VelocideX
Bluelighter
- Joined
- May 26, 2003
- Messages
- 4,745
New Scientist: "Altered States: Getting High is Only Human" -- FANTASTIC read!
There is an UNREAL read in the latest issue of New Scientist (#2473, 13 November 2004). It argues that intoxication is an integral part of human experience, and that the drug problem will never be resolved whilst politics continues to deny that drug taking is fun:
There's a number of good quotes from Rick Doblin, MAPS
Perhaps even more scandalously on page 40, amongst a description of the various classes of drugs:
I can't believe that just got printed.
Really good article, and presents a cogent and very believable case that drugs are part of our culture, and will be here to stay
There is an UNREAL read in the latest issue of New Scientist (#2473, 13 November 2004). It argues that intoxication is an integral part of human experience, and that the drug problem will never be resolved whilst politics continues to deny that drug taking is fun:
p38
PLeasure, excitement, therapy, novelty: seen in this light, the pursuit of intoxication looks very different from its standard portrayal as a pathological drive that must be supressed before it leads to harm, addiction and squalor. Yet the mainstream debate on drugs, alcohol and tobacco seems unable to acknowledge that there is anything positive to say about intoxication. Instead it is locked into a sterile argument between prohibitionists and those who want to reduce the harmful effects by, for example, making heroin available on prescription. Both groups start from the belief that psychoactive substances are inherently harmful...
There's a number of good quotes from Rick Doblin, MAPS
Perhaps even more scandalously on page 40, amongst a description of the various classes of drugs:
[in relation to Ecstasy] ...effects last for several hours and are followed by an equally lengthy period of lethargy and mild depression. MDMA is not toxic per se but can cause death due to overheating and dehydration...
I can't believe that just got printed.
Really good article, and presents a cogent and very believable case that drugs are part of our culture, and will be here to stay
p 38
Overall its hard not to conclude that the vast majority of people are current or former users of psychoactive substances [which includes caffeine]. The clinching figure, of course, would be one for "lifetime abstinence", the percentage of people who had never, ever taken anything that alters their consciousness. But it appeas that no one has ever worked out such a figure, perhaps because, to all intents and purposes, it is zero.