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1/08/2018 5:54 am  #11


Re: Moderate Psychedelic Drug Use

Brian wrote:

99% of people who take drugs do it for the explicit purpose of feeling pleasure.

Many are fleeing pain*, everything from herniated discs to manic depression. The Pandora's box that gave us the opioid scourge wasn't opened by hedonists; it came from cynical pharmaceutical companies and willfully ignorant doctors purportedly treating legitimate physical suffering. And it created a huge group who take drugs because they can't stop. 

*One could argue that the absence of pain is a type of pleasure, but I don't think you meant this.
 

 

2/19/2018 8:36 pm  #12


Re: Moderate Psychedelic Drug Use

I think this is generally a very interesting topic and a lot could be said about its various aspects, but one thing I would bring attention to is, generally when it comes to intoxicants, the so-called “set” (the user himself) and the so-called “setting” (the user’s social context) which tend to play just as big a role (if not bigger) than a specific drug does in the outcome of drug use. Psychiatrist Norman Zinberg’s work is essential reading here.

Another interesting book is Virginia Berridge’s Opium and the People: Opiate Use and Policy in 19th And Early 20th Century. It describes the practically forgotten fact of how widely accepted and legal recreational use of oral opioids was in Victorian England (of all places). And the problems they had with it were surprisingly small.

Whatever we end up deciding about the morality or immorality of these things, I find that many people (on all “sides”) are really intellectually lazy when debating the issue, especially when it comes to locating their own views within the larger historical framework.

P.S.: Some more food for thought: Multitasking temporarily decreases one’s IQ to a greater extent than smoking marijuana does.

Something to keep in mind when making ‘perverted rational faculty’ arguments against drug use.

Last edited by Dry and Uninspired (2/19/2018 8:59 pm)

 

2/20/2018 10:43 am  #13


Re: Moderate Psychedelic Drug Use

Up to fairly modern age, beer and wine were common drinks because pure water was rare. Everything we read from old times has been written under the influence of those substances.

Mormons (and some other sects) reject even coffee because it's somewhat intoxicating, and it in fact is. Where does the line go?

 

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