Would you use drugs if they were legal?

[Ritchee]

I'd like to grow my own marijuana w/o worrying about the law. Also, it would be great if LSD and MDMA were legal because you'd be able to get a pharmaceutical grade.

 

[appolyon]

Originally Posted by youbetcha1018

Hi all. I have never tried any illegal drugs and will never will even if they were legal. I have read that there's a close relationship between drugs and crime. This relationship is borne out by the statistics. Every year, the Justice Department compiles a survey of people arrested in a number of American cities to determine how many of them tested positive for drugs at the time of their arrest. In 1998, the survey found, for example, that 74 percent of those arrested in Atlanta for a violent crime tested positive for drugs. In Miami, 49 percent; in Oklahoma City, 60 percent. But to those who tried it and quit? Excellent job.

Correlation does not imply causation.

I think it income and education levels would be greater precursors to a life of crime than drugs.

 

[jpeirpont]

Far as I am concerned they are legal. For the most part you can get them whenever you feel with limited risk. I do not use any drug aside from alcohol.

 

[Lord Gladstone]

Marihuana, hash and mushrooms are legal here, but I would never use it myself. But alcohol (allowed from your 16th) is another case... The problem is those drugs (weed, etc.) are semi-legal. You will not be prosecuted if you carry with you small amounts.

Our system works quite good, drug use is lower here than in France and Germany, which are countries with strict drugpolicies.

 

[Tarmac]

Originally Posted by sonick

There's also a very close relationship between criminals and milk drinkers. This is also borne out by the statistics.

I also heard 99% of rapists are men. lets lock all men up. criminals.

 

[v0rtex]

I'd take MDMA (ecstacy) again once or twice in my life if I could be sure of the quality (which is unlikely here in the US).

I tried a wide range of stuff in college (pretty much everything short of heroin, crack and DMT), had a great time, got bored of that scene and grew up.

Most experiences were fun (if ultimately pointless), but MDMA pretty much destroyed my lifelong problems with social anxiety in one glorious night.

It's a shame that abuse and drug-war paranoia have essentially killed any prospects of doing real research into MDMA and other psychedelics for treating anxiety related disorders.

 

[Lel]

I actually got high for the first time very recently. Great stuff. Ate good food, listened to music, talked. That's all I did. It turned a relatively dull night into something lively. I much prefer it to alcohol, which I find incredibly destructive and chaotic and I can only do a few drinks at a time.

I think that I would like to experiment and open my mind, I just feel like the drug paranoia that media has spread throughout the generations has worked in a weird way that yes, drugs can be terrifying but once you find out that this is not always the case... you become much more open, curious, and perhaps cautious of what other people lecture you on.

 

[TyCooN]

Maybe an occassional smoking of the herb, but that's all I would do. Even drug dealers don't go beyond smoking weed. That tells you something.

 

[v0rtex]

Originally Posted by Lel

I actually got high for the first time very recently.= ... It turned a relatively dull night into something lively.
This, I find, is the biggest problem with weed - before you know it, five years have passed in a haze of video games, nights in and bong smoke. South Park (I know, bad reference...) said it well; "pot makes you feel fine with being bored and... It's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or... being creative." Edit: It won't kill you occasionally, but like anything in excess (drugs, food, Internet use, women), it will have a negative effect on your life.

 

[Jekyll]

Originally Posted by v0rtex

... but MDMA pretty much destroyed my lifelong problems with social anxiety in one glorious night.

This interests me. I didn't know the effects were long-term.

 

[v0rtex]

Originally Posted by Jekyll

This interests me. I didn't know the effects were long-term.

The effects of the drug itself aren't, but the psychological effects can be.

(Long post follows, possibly cliche druggy stuff...)

I had always felt very uncomfortable talking to people, especially if they weren't close friends. I'd be the guy sitting silently at the back of the room at most social gatherings, avoiding eye contact, wondering why no-one wanted to talk to me.

Around the age of 13 I figured out this was a pretty poor way to live and made some effort to try and be more outgoing (reading Dale Carnegie, etc). I could talk to people I didn't know, but still felt uncomfortable about it and didn't go out of my way to interact.

First year at university, I managed to get hold of some pure MDMA powder (what gets mixed in with meth, chalk and other crap to make Ecstacy pills). MDMA floods the brain with seratonin, creating feelings of empathy and a desire to communicate. I went to a club night with some friends and swallowed about 100mg of MDMA wrapped up in a bit of paper.

For the next 8-10 hours I'm sure I talked a lot of crap, but it was the first time in my life I had ever felt comfortable talking to anyone who I felt like talking to, conversing with people became pleasurable rather than an awkward chore.

No-one laughed in my face or killed me, in fact most people were happy to talk (probably helped I was at a party where everyone else was on it too), generally quite nice, and seemed to share the same anxieties as I did, just had learned to deal with them.

After I came down, it was like a barrier had been lifted - I knew what it was to feel confident and sociable, and once you've practiced something it becomes easier to replicate. Since then I've never really had a problem talking to people and feel a lot more comfortable in my own skin.

I absolutely do not recommend taking illegal drugs (of unknown purity and strength) for everyone, but I would be lying if I did not say that first MDMA experience was one of the most important events of my life.

Since then I did a bit more reading and found that MDMA has been used to treat PTSD in soldiers and **** victims with great success ("10 years of therapy in 10 hours", I seem to remember being quoted), but research has dried up to the drug-war hysteria surrounding it. This is a real shame, and I hope that one day such research will resume.

Drugs are just incredibly powerful behavioral amplifiers - idiots become bigger idiots, addicts get addicted, people who don't want to get high won't take them, most people who do will have a good time, learn what they can from the experience, and move on with their lives.

 

[NewYorkIslander]

I would not do drugs, however I would invest heavily in new drug companies...drug dealers seem to do alright these days, however the idea of spending any time in prison scares the hell out of me.

 

[Jekyll]

Thanks for typing all that out vortex. It's quite interesting, especially since I tend to be the way you were.

Originally Posted by v0rtex

I absolutely do not recommend taking illegal drugs (of unknown purity and strength) for everyone...

That's why I really wish drugs were legal. I can research the effects and dangers of drugs online, but if I actually decided to try something, I would have to trust a criminal's word that they weren't cut with something more dangerous than the actual drug.

 

[Lel]

Originally Posted by v0rtex

This, I find, is the biggest problem with weed - before you know it, five years have passed in a haze of video games, nights in and bong smoke.

South Park (I know, bad reference...) said it well; "pot makes you feel fine with being bored and... It's when you're bored that you should be learning some new skill or discovering some new science or... being creative."

Edit: It won't kill you occasionally, but like anything in excess (drugs, food, Internet use, women), it will have a negative effect on your life.

That's understandable, but I am making a comparison to alcohol. When drunk a person can get loud, obnoxious, easily drink too much and end up passing out and throwing up. Not to mention having a hang over, and feeling like utter **** the day after. Also you end up doing things you will probably regret.

When you smoke weed you simply remain fairly calm, and are easily entertained. They are for the days when I don't actually have anything planned, so I'm just fine with one more friend and sitting in a car, talking listening to music. Basically, spending time together with close ones.

I just find it amusing how dangerous alcohol is and how weed is... well, pretty much harmless. I found myself scared of getting into drugs, but figured that alcohol was ok. Scarily enough this is the thinking of many kids my age. Drinking is ok and acceptable, but doing drugs is absolutely not. Getting wasted, screwing up your relationships with people, and puking all over your car is just fine and yet relaxing, eating, and listening to music while high is not.

 

[Asch]

Originally Posted by v0rtex

The effects of the drug itself aren't, but the psychological effects can be. (Long post follows, possibly cliche druggy stuff...)
Fascinating MDMA story. Thanks for sharing. I think that my first experiences with drinking at parties helped me in a similar way: "faking" confidence and social comfort with the aid of booze helped me overcome irrational fears, and now I find it a lot easier to enjoy large social gatherings with strangers even if there isn't a drop of alcohol around. I think I would have had an easier time adapting to college if I had drunk earlier and more often

Originally Posted by Lel

That's understandable, but I am making a comparison to alcohol. When drunk a person can get loud, obnoxious, easily drink too much and end up passing out and throwing up. Not to mention having a hang over, and feeling like utter **** the day after. Also you end up doing things you will probably regret. When you smoke weed you simply remain fairly calm, and are easily entertained. They are for the days when I don't actually have anything planned, so I'm just fine with one more friend and sitting in a car, talking listening to music. Basically, spending time together with close ones.
Eh, drugs affect everyone differently. Alcohol consistently makes me happy and sociable, and I never have hangovers. Weed, on the other hand, makes me anxious, paranoid, and incapable of stringing together more than three or four words coherently.