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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael M who wrote (77059)	4/6/2000 6:15:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

OK - that's a gracious invite. Step 1 would be to recognize that a drug is a drug - it alters perception. You only bring out of it what you brought in in the first place. Step 2 would be to recognize that some drugs are much more poorly suited as recoverable intoxicants than others. I would consider coke and meth to be useless as pleasure drugs and quite dangerous as addiction risks and ruiners of good lives. Opiates and depressants are popular intoxicants. I would only condone the least insidious of these - alcohol- as a recreational intoxicant. Smack, reds, benzodiazepines, ludes etc. are strong physical addiction liabilities, and they're good for dulling the pain but not for social lubrication or psychotourism. (Also - opiates and depressants are valuable medicinals. I do not like to see them doing double duty as fun drugs. My medicine shelf has an astounding variety of opiates and medicinals, all prescriptions to me, but I use them only as medicines and have thus far kept from trouble.) Imo that leaves cannabis and the psychedelics. (And exotica, like nitrous oxide and the dissociatives like ketamine.) Weed is the lighter of the two and can be just fine as a party drug or a way to relax and have one's perception temporarily altered in a "neat-o" manner. Psychedelics are bigger beasts. I would advise their use only under controlled conditions. Know what you want to "ask" the drug. Be prepared that it'll be a longish ride into some exalting/scary psychic territory. Have a trusted, experienced user of psychedelics around who can devote 100% of trip time to keeping you safe and grounded. And, clear your schedule of any important tasks, like driving or shopping, for as long as it takes. Take a psychedelic only in safe, familiar surroundings with safe, familiar people who won't be jerks. ...The peyote ceremonies being run in the Southwest are a decent model, although doing peyote while someone else keeps banging a drum does not strike me as a lot of fun. Step 3 is to recognize that any life-changing revelations or experiences a drug may have catalyzed are pure perception, a new way the mind has been invited to cut&shuffle stuff that was already there. God isn't any more or less present in the drug than in the chair you're sitting on. (This is often a hard one for the newbies to deal with, and I think this is the point on which Ken Kesey got hung up.) Even so, a psychedelic insight can be harnessed later when sober to give life some perspective. I don't advocate losing the drive to succeed, but I do advocate stopping and smelling the roses once in a while. Step 4 is to be grateful for sobriety and to build a good, meaningful life on a sober basis. If the drug becomes too important, if the drug begins in any way to interfere with duty, then the life needs examining. Jmo all this of course.