug in order to feel good or avoid feeling bad. When the compulsion is to avoid physical discomfort it is physical dependence; when it is to avoid anxiety or mental distress, or to promote stimulation or pleasure, it is identified as psychological dependence.” The World Health Organisation defines the dependence syndrome as:

o A subjective awareness of the compulsion to use a drug or drugs, usually during attempts to stop or moderate use
o A desire to stop in the face of continued use
o A relatively stereotyped drug habit (i.e. a narrowing in the repertoire of drug taking behaviour)
o Evidence of neuro-adaptation, tolerance and withdrawal syndromes
o Use of the drug to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
o The salience of drug-seeking or using behaviour relative to most other important priorities
o A rapid re-instatement of the dependence syndrome after a period of abstinence

However, the fact that the pharmacology of a substance defines only part of its action is also explicitly acknowledged by the WHO in its recognition that “social and cultural factors influence the effects of a substance on a person and the outcome of substance use” and, similarly, it is worth noting that tolerance and withdrawal symptoms are themselves not in fact exclusively drug-related experiences, and can be an aspect involved in any experience or activity the human being identifies as pleasurable. Indeed, the paradox at the heart of the pleasure principle is that pleasure has to be respected if it is to be sustained.

Alcoholism was once seen primarily as a sin and a vice (and still can be); it is now more frequently seen as a disease. This polarisation of attitudes is extremely unhelpful – the moral viewpoint underestimates the extent to which alcohol can become a central feature of someone’s life and, because of this, it also underestimates the difficulties inherent in an individual’s attempt to stop drinking. The disease conception encourages a view of alcoholism as a specific illness over which the individual has no control, thereby ignoring the active role that he/she actually plays in determining his/her own drinking behaviour.

The 4th drive

Drug use is neither a modern phenomenon nor one limited to human beings. Many species have, somewhere in their varied diet, a substance that satisfies (what appears to be) an innate urge to get ‘high’ and there is considerable evidence that animals can display “addiction to pleasure behaviour”, i.e. Abyssinian goats and coffee beans; Yemeni goats and Khat; various animals in tropical Asia and Snakeroot; Hawk moths and the nectar of the Datura plant; Siberian reindeer and fly agaric mushrooms; cats and the perennial herb cat-nip; primates, birds, rodents and tropical fish all display similar behaviours. Experiments with rats and cocaine show the lengths the animal will go to in order to self-administer a dose of the drug, often forfeiting food in the process. However, if the animal is living in a comfortable, varied environment, with other rats as company, it will self-administer the drug at less frequent intervals while continuing to socialise, play, eat and drink.

After hunger, thirst and sex, the need to alter consciousness is, according to Siegal, “the 4th drive” of sentient life.

“The desire to experience some altered state of consciousness seems to be an intrinsic part of the human condition, and the persistence that people have shown in pursuit of this goal is as remarkable as the diversity of ways in which they have sought such altered states. This same diversity is shown in the range of different types of drug taking. Whether taken alone or in company, for relaxation or stimulation, to satisfy some personal need or to comply with social pressures, we are surrounded by drugs, some more visible than others – the cups of coffee and tea, the glasses of beer, win, vodka and whisky, the chocolate bar, the cigarettes, the snorts of cocaine, the joints, the tablets of ecstasy, the hits of heroin, and the ubiquitous tranquilizers, anti-depressants and sleeping pills. While it may be true that every drug-induced state has its counterpart in a state of mind arrived at without drugs, the use of a substance still remains one of the most immediate ways of altering psychological states; for some people, the ease and immediacy with which drugs achieve their effects proves particularly seductive.” - Dr. Michael Gossop

“If we cannot abolish a single cause of human desperation, we don’t have the right to suppress the chosen means of escape.” - Antonin Artaud


NSFW'd for size, but a more useful take on addiction, dependence and our drug use.
 
When will they legalize drugs? What kind of drug policy your country has? Its absurd that you dont have the right to put what you want into your own body really. Here in Finland everything is illegal, even just tiny amount of weed. Medical marijuana is almost impossible to get, even for the ms or cancer patients. Fortunately cannabis has been on the media lately, theyre talking about legalization/decriminalization.
Alcohol still remains the most abused substance and causes the most of the problems.

Finland is also known for its very strict customs, definitely one of the most strict in the world. What a waste of resources and money..
 
Yes its definitely not going to happen anytime soon (in years, or decades lol), but it's been up lately
 
This thread raises an interesting point. I personally do not think that intoxication is a fundamentally basic human need, although it can, via time and use, become a very real acquired need. My main reasoning is just my own history of using drugs - it actually took several years for me to become habituated to drugs (especially in a sort of psychological addiction).

However, I think if you make the opening statement a little broader....say, that a basic human need is to find a sort of escape valve, even if only momentary, from this reality...then, yeah, altering your mind in some way is probably a bit of a human propensity, don't you think? This would expand the conversation way past just becoming intoxicated via substances/drugs...you could incorporate religion, meditation, fitness, just inhabiting a certain state of being in general...and, for that matter, sex brings up a discussion point here in that achieving orgasm is equated to opening your 3rd (out of 7) chakra point around about a person's waist/navel. The interesting part is when you open up the 7th chakra on top of the crown of your head - that feeling is subjectively supposed to feel like 10,000 orgasms at once quaking all through your body...
 
I don't rally think it is a true need. But once a good feeling is achieved, the memory of that feeling will cause most to "need" it again and again.
 

I don't think this proves anything really, no offense.

I think its a common misconception that people have some intrinsic motivation to get off from substances. Alternative mindstates, probably, but that only peripherally involves getting high by route of chemical. For instance, I can choose to get drunk but won't in the face of "soberchillin'" because it's much less costly and can be more fun.
 
Well, think about the opiate receptors in our gut, and brain. There's something in human evolution that says sobriety sucks, and because I've got those canines in my mouth how about a medium rare porterhouse.
 
I have came to the conclusion that these magical experiences induced by different substances are really essential for me to be a better person.
 
I actually think it is some kind of instinct, it's not a primary need like food or shelter but it's definitely something that we all seek in diferent ways. Not everybody likes to use recreational drugs but haven't you seen the childs playing and spinning and then enjoying the dizziness?
 
i think altered states are but that doesn't require intoxication.

on the other hand there's receptors in the brain drugs found in nature attach to, so who knows really.
 
I think only like 9 people have been approved for it... ever.
Where I live, there are nine people left who haven't... It's a little over the top.

Anyways, on topic, I think it's a part of our nature for sure; psychoactive drugs are huge for all of us. Alcohol is so heavily ingrained into western culture that it survived -maybe even thrived on- our society's ridiculous century long crusade on substance use. The same drives that cause people to seek out alcohol, be they first time curiosity or love of a well known feeling, cause people to seek out other drugs as well.

And almost every type of drug (hallucinogens, alcohol, stimulants, opiates, cannabis, etc.) is present in nature at some level or another, so they're probably intended for use by our bodies, just like every kind of food you've ever eaten.

My basic point being that if drug use wasn't natural, our bodies wouldn't have specific processors for these substances.
 
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