For as long as man has been alive, he has been finding ways to get intoxicated. I imagine ancient man was trying to find different things to eat when he tried a certain kind of mushroom and then found himself ‘tripping balls’ as you may have it and thus the drug revolution had its start. Is this how it happened, I’m not really sure, but drugs have been a part of our society for a very long time. From caffeine to cocaine, there is a chemical for nearly every mood and as society has evolved, so have the drugs we take. Thirty years ago it was weed and acid and nowadays it’s pain pills and Xanax,as more and more prescriptions are being written for all kinds of physical and mental ailments.
Drugs are a funny thing in that on one level, they can potentially destroy your life and in some cases, kill you in a single dosage,but on another, they can have profound effects on us that while may seem temporary, can often times carry over into your sober state of mind. We can’t forget the drugs that are prescribed medically either, as more and more seems to be alterable by the consumption of synthetic catalysts and for some people these effects have been very positive and life changing. Our drugs have evolved and just like us, they are becoming even more specialized then before. There is Xanax for anxiety and Zoloft for depression, pills to give you erections and even ones to help you concentrate. Soon, they may just come out with a pill that makes Monday’s suck a little less.
Despite whatever positive effects they may have medically or how good they may feel when taken recreationally, drugs are very much demonized and to enjoy them on any level makes you a deviant yourself in the eyes of many. People’s arguments against them are very solid, there is no doubt about it: they are illegal, bad for you,and can ruin your life. This can go for many things though if we allow them to take control. Eating unhealthy food isn’t good for you either but people still make the choice to eat that way because it is pleasurable. I don’t encourage drug use but the whole point of this article is to say basically if you do or have used drugs, it’s not an automatic indication that you are the scum of the earth and minions of the Devil himself.
I feel a need to make a distinction between drug addicts and recreational drug users and don’t think you drinkers are off the hook because alcohol is included as a drug though the common misconception is to classify the two as different things. If someone wants to get intoxicated and they are not in a position to hurt themselves or anyone else, then it should be their very right to alter their state of consciousness how they see fit. If someone is spending their rent money to get high that night or isn’t watching their kid because they are shooting up, they are a fucking addict. I think drugs are something that can be used responsibly and with minimal health damage. Of course the potential for dependence lurks but that is more for people with a natural predilection towards addiction. It’s even harder to make an argument that there is a possibility for responsible drug use when there are so many horror stories of the opposition: drunk driving killing millions, over dosing taking more and more celebrities, and coke and pain pills are sending people to emergency rooms left and right.
The fact of the matter is that among us are professionals who are fantastic at what they do and drugs are very much a part of their life. You may know a drug addict and you may know someone who you don’t even think is a drug addict but in fact is, you just never really know. Is it really wrong to indulge in something that more than likely isn’t going to kill you in the end? How many of our mothers and fathers did drugs and are alive and well today and by no means destitutes of society? It’s just another one of those things that we always want to play safe with so we are always outwardly negative in our public voice in the matter of drug usage. Drugs, like guns, can be deadly in one person’s hands and harmless in another person's.
There are many cultures that use drugs in their ceremonies and how many weddings happen without booze present? There are obviously really bad drugs out there as I’m not going to compare crystal meth to champagne, but more people are dying from alcohol poisoning a year as opposed to over dosing on coke and meth, so go figure. I deliberately went out of my way to not really focus on much of any drug in particular because it’s not about justifying any particular drug as each drug can be deadly to any individual if certain circumstances exist. Thousands upon thousands of people try coke for the first time without a hitch but every so often some poor unlucky bastard will fall dead and with certain things like that it gets tricky when you really think about people being able to do whatever they want.
In time, I can see technology allowing us to control ourselves better if we are under the influence and perhaps save lives as self control is just not always so reliable. Perhaps one day someone will invent an insta-sober pill that you could take and be free of any intoxication after you were done partying so you could go home safely and put no one in danger. Hard to have your cake and eat it too and even if you make the cake illegal, people will still have it. I do see hope in the future that perhaps we will learn more about our wants and pleasures and be able to live the best of both worlds and that is to the live the high life of induced pleasure coupled with the certainty of responsible actions.
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