drugs are lame
Harm reduction is a proven science that saves lives. This year in my country, the United States, overdose rates have fallen and it is as a direct result of the Biden Administration making Narcan (an opioid OD-reversing drug) over the counter. In addition to generous grants provided for harm reduction programs across the states. 3 US states and one city have now authorized Safe Consumption Sites. An area in which drug-users can consume drugs in the presence of medical professionals. Preliminary data has been astounding, with not a single person dying at a safe consumption site.
It stands to reason that these health based policies should be expanded or at least kept in place. At the same time, one could also reason that a safe-regulated supply of drugs would greatly reduce the risk an illicit drug supply creates. In a world where drugs are legalized and regulated, the need for something like an SCS would not be as prominent.
These are my beliefs about drug policy. I believe that these policies will make us healthier, freer, but most of all: save lives.
But what exactly are my beliefs about drugs?
Drugs are lame. They’re really not all that they’re advertised to be. But what do I mean by that?
For decades, health based policies surrounding drugs were shunned in favor of a purely punitive drug war. The belief underlying this policy, was that the severity of consequences for possessing a drug would dissuade people from taking them. In order to fully wage this war, a number of lies with varying degrees of absurdity had to be told about drugs. Usually that they’re more intense and more addictive than they actually are. I came to realize the severity of these lies after taking all of the most stigmatized drugs.
None of it is all that great. You take methamphetamine and then you feel a little more energy. You take heroin and then you feel a little more sleepy. You can take cocaine and then you feel like an ass hole for 15 minutes until the crash. Where you feel terrible. Seriously, what’s so special about this stuff? I don’t think the answer to that question lays in the pharmacology of any of these drugs individually. It lays more in the mindset and experiences of the user.
My theory as to why I never became addicted to these substances and found them easy to quit after a few uses, is that I did not come from the circumstances that habitual users do. Heroin users will describe being serially sexual assaulted in detail, Meth users will describe a sense of anhedonia and boredom from before they started, and so on. While genetics and pharmacology are likely to play a role, these environmental and mental factors appear to play the biggest role by far in who becomes an addict.
For example, a study of Heroin users found that a majority of people who depend on the drug have some kind of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Another study found that ADHD is about 2–6 times more common in methamphetamine users than non-users.
Is the drug itself really what’s so amazing to these people? Or is it how the drug interacts with them subjectively? The aforementioned subjectivity is important here. Because your subjective drug experience will be influenced by where you are from, who you are, how you’re feeling. It’s set and setting. The euphoria that knocked a junkie off their feet from heroin, might just be because they’ve got something awful that they’re running from.
I contend that drugs aren’t as desirable as they appear. They have some desirable effects but not to the degree that the drug war media apparatus portrays them to have. With that in mind, the question I have to ask is: is it prudent to sacrifice your health for the sake of a mild buzz?
No. It is not.
This is not about whether or not it is moral to take a drug for its desirable effects. That is a self-regarding activity and therefore, cannot be assessed through a moral lens unless another person were to be affected by it. Which would make it an other-regarding activity. My issue with drug-use is that it is unhealthy with little in the way of benefits long-term. These upsides are short-term in nature. Whereas, every possible thing you could do with your life that has a long-term benefit will not involve taking a drug.
Exercise, dieting, studying. For some, drugs may enhance one’s ability to do these things temporarily but any long-term reliance on the drug will neuter your ability to work as proficiently as you once did. Unless it’s caffeine or nicotine.
This is to say nothing of how most drugs negatively impact sleep. You need good sleep to have good mental health. You need good sleep to learn, to compartmentalize the events of your life. I think you get the idea.
None of this is to say some people don’t have good reasons for taking drugs, even habitually. It is not impossible for certain individuals to get more out of drug-use than they’re losing. That value-assessment is one the individual must make for themselves. As biased and stupid as humans may be, sometimes we do know what’s in our best interest. I’m not discounting the idea that drug-users know what’s in their best interest in certain instances.
Not taking drugs is certainly in my best interest, however. And it’s probably in your best interest as well.
All of the best highs out there for me are legal and don’t involve consuming anything. Smelling the air in the forest, embarking on adventures, conversations with my wife and friends, collecting retro tech, playing video games, writing, making music, making photos and videos, meeting animals, cooking and eating a healthy meal. All of these things elicit something powerful within me. A drug could never be as euphoric as any of these things. Certainly not as consistently.
Perhaps the most terrifying thing to me in the world, is a drug destroying my natural ability to feel wonder and awe at any of these things. We know that many drugs are potentially neurotoxic. Causing direct damage to the brain’s pleasure centers. Drug-induced anhedonia is a real thing. The best way to never get it is to never use drugs. Drug abuse is like borrowing pleasure from tomorrow. To never be seen again.
Even without neurological changes, drugs can cause psychological changes. If you play video games on recreational doses of amphetamine every day for years, you’ll probably come to associate gaming with taking amphetamine. This will cheapen your experience with an existing hobby. It’ll make a good thing worse or possibly bad.
I understand that a statistical super-majority drug-users are not drug-addicts. I was in that super-majority during my phase of experimentation. But I would not make the same decisions again, if given a redo. No one wants to find out they’re on the wrong side of a statistic. It’s not a risk I should have taken, even though I turned out fine.
As fascinating as altered states of consciousness may be, as valid, as natural as curiosity about them may be, it’s not worth sacrificing your ability to feel pleasure.
It is this assessment of the prudence or imprudence of drug-taking that is why I say: drugs are lame.