Every year the Drug Enforcement Agency spends millions on the epic crusade of war against drugs. we have 1000's of civil servants valiantly fighting this battle, we hunt down dealers, we lock up junkies, we sift out the smugglers and we break down the makers. it is a never ending fight that we have waged since the early years of this nation with from opium to now a wide range of substances.
but what do we have to show for it? how many schools in America are free from drugs? how many people looking to abuse drugs are stopped from finding them? what have we done in all our efforts? why is it that the tighter we squeeze down on the drugs the more it seems they slip through our fingers?
the answer is this, in the war on drugs we have treated symptoms but have never cured the real problem. even if we triple our efforts, sacrifice large amounts of personal freedom and rid the nation of all drugs once and for all, what will happen to the people who were using drugs, the people who's holes in their souls, their hunger in their beings, their despair of life, what will happen to them? will they not fill that void with something else? self mutilation, suicide, child abuse, pornography, over eating, there are no shortage of diversions for the human mind. what we need to do is go to the root of the problem
what is it that drives men to drugs? what is it in their lives that makes them hit the self destruct button? I dont know what it is, but I know that we cant force people to be good people, but we can with love inspire people to higher levels of prosperity.
I agree with you. It's like giving Robitussin to someone with pneumonia. The discomfort is somewhat relieved, but the cause marches on.
F*** Religion. Read more here:
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we just need more love, more love for everyone regardless of everything, love to inspire. not to teach why not do drugs, just love people that they have too much to live for and too many peopel to live with to have a hole and void in their being
although it takes someone of a strong will to use drugs in a way that isn't conducive towards addiction and bad judgement. drugs, are better left for people whom have already experienced a lot of what life has to offer, for people who have a strong sense of self, people who have good friends who are willing to let it be known when someone is doing something bad for themselves and others.
i have done a wide variety of drugs myself, and i don't think that it has taken away from me much overall, sure for a while, my brains natural neurotransmitters that a drug is made into, were overly taxed and i felt like shit for a while, but most, if not all, of the drugs that i have used have changed my life in some respect.
when i did MDMA for the first time(i've only done it three times, with long gaps in between), i finally understood what it meant to have a very strong sense of community.
when i did meth(NEVERAGAIN!!!) i had paranoid delusions, and i thought that i was getting so much done, when in all actuality i pretty much sat on a couch for a few days and talked a shitload. afterwards i couldn't talk for a day and a half because my voice was so hoarse also i wanted to do illegal things to obtain more money for it, it scared me how much i thought about the high of that drug.
when i did acid(once) i did it after staying up for two days straight, because i didn't have a place to sleep, i was homeless at the time, i pretty much passed out after it started to kick in, i had THE MOST FUCKED UP DREAMS, i can only remember glimpses, when i awoke a few hours later, i didn't visually hallucinate, (i think most of the seratonin in my brain was used when i dreampt) but for some odd reason i understood what people were getting at but not saying, i perceived that i understood more about people than i did before.
when i do smoke marijuana, my creativity level goes into overdrive and i want to draw, write, or do something artistic. i don't smoke marijuana often, though i used to. i have learned how to not make it so i am lethargic and dumbed down, most of the time i don't participate in the "stoner" conversations that most of my friends have, usually i get bored of them referencing some stupid part of a show or movie that i haven't seen. playing hacky-sack is always fun though.
when i did cocaine(once) it didn't do anything for me at all, so i was left wondering what all of the fuss was about.
huffing(once) made me feel like i was dying, which i rightfully was.
when i smoked black tar herion it made me feel fuzzy, i was lethargic, but everything felt so vibrant.
pscilaciban(sp) mushrooms(only twice, with two years in between) made me terrified of just about everything. i think that i did too much and my mental state before hand wasn't the best, so i think that it transfered to the mushroom high. doing them at night also probably had something to do with it.
painkillers never do anyone any good. i did use them for a while, but only because when i actually needed them i didn't take as much as was prescribed, as tylenol, or ibuprofen, was enough to take the pain away, despite the seriousness of my injuries. so i saved them for when i didn't need them.
alcohol, while i was into that for a few months, didn't do me any good at all, it is a depressant, at first one feels jovial and friendly, but towards the end of the night, i can't help but feel alone and vulnerable.
nicotine just stresses me out.
valerian root extract makes me feel relaxed, but it is murder on my liver, so i don't use it often.
salvia(once) made me feel like i was already dead and in another place all together.
and i think that is it.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
but what did you gain by all that? do you think you have produced anything worth while from that? lots of musicians use drugs to help their creative spirit I guess, but really what have you contributed to society except for a long list of side affects of a small arsenal of drugs?
don't get me wrong its your choice to use em, but I can see why happy healthy people don't bother with that sort of thing. I mean I'm a happy guy why should I do drugs?
you're happy, don't use them, i wasn't telling anyone to use them. hell a good number of the drugs that i have used, i truly do regret doing them. i didn't use the drugs because i was unhappy, i did them to see what all the fuss was about, mostly from user's perspectives. i used them, but before hand i asked a good number of people why they used the drugs. their answers varied from "just because" to "it helps me.." and i asked them what it did to their personality, and i know that last part is slightly flawed, it is easier to see what happens when you are on the outside looking in.
all a drug really does, all physical sensations aside, it inflames a part of a person's personality and then stresses a person out. it causes the body to produce more chemicals than it naturally could, but they are chemicals that the brain naturally produces on it's own so it is all in there, drugs just open the doors a little more.
i am of the opinion that half of the reason why drugs are so interesting to people is because the government says not to use them. if the government told us to use them, then i am sure that a lot of people would question exactly why they would want us to use them. they would find out the downfalls of the drug and probably not use it.
aside from gaining knowledge about the side affects of the drugs, i learned a lot about the underground societies that have centered themselves around these drugs. i know that it has produced a more understanding consciousness within myself, about the drug world, and why that little section of society should be abolished.
the war on drugs will never end, unless we seal our borders, and video tape every little actions that everybody does, would you like to like in an EngSoc society? where you know that every little thing you do is being recorded and supervised? where the only amount of freedom you actually have is within your own brain? where arts and entertainment are spewed out from formulas? i don't want to live in the year 1984, how about you?
knowing what i do about those societies has led me to the belief that drugs should be doled out by the government, taxed and regulated. so that people will not use highly illegal means to acquire drug money, so that parents who don't know that their kids are using, can at least play a part in their kids drug use,(& truly children and teens should by any means use drugs, but they will, regardless of the law and the risk they put themselves in) so that overdosing almost never happen. nor people being taken advantage of. i don't want to see herion addict whores, especially if they have become addicted to this drug without their prior knowledge, and that happens a lot, in this country and others.
the only drug that i do use now is marijauna(successfully used & legal in many other countries, their societies don't buckle because it is legal and there is a good number of users), and that isn't that often. and i am not one of those smokers who think that everything is better on weed. a la Ben Stiller in Half Baked. i think that it can cloud the judgement, like any drugs, and probably should have laws akin to DUI's and age prerequisites.
i could be a drug counselor, one that doesn't ultimately chastise people for momentary slips, but the line has to be drawn somewhere, i would not be lenient, in fact i think that i probably would be a hardass about it.
knowing what i do about drugs and how they work on people, has helped me help my friends overcome what addictions they do have. be it to cigarettes, alcohol, or any number of the harder drugs out there, but i am not their babysitter. they came to me for support and help when they decided to stop using, so in my capacity as their friend, i did help them, i may have been tough at times, but sometimes that is what you have to be when it comes to helping someone stop using.
sometimes you have to say "you are a really shitty person when you use this drug, you don't care, and you hurt those around you. i would appreciate it if you stopped using, or continue to stop using this drug, because when you do use, i feel like you aren't giving yourself enough credit." and if they are using then this: "also you exclude me from your life, solely because i don't use myself. that is ultimately unfair in my eyes, and i am being fair by telling you this. otherwise you can just kiss our friendship goodbye, because the only person you are truly hurting here is yourself."
if you can't say that to your friends, then you and they are truly lost to addiction. like i said before, i think that drugs are more for people who have already experienced much out of life, & i will expand upon it, who have lived long enough to know what sobriety has to offer, who are already successful and possibly even retired. that way at least people would have something to look forward to aside from retirement, and that growing old isn't all that awful in the first place. i certainly am not afraid of it, nor what it will do to my body. i would rather be a grumpy old man, one that pretty much just minds his own business, and grumbles when he sees something he doesn't like, then be one of those crazy old men with a million cats, that screams at whoever to get off his lawn. i would rather be the former, then be trapped by years and experiences, that i feel are better left for someone who is too full of themselves. & i know that in ways i am full of myself, so this is why it is going to take awhile to become that man. i am okay with that. i am not in a hurry to grow old and die.
Yours truly,
.demosthenes
I submit that musicians and artists contribute much to our society. Having done a drug last night, I feel a different sort of perception. I feel like a kinder person and more social. Not all drugs encourage the sort of reckless, unconstructive and unproductiveness that is so cliche-ified in our media. Interesting post. You posed some interesting questions and I think you're right on--prevention is a key to most anything in this life. Although experience is too so we have quite a conundrum. Too complex for me on a saturday.
my documentary...
Wanna smile on the spot?
The idea that someone didn't gain anything by using drugs isn't a good argument. I don't gain anything by playing on the internet, watching TV, drinking coffee, or sex other than personal enjoyment, but I think all of these should be legal and available to everyone.
I love abortion. Read more here:
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