Whether or not drug use is a valid pursuit is a long discussion that would take thousands and thousands of messages to really have to any level of integrity. That being said--
PhreeX- You know as well as I do that every now and then you pause and think of whether or not drug use, overall, was a good idea. It may be when you are stoned, when you are coming down, as you get ready to go to sleep, or perhaps while you are driving to work. Or maybe it is when you have a frustrating moment of Brain Damage Realization, where you can't do something that you used to be able to do, and you know it isn't just old age. (And it is a well established fact that drug use (opiates included) causes brain damage over time and in quantities which are not unrealistic when we consider addict behavior.).
PhreeX, we can't have a talk about you. Because, frankly, I don't know you. For all I know, you may be a multimillionaire with a stunningly attractive, intelligent, kind, and loving wife, 3 grown kids who are all college graduates or in college, and a nice little white haired lap-dog named Sissy. For all I know you may never have used drugs before.
Beyond that, it wouldn't be nice. It would hurt you and it wouldn't do you any good.
That being said--
1) Psychoactive drug use of causes brain damage. The more you use, the more damage. Granted, it's nominal damage for the vast majority of users, but this is because they A) Don't use too much at any given time (in order to avoid bad come-downs; they understand the law of diminishing returns; they don't want to spend all their money; they have to go to work tomorrow). and B) Quit within a couple years.
2) Drugs cost money. If you are using drugs in any significant quantity, you are paying for them.
And you'd be surprised how much you spend over time. The worst part is that unless you approach them from an intellectual perspective and try to learn something from what is happening, you don't really gain anything but some pleasure. Most every other usage of money gains you pleasure, some increase in social standing, some opportunity for meeting new people, some interaction, and some need fullfillment. Let's say I buy a nice watch for $1,000. It's going to make me feel REALLY good. Both at the time, and while I'm wearing it. People are going to think of me as a better person because of my watch (hey, it's true). I'm going to get to talk to people about my watch. People are going to say "I like your watch". I'm going to get up, go down to the shop, and talk to the shopkeep about the watch for 30 minutes before I buy it. I am going to further establish my identity (that identity vs. autonomy game we played in adolescence, and most ongoing drug users LOST...). I GAIN THINGS. And ultimately, the watch will probably bring me, over the next few years, more pleasure than an 30 grams of methamphetamince would have for the same price. Ultimately I'll end up selling the watch and gaining back a nominal amount of money, or giving it to a friend or relative of lower social class than I am, who will derive some pleasure from even a three year old watch! Isn't that a pleasent story?
3) Drug use leads to addiction. Addiction is not a dichotomy. It is a process, it is... a force which acts on a person. It varies in strength. You can't "fight" an addiction. IF you are addicted, you are addicted, it's that simple. If you use 1 gram of meth a week, you are just as addicted to meth as anyone else who uses 1 gram of meth a week. Sure, maybe you can quit and she can't, but that has nothing to do with your meth use, you are both equally addicted (you are using at the same rate), it has to do with the circumstances in the rest of your life.
4) Being a drug user DECREASES your social standing in the vast majority of social circles. Depends on your usage patterns, of course, but, assuming you have done cocaine, meth, heroin, mdma, marijuana, and lsd, you have alienated yourself from the vast majority of people. And people CAN tell from looking at you... maybe not always, but you kind of get inklings. And then there is a subconscious awareness of something.
Of course, social standing is a vital part of success in this society. Succes is the attainment of dreams, the pursuit of attractive members of the opposite sex (ultimately terminating in a long lasting marriage under which children are raised), the achievement of goals, and ending up in a higher SES than your parents were. That's societies definition, and frnakly it ain't bad. You are a genetic pattern, your purpose is to find out if you are good enough to keep on. To keep on is to succeed. To have kids that are given a head-start. Etc.
PhreeX-- We can pursue to learn about and study drugs without fucking up our own existance in the process. We can learn amazing things about our own minds, about minds in general, and about substances in general, by studying drugs and by using them. However, we can study the drugs through limited usage over a short period of time in our lives... (age 15-25 for most people), come to terms with reality and accept ourselves... and then move on from that. That is what 60+% of people do. The ones that don't missed a vital part of life, and are narrow minded and naive for the rest of it as a result. The ones that do, and move on, eventually meet with success. Watch them. The ones that do, and don't move on, settle for whatever pleasures they can receive in this cruel. cold. world.
The first enemy of the human is the cold.
The last enemy of the human is the cold.
Why do you think that "warmth" you always feel registers as pleasure... that pleasure you always feel registers as warmth?
There is no pleasure, it's a fallacy to keep you on track, if it malfunctions abandon it. Won't you? Look towards continuation of your line.
And kind of realize, that the pleasure which comes from drugs, really is only amazing to you... impressive... because you lack pleasure in other areas of your life (probably because of your drug use... who knows, maybe the lap-dog scenario I wrote above is what would have happened had you never used drugs... spent the money on a four year degree in business.. become a shopkeep... who the hell knows?). Shoot up a happy man with heroin, if his life is truly going well... I don't know, have him be right in the middle of a passionate love or something... and he will feel the pleasure, but he won't trade his life for it. His life is better.
[ 16 December 2001: Message edited by: Timerare2 ]
