Drugs, your thoughts on them

Good luck to you.

Well, that was sarcastic.

I've a friend intrigued by drugs, but more intrigued by art and chemistry, who eventually got a doctorate in pharmacology. I figure she is not representative of the norm.

Are you trying to escape your life? People often want to, so that's not a dig, but try to understand yourself and what you are doing.

Reality is for people with no imagination.

Drugs are for people with no imaginations of their own.

I cant bring myself to recommend drug use because I have seen too many people who used them when they could not handle them ( much as we used to talk about guys who can not hold their liquor), but they were a quality of life improver for me.

I see lives in ruin every single day that I go to work and there are always two commonalities to 99% of the stories that people tell about how their lives were ruined - drugs and alcohol.
Might not be the person himself who used or abused one of these substances, might have been their mother, or their father, or their partner, or the other person in the pub who started the fight, or they might not have even used - maybe they were just selling and got caught.
But yeah - drugs = ruination to me.
You want enhanced thinking? Read a book or take a walk up a mountain, or sit by the ocean and contemplate its vastness.

Alcohol is the drug of choice for our family's addiction.

Not one good thing has come of it.

That isn't true. It's just an old wives tale that people have latched onto.

I recommend avoiding all [entertainment] drugs and learning to appreciate the feeling of being really healthy and fully aware. That's the best way to long term happiness, for you and for the people around you.

Anything can be harmful if it's exaggerated. Drugs are no exception, but what is a drug? According to wiki, a drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function.
In that case sugar, caffeine, and many other substances can be classified as drugs.
Too much sugar can kill you, and too much caffeine is not good either. I do not object to the occasional joint, but exaggerated use of cannabis can have some very unfortunate effects. The same goes for alcohol and basically any substance. Even water can be bad if you drink too much of it.
In short, I would say that if you take drugs to escape your reality, you are doing harm to yourself. But if you use drugs to enhance your experience, that is a different matter. There is a fine line between use and abuse, but again, that goes for anything. The average sugar consumption of people in the western world could be said to be way too high, which is evident from all the lifestyle diseases we have, like diabetes and various heard diseases.

The only thing I've tried is pot, but honestly the burning sensation in my throat and the horrible munchies wasn't even worth the high. I don't know about the othr drugs, but I've seen all the stuff on Coloradomethprojects.org for a school presentation and meth is DISGUSTING!

If we used that standard a huge chunk of the prescription drug market would be gone, the sedatives, anti anxiety drugs and the like. I self medicated with pot for years to calm me down enough so that I could function, which was accomplished by escaping my current reality enough that I could work on building a new life....this was a very good use of drugs.

Get better pot and a bong, then you will not have that problem.

In general I agree with what you say, Cyracuz. As Aristotle put it, "Everything in moderation." But there are some people for whom this "moderation" quickly becomes a serious problem. It did so for me, not in terms of illegal so-called "recreational" drugs but quite legal alcoholic beverages. I started drinking "in moderation" at a quite early age (early adolscence) and progressed through all the stages to full-blown alcoholic, unable to go through a morning, let alone an entire day, without a glass of something alcoholic. I am now a member of Alcoholic Anonymous and have not had a drink in over 16 years. There are others like me on this site; they know who they are.

As for drugs and/or alcohol enhancing certain mental faculties e.g. the imagination, of course they do. But, for me, so do nature walks. I'm fortunate to be living on the island of Hawaii where I can walk around the rim of the main caldera of the most active volcano on this planet and be absolutely awed bby it. I can sit at the seashore and watch the big waves of the Pacific Ocean come pounding onto the littoral and, again, be awed by the power and majesty of nature in the raw. But, of course, I used to get similar stimulii on the mainland, treading through the pine woods of New Hampshire, looking for moose spoor (and sighting the occasional moose) or, on a clear day, climbbing to the summit of Mount Monadnock and knowing that from this pinnacle I am observing portions of three different states.

See, my concern for the OP here is that if he/she is feeling the need to talk about one's attitude toward drugs, there must bbe some deep-down misgiving which seeks justification and public approval. If everything was alright -- and "in moderation" -- there would be scant need to discuss it on a public forum. I would suggest he/she step away from drug use completely for a while and see whether -- and how -- this might change one's perception of both "reality" and "imagination."

...and my apologies for the fact that the 'b' key seems to stick on this machine and I didn't catch it in time to edit. Well, you get double for your trouble.

Bullshit, it is more likely that this is an exercise in responsible due diligence, the search for negatives to make sure that none have gone unfound.

How does that contradict what I said and cause it to be labelled "bullshit"?

Because the one who is searching for negatives to make sure that there are no deal breakers is normally not someone who has misgivings, nor is seeking justification, nor is seeking public approval. You have attempted to lay down a guilt trip, inferring that the one who is asking is of a mixed mind even if they dont think so, and thus should not do drugs. You also have inferred that anyone who says that drugs are fine is guilty of talking a person into using drugs when they are not sure.

A question has been asked, our duty is to answer the question honestly, we should not be laying down guilt trip nor self censoring ourselves.

By suppressing the imaginaton (i.e., our tendency to project ourselves into our perceptions and therefore not see what is presenting itself to us) we come closer to Reality. On the other hand our capacity for imagination can be a positive thing. I'm thinking of the artistic side of our nature which gives us positively meaningful experience which we KNOW to be artifice, i.e., without self-deception. In this regard Nietzsche says that in art we are "liars" with a good conscience.
I trust you've read Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception.

Please learn the difference between "inferred" and "implied" before you even attempt to argue by making meaningless distinctions between misgivings and need for justification.

Lustig, extremely sound advice to the OP. I grew up in the L.A./Hollywood area and saw many drug-related tragedies. My alcoholic mother committed suicide with the result that I'm virtually allergic to alcohol. I can have a drink (sometimes two) always with Italian food and then, if I continue to a third drink, become miserably uncomfortable. I strongly recommend to many people that they manifulate their brain chemisty by means of meditation, an effective and harmless way to be comfortable with things as they are.

Oh, I smoked mota moderately for years without ill effect. But now there is nothing I cherish more than a clear mind.

Same here. I've come to understand that whatever visions or inspiration alcohol and ganja gave me pale when compared to what I can accomplish and/or visualize/imagine with a clear mind. I no longer need (or want) either of those crutches.