Like to give some examples of what opiates have taught you? I see where you're coming from, opiates teach you more because they have consequenses unlike say cannabis or psychedelics which don't. Do you also believe this about benzodiazepines? To be honest i think this approach is completely fucking stupid. But to each their own, i guess.
Yeah I would love to give some examples...
Let me clarify that I would not recommend recreational use of opiates to ANYONE, either as an escape, a teacher, or a mind-expanding substance.
They do not work in the same way as cannabis or psychedelics in that one is less apt to have a "traditional" spiritual experience and they are much more useful if your mind is aimed towards eastern religions or spirituality where the absence of thought is considered happiness and ecstasy.
That said, the fall that inevitably comes from overusing opiates teaches humility, moderation, the overcoming of ego, requires trust in your fellow man, yourself, and nature.
Personally, I am someone to whom success comes easy and failure and disappointment are the great teachers for me.
This is not to say that psychs don't have a place, and I have had some wonderful mystical experiences on them, never had a bad trip, and yes, they open your mind to possibilities you could never have conceived of before, but it is much more of a sudden spiritual awakening for most instead of a gradual realization.
This will never change the fact that I love them, because they are natures gift to cure the most common ailment found in the human condition -
pain, whether emotional, physical, psychological, etc, pain is all perceived the same by your brain, and opiates are the only drug class that can bring full relief to pain.
As far as benzo's go, I don't view them the same at all. Humans have been using the opium poppy for relief since before written history, even before ancient hieroglyphs depicting their use were made, thus that gives us a time period of at least 25,000 years, maybe as much as 50-100,000 years, during which the physiology of humans has adapted to the use of opiates. Perhaps in 30,000 years when evolutionary lag has caught up, we will be adapted to the use of benzos so that they don't produce DEADLY discontinuation symptoms, as well as long-term cognition deficits, but the prospect of mankind living that long is grim to say the least.
