DRUGS!

This is a coffee house topic.I'm just wandering what the general attitude toward drug use is here at EvC. What drugs have you tried? Any regrets with any of them? Do you use, moderately or heavily?I'll start off its my topic. In the last 10 years of my life (i'm 22), i've tried basically every drug that I'm aware off. These include: alcohol, marijuana, mescaline, LSD, muschrooms, vicodin, percocet, cocaine (powder and rock), oxycotin, heroin, and methadone. Needless to say, I had a very liberal attitude wrt to drug use.I regret immensely using psychodelics. You literally become insane during these "trips" and, in my opinion, it is the scariest thing one can do to themselves. I don't believe you experience some form of reality not accessible to our normal state of consciosness: you simply are temporarily crazy. Atleast, this is my experience.With regard to marijuana, i'm still kind of adverse to it since in excessive use it made me very apathetic and hindered my intelligence. When I quit smoking some 3 or 4 years ago I noticed a drastic clarity in thought which I had forgotten in the confusion and haze of THC.Now with opiates, all I can say is that you are playing Russian roulette since no one really knows how "addictive" their personality is until they've experienced this dopamine rush. Some people can use them moderately, I was one of them, but I didn't know that at the time. I've seen friends spiral out of control with their use, and that could have easily been me. I was lucky enough to not become addicted immediately and stop using before it had permanent effects on my psyche.Cocaine, on the other hand, I was not so lucky with. I fell for this HARD. I used daily for about 15 months, somehow managing to get through school and graduate. Looking back, I really have no idea how this was achieved considering how strung out of I was most the time. I became someone I despised and it the biggest regret of my life. I still suffer from the effects in terms of a mild depression and incessant (though nowadays less and less frequent) cravings.This isn't an anti-drug thread or anything. Positive and negative experiences are welcomed if they're so inclined. Edited by JustinC, : Typos

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Recognize that drug use is a vice, a vice that lowers you to a state lesser than that of an animal. By taking drugs you take away what makes you human. You take away your cognitive ability temporarily and often permanently especially if you took drugs in adolescence when the brain is still developing. Adolescence is a broad span of years for many.

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In the spirit of the OP, what drugs have you tried and do you have any regrets?

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I say this because hallucinogens have the opposite effect of what you're saying. From the inside of your head, they temporarily raise you to Human.

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Come on now, have you ever had a thought that you thought was profound while tripping that turned out not to be nonsense when you came down?I wouldn't say psychodelics make you less than an animal, but I don't think they raise you're awareness of reality (unless you think the rambling lunatic on the street corner really has the downpat on the nature of the world).

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Sure. I've also had thoughts that I thought were profound while sober, that turned out to be nonsense when I looked at them later. But my signal to noise ratio is demonstrably better while tripping. And I've never had a tripping night that didn't result in a remarkable shift in perception on at least one subject when I came down.

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I once had the epiphany that liquids conform to the shape of their container...it was mindblowing.That said, I was eating shrooms laced with LSD. Too much of a good thing is very possible with psychodelics.

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None. No regrets.

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And yet you speak with such confidence and arrogance with regard to their effects? Shouldn't you be a little more humble in your statements about a subject you know nothing about?I'm not saying that can't have a reasonable opinion, but I can't imagine speaking with such certainty. Are you sure that a moderate intake of certain drugs like alcohol or marijuana significantly effects your ability to reason? If so, how do you know this? Doesn't it make sense that one is more at liberty to think about subjects clearly if they aren't marred by anxiety?

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See the part you quoted. Any number of stupid thoughts occur to someone while tripping. It's part of free-association. And honestly, the physics involved in liquid motion do blow my mind while sober sometimes.

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I was just joking, I'm pretty sure I've had some somewhat profound insights while tripping, though I can't recall them at the moment.I think one of the most useful things they do, atleast for me, is lessen the anasthetic of familiarity. That is, when confronted with something everyday we lose our sense of awe and wonder about it since it is familiar. Psychodelics seems to be useful in this respect.The problem is when you lose all sense of familiarity...scary shit.

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See my response to Berberry. Too much of a good thing can easily be bad.

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I read that response to hastily and thought you said that exact opposite. Edited by JustinC, : sadly I had to edit a two paragraph response

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I guess I just don't personally associate that directly with hallucinogens, because when I think of "everything's awesome" as an effect, I think E. But it's definitely there with hallucinogens.

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Yeh, E is "everything's awesome."With psychodelics I meant "everything's kindof wierd."

I think its time we all ignore MOO's trolling.