drugs and alcohol #9
Comments
|
There's an interesting line in here: "a distortion of reality in a truly profound and magical way." One of the interesting differences between hallucinogens and several other classes of drugs is that the former generally alter your perception of reality; most others alter your perception of your self. We could of course argue till the death of the solar system about where reality and the self divide (or we could listen to Soul Coughing's "Is Chicago/Is not Chicago", inspired by an acid trip experience in which the lead singer became unsure where he ended and where the buildings of downtown Chicago began). But I don't propose that. This seems like an interesting distinction, and one that I tend to follow personally. I'm not really that interested in experiencing altered perceptions of reality, though I have no strong justification for it, and several writers that I respect have all spoken very positively about the results. I don't think that our unadulterated senses have any special priviledged access to the world - it seems just as likely that LSD might offer profound insight into the nature of things as our vision itself - but I'm more interested in understanding things via a set of mechanisms that have evolved in a way that I suspect makes them highly connected to the parts of the world that really matter to us. I can't see infra-red, I can't sense electro-magnetic storms, I can't experience temperatures near absolute zero (without dying): that's OK, because I think my regular senses provide a rich enough experience of the world. Same logic for adding psychedelics. It is hard enough understanding the world via my unadulterated senses - adding psychedelics into the mix doesn't seem to me to help that. I am, on the other hand, interested in altered perceptions of myself, not really in the psychedelic sense but in the psychotherapeutic or psychological sense. It doesn't seem particularly compelling to me to use drugs which alter my experience of outside stimuli, although I am certainly entirely happy to grant that the results might be quite pleasing. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow. |
|
In general I definitely think you have a point, but I think you can refine it by removing some of the more questionable assertions.
Not really, paracetamol (etc) is called a drug and people definitely take it. There is no stigma with that (even if there should be - paracetamol toxicity is one of the most common causes of poisoning worldwide. In the United States and the United Kingdom it is the most common cause of acute liver failure). In the USA people refer to pharmacies as drug stores.
I would hope so, if it is responsibly. By definition we shouldn't think negatively of this.
But not one you would advocate presumably? (you imply that alcohol can be consumed responsibly). Consistency as the highest goal? I think not. I could be a totally consistent nutcase. It's just one potentially desirable property to weight up against others, compromise is sometimes the best strategy.
Should we ban alcohol? If not, then why not if it so dangerous? How do we reduce these deaths? Would legalising drugs reduce deaths? Would people use the newly legalised drugs instead of alcohol?
Drugs aren't just something you do with your body. They have to be made/grown transported, bought, consumed, etc. It has an impact on wider society. You can assert individual rights for sure, but if you want to be consistent a lot of other things might come with that too. Why not allow gun ownership for example?
Ultimately I would conclude everything is "natural" (if everything an ant does is natural, why not everything a human does?). In normal usage though I use natural to mean manmade. Magic mushrooms are natural in both senses of course. Natural is probably a continuum, or perhaps a 2 dimensional space (1 axis is how much of the "thing" is arranged by a human, and the 2nd axis is how deep the manipulation was - atomic, molecular, mixture, etc). The active chemicals in naturally occurring drugs can often be artificially created and so the problem is clearly not the existence of the chemical itself but something else, such as:
I'm not opposed to manmade things, I'm just cautious, especially when they interact with the highly complex and not very well understand system that is me.
This is irresponsible. Some people will have extremely unpleasent experiences if they use psychaldelic drugs, and it could trigger mental conditions in people. A lot of people don't have the required supportive environment too (who might otherwise be fine with them). Same problem with alcohol.
There are many, many ways to get incredibly rewarding and fulfilling new experiences. I can assure you that you have not tried them all. It probably isn't actually possibly to try them all and you will always be missing out on something. Wanting to experience everything can only result in disappointment as you will never achieve it. One of the main problems of drugs for me is that it would stop me doing something else. My current trajectory in life is not about maximizing my pleasure or enjoyment of life (I do many things that seem counter intuitive to others) and I am having a stronger feeling of "meaning" or "purpose" on my current trajectory than I did before so I want to keep going! Powerful mindbending drugs just don't fit into this picture of life for me. I want a lower level of enjoyment from a wider range of things (this might average out to a high level of enjoyment over all if it's possible to do maths on "enjoyment"). To take strong drugs you need quite a lot time/space/money to get the most out of it and these all have other complications (or administrative overhead). I want to enjoy sitting on the bus, walking round the supermarket, eating a slice of toast, listening to a bird. Feeling free all the time, not just at the weekend. I am totally happy that other people try these things, but be careful not to replace judgement of drug users with judgement of non drug users. So, have your experiences, if you find meaning and purpose that applies in the plain 'ol sober world, tell us what it is! Hopefully it doesn't require everybody to be constantly on mindbending drugs as this is not very practical. Back to agreement though, these are things I more-or-less agree with (or at least tentatively feel more support towards):
|
I think it's useful and important to consider alcohol when thinking about drugs, because alcohol is a drug, in the same way that ketamine, GHB and MDMA are drugs:
"drug - noun - a medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body"
Western society however treats alcohol separately from drugs, to the extent that people refer to "drugs and alcohol" as if alcohol weren't a drug. Drugs have a stigma attached to them, that alcohol doesn't. We talk about "having a drink", whereas someone "takes drugs", and we refer to those who take drugs as "drug users", but we don't usually think negatively of those who drink responsibly.
The acceptance of alcohol and disapproval of other drugs is, in my opinion, arbitrary and inconsistent. Much of muslim society has banned alcohol, and has attached the same stigmas of drug use to alcohol use. That's far more a consistent approach. Prohibition of alcohol in the United States caused great harm to society - large quantities of money was channelled to the criminal underworld, whilst impure alcohol (such as high methanol content) led to liver failure, blindness and death. I would argue that current drug policy has led to the exact same situation, and that the status quo is harmful to society as a whole.
Alcohol is arguably far more dangerous and harmful than many other drugs available, which makes this policy seem even more inconsistent. The UK's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs under Professor David Nutt's leadership performed one of the most detailed studies ever conducted into the harms of various drugs including alcohol, and ranked them based on various factors, including things like harm to the user (dependence, impairment of mental functioning, loss of tangibles, mortality) as well as harm to society (such as harm to relationships, crime and economic cost). The graph is available here:
http://trustyservant.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/drugHarm2.jpg
Based on the ranking they used, Alcohol is considered the most harmful drug, ahead of Heroin and Crack cocaine. Much of this harm comes from injury, crime, harm to family, economic cost, as well as from drug mortality. Alcohol directly or indirectly causes 2.5 million deaths worldwide annually:
https://ncadd.org/in-the-news/155-25-million-alcohol-related-deaths-worldwide-annually
This is ahead of unsafe water/sanitation/hygene, ahead of tobacco use, ahead of obesity, and far ahead of illicit drugs.
Due to the aggressive tactics of the drinks industry and successive governments that have done little to curb drinking, liver disease is has grown over 250% over the past 35 years:
http://ranzetta.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c070353ef01bb079c324c970d-pi
"In Britain today, alcohol is a leading cause of death in men between the ages of sixteen and fifty, so it is therefore the most harmful drug there is in terms of life expectancy, family disruption and road traffic accidents." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-27158810
My argument would be that western policy is ill considered, and that there are many less harmful, more enjoyable drugs that would cause less harm to society. For example, MDMA. Alcohol often leads to fights, violence, injury, property damage, etc. If bars replaced alcohol with MDMA, it's far less likely that this situation would arise. MDMA is an empathogen, and increases feelings of warmth, closeness, love and empathy - surely far more socially cohesive and desirable traits in a drug that people could take whilst socialising?
Many of the dangers of drugs you mention apply to alcohol, and others have been mitigated by alcohol being legally regulated. MDMA for example is harmful because it's illegal - it's not necessarily illegal because it's harmful (or more harmful than alcohol).
The other big issue I have is that drugs aren't just illegal to manufacture or sell, but they are illegal to possess. I am a firm believer that people should have the right to do what they want to their own bodies, no matter how ill-advised. I believe criminalising people that choose to use drugs is wrong. Over half a million people in the UK have a criminal record for cannabis possession - many of them young. This will prevent them from obtaining jobs in certain sectors, prevent them from travelling to the US, and may impact their lives in many other ways, such as from obtaining credit or a mortgage. This is wrong, and I believe people have a moral duty to change the law so that it is fair and just. Criminalising users has been shown to be wholly ineffective.
Now switching to talking about you specifically Nick, in your opening gambit you state that you have no interest in most drugs, and instead seek to enjoy the "natural, simple, everyday world". This sounds very fair and reasonable. But I would like to point out that you wrote it whilst enjoying electricity, utilising mass manufactured computing equipment, most likely listening to sound waves that have been processed through recording equipment, whilst drinking coffee made from beans flown or shipped half way across the world. You also on occasion drink mass manufactured alcohol. I've even seen you drink until you're drunk, and I'm sure you, like many others, have drunk so much you've vomited before. You are a drugs user, and you enjoy things that are very far away from the natural, simple every day world.
Alcohol is of course extremely natural, occurring without process in fermenting fruit. Animals have been known to get drunk eating fermenting fruit. But psilocybin mushrooms also occur naturally, as does cannabis. These could be considered natural simple parts of the everyday world. But that natural vs unnatural delimiter in my opinion is extremely arbitrary. Our bodies are factories, deconstructing compounds and manufacturing new ones. We process coffee beans through a careful process of roasting and grinding, utilising electricity transferred vast distances over wires generated from disparate methods, be it from atoms fissioning in nuclear reactors to wind blowing turbines made of neodymium motors, with the raw materials obtained from deep mines in countries like China.
Clothes are processed cotton. Cleaning, slicing, and cooking food is all processing it. At what point does it go from being natural to unnatural? Is fire natural? Our distant ancestors did not use fire.
MDMA is manufactured by taking safrole oil from the bark of the sassafras tree and applying a simple process to it. Is this any more or any less natural or unnatural than instant coffee?
I could talk at great length on the subject of natural vs unnatural so I will stop myself from going any further on that particular topic! It could do with it's own ponderings and issue thread.
Going back to drugs - I can understand one wanting to choose what drugs one takes carefully. I have tried cannabis on a number of occasions, eating and smoking, and have only enjoyed it a small number of times. My interest in alcohol has also reduced significantly, in part due to learning more about it's place in society, it's harms, as well as discovering far more interesting alternatives. So I do feel that people should be selective with what they choose to do, and indeed what they choose to try. I would never take an opiate such as heroin or opium, not even to try, because these are genuinely harmful, and have a high addictive potential.
For me, drug use is about enjoyment, but also about expanding one's experiences - I have learned an enormous amount about the potential of the human mind, about myself, about my emotions, even about spirituality and ideas about god, consciousness, meaning, etc. I feel there is much to be gained from psychedelic drugs, and I would encourage everyone to try them. Indeed, I am hoping to introduce my mother to various substances, this year.
MDMA has enriched my life considerably, and of the lives of most people I know that have tried it. Adverse reactions to pure, unadulterated MDMA administered in a calm friendly setting are extremely rare. Pressed ecstasy tablets often contain adulterants other than MDMA, such as speed, MDA, PMA, etc, which are more harmful and have many side effects.
There is an excellent Channel 4 documentary where they do a double blind placebo controlled study of MDMA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugs_Live
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/drugs-live/on-demand/52341-001
MDMA was given to 25 participants, including a female vicar, a former MP, and only 1, an ex-soldiar, had an adverse reaction where in his own words he claims he fought against the effects of the drug. It's an extremely interesting documentary.
As someone who enjoys music a great amount, I can report that MDMA, 2C-B, mushrooms and AL-LAD (an LSD analogue) have greatly enhanced the enjoyability of music, and this is shared amongst many of the friends I now have. It's extremely hard to communicate the myriad ways in which drugs can enhance the enjoyment of music, because words simply don't do it justice. It is so far beyond our everyday experience - it's a distortion of reality in a truly profound and magical way.
Multiple times I have experienced a form of synesthesia where my consciousness melds with the music. Explaining this feels like trying to explain colour to a blind person - how do you relate an alien experience to someone that has no frame of reference for it. Very difficult. But I felt like my mind, my being, was a sound wave, pulsing and vibrating with the music, it penetrating my soul, melting into it and being carried to a higher plane. It is so deeply profound and incredibly beautiful, I just can't put into words that do it justice.
Our normal every day emotions and experiences are a tiny shadow of their full potential. We are capable of being so much more than we are at with our present evolutionary stage. Our conscious brains by default are locked in the default mode, concerned primarily with survival. But by relaxing the constraints slightly, and allowing thoughts outside our default mode, we can begin to experience a plethora of new experiences, new emotions, new ways of thinking - indeed new "modes", entirely different ways of being. Psychedelic drugs help to unlock the enormous creative potential of our minds - to visualise in new ways, to hear in new ways, and to create in new ways.
Because music is such an integral part of your life, perhaps I can appeal to that side of you. In our default mode, music can sound incredible, and we can form an incredibly profound emotional connection with music. Listening to incredible music, on an incredible sound system, in beautiful acoustically sympathetic surroundings, in the right state of mind, can bring about a deeply profound experience. Imagine if you could take that even further, to new heights, to new depths, in ways that you never thought possible, far in excess of your existing experiences.
I have laid in my bed after an evening on mushrooms, and with my eyes closed and no noise in the room, created in my minds eye the most beautiful visuals and most immersive audio soundtracks, greater and more immersive than any I have listened to in the real world. It's a shame we don't (yet!) possess the technology to transcribe what my mind could create.
Reasons such as these are why I love psychedelic drugs so much and why I am having such a good time enjoying them. I am so happy, so incredibly pleased that I chose to open my mind to them, having been closed off due to heavy social conditioning, and due to fear and anxiety about how I might change as a result of trying them.
I understand the reasons why people personally choose to not explore this side of themselves. Social conditioning, risks, and a happiness with how things are now.
But is a happiness with how things currently are mean that one is missing out on some incredibly rewarding and fulfilling new experiences?
I think so. I'm very glad I tried them. It's a shame I tried them in desperate circumstances, when I was deeply depressed and suffering from crippling social anxiety. Had I not reached that point, and been happy with life, I may never have tried them, content with how things were.
I hope that society continues to become more accepting and more encouraging of trying the psychedelic experience, so that more people have the opportunity to explore the world I've explored. Hence my involvement with The Psychedelic Society. Perhaps in the not too distant future, psychedelic drugs may be decriminalised or legalised, and be available for sale to responsible adults.
The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered: