Why don't you do drugs?

[Wayneguard]

I've just been inspired by the poll of people saying they don't do drugs, and kudos to you people for standing up for... something....
Thing is, as a recreational drug user myself it is hard to understand why people are so against it.
As such, I wanted to open up this thread for logical reasons why one should not do drugs and I'll see if I can respond to them.
Just so we're clear, alcohol is a drug as well. If you tell me you don't do drugs but you occasionally drink, you are a recreational drug user just without the stigma of being one.

I don't do drugs because I am fed up with addictions. I was addicted to pornography for the longest time and, I can tell you, having an uncontrollable urge that dictates your actions is one of the worst experiences I have ever had. I don't do drugs and I don't drink because I don't want to run the risk of an addiction again.

 

[Deathsong17]

'Recreational' drugs make you lose control of your own mind, your own body, your own actions. I can think of no worse hell.

 

[Danpascooch]

Thing is, as a recreational drug user myself it is hard to understand why people are so against it.

Ok short(*looks again at post after writing it*, man was I a hypocrit for calling this thing short!) personal version answer:

Let's take smoking. It's bad for your health(I really think no one denies that), and it is addictive. Considering there is no such thing as a casual smoker(I will never believe anyone who tells me there is such a thing), by poor(you guy's are gonna tell me I'm wrong, and I'm gonna go all "you can't change my mind", and in the end no one's opinion will change an we both will get banned so I'll just use the term "poor" to give a certain amount of truth to both parties) analogy there is no such thing as a casual drug user. A thing I know about addicts is that they will never ever confess to being ones, so there is no way to determine if the "casual" user is actually a "casual" one just by asking him. For people that don't use drugs(I don't even ever drink because it makes me depressed), a black and white approach is more easy, and less head hurting, when regarding the subject(we just go "drugs are bad";"don't go there"; moral dilemma solved; back to work).
Well that's my take on the matter, so I might be 100% wrong because it is a subjective and personal opinion(I'm in no mood to argue, or make enemies)

I don't hate people how use drugs(I'm more of a love person), I just think they are doing something bad(like my father that I love, but is a smoker so I feel sad for him) that I can't change and therefore I shouldn't interfere.
The only problems I have with people that use drugs, is that sometimes they seem a threat to me(I don;t care if they're a threat to themselves, I'm only interested in me, number 1).

Examples:
1) Some friends of mine usually feel bad, and disrespect me when I turn them down for a drink or a cigar, or a piece of pot(once of them actually became violent and tried to threaten me into drinking)
2) I know a marijuana user that once offered me a lift home(he was high, and drunk), and he was really angry that I turned him down. I mean I have no problem with people getting high or drunk, but when they go driving under such conditions, I'm sorry if I consider them a threat, and a menace.
Oh and this isn't something he does occasionally, this is his hobby. At least once a weekend he goes for a drive while drunk or high.

Ok case closed, and I'm awaiting(although not welcoming) all your negative reactions to my post.

Frankly it sounds like your friend doesn't need drugs to hurt himself and make bad decisions, I don't know if it's so much of a "drugs are bad" as it is a "my friend is an idiot" argument.

 

[RobCoxxy]

I think weed and shrooms, as "Natural" drugs... I can agree with. I wouldn't blast any chemical shit through my system though.

'Recreational' drugs make you lose control of your own mind, your own body, your own actions. I can think of no worse hell.

Bollocks, do they!

You ever actually smoked a joint or two? Or five... You just get a bit mellow and relax. Get hungry, have food and go to sleep.

 

[Phlakes]

1. It's illegal.
2. It is unhealthy and will harm your body in some way.
3. There are safer, cheaper, and more legal ways to feel good for half an hour.

 

[Airsoftslayer93]

i drink, quite often, but only small amounts.
i once got high, it wasnt the nicest of experiances
i would say the real reason that im against drugs is because of my ex girlfriend, she used to take ecstacy and there was such a notable difference in her character, she always became this person that i didnt like to be around, thats why im against drugs for recreation, it messes with people

 

[JaneDoe]

I smoke weed pretty regularly, and have a dab of other recreational drugs on the weekend (not necessarily every weekend though).

The point I'd like to make, after reading the posts in this thread, is that I've never been pressured into taking anything. Some people here have noted people behaving pretty awfully while under the influence. Its my belief that it is the individual who is a dick, rather than drugs turning them into a monster in some Jekyll/Hyde scenario.

I think the main reason take any drugs is because booze often makes me sick and hungover the next morning.
By drinking less then getting high on alternative substances, I have a great night without being passed out in my own vomit by midnight,and I'm in a fit state to function the following morning.

But don't get me wrong, I don't believe one needs to be intoxicated to have a good time, each to their own. I just happen to enjoy it and why not, your only young once right!

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I'm not really against it, I could care less what other people do with their lives, I just don't want to...

 

[Zhukov]

I am a student. Drugs are expensive.

 

[TheSeventhLoneWolf]

Drugs are beneath me.

 

[AMMO Kid]

I'm a caffeine addict, but I don't think that counts as a drug. I also never plan to drink alcohol or smoke anything funny

 

[JaneDoe]

'Recreational' drugs make you lose control of your own mind, your own body, your own actions. I can think of no worse hell.

For some people, yes you're right. I find no matter what I always retain enough control, whether I want to or not.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

He's a moron! Even the most ignorant arse I know who does drugs knows damn well that you don't drive while high. Sure, you're not quite as reckless as driving drunk drunk, but there's still the problem with the delayed responses to outside stimuli, the blurred vision, and the ever present danger of falling asleep.

Do me a favour, next time he tells you he's going out for a drive while high, smack him upside the head from me. It's behavior like that that's detrimental to responsible drug use being accepted.

I'm not entirely advocating driving while under the influence of any substance, but driving while stoned has got to be one of the least dangerous ones. I don't do it myself because I don't have a car, but as a man who often has to rely on stoners to drive him places I can vouch for the fact that, really, it's not even comparable to driving while drunk. If anything, being stoned makes long road trips more tolerable-- I've been told that some people think they're better driving while stoned than normally because they're less stressed.

Idk, I'm not the type of guy who likes to get TOTALLY WASTED BRO-- I smoke before tests and before work and function just fine (if not finer).

There's simply too much misinformation about drugs floating around-- that's the real detrimental factor to responsible drug use being accepted. Separating the truth from the lies spread by propaganda groups, fueled by an irresponsible media, is extremely difficult.

 

[Baby Tea]

But, then again, you can't expect much compassion or depth of insight from someone who has obstinately avoided the experiences they're taking about.

Not first hand, you're right.
But I've seen alcoholism destroy the lives of members of my family, I've watched friends from high-school waste their lives, money, and time with drug-use. One of them OD'd. He's dead. My brother is a paramedic, and has worked in the worst parts of California, as well as Detroit, and has many stories to tell on the subject (He's never touched recreational drugs either). I've worked with women from a women's rehab shelter who would tell you the exact same thing, and my wife worked in a youth shelter for years and saw it every day.

Simply: You don't need to get hit by a bus to know it's bad for you.

For those who drink to escape problems: that is insecurity. My uncle was in Vietnam, and he saw things that would break a man. His drinking didn't help his problems, they made them worse. Drinking and drug use to escape the reality of ones situation isn't healthy (Not even taking into the health problems of excessive drinking or drug use). You don't need to have been an alcoholic or drug addict to know that.

Don't even think about lecturing me on 'depth of insight' or 'compassion' when it comes to alcoholics and drug use, especially based on one post. You have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[MiloP]

I don't take drugs since whenever I fancy some drugs no-one seems to have any drugs.

It's bloody irritating.

 

[Caliostro]

Thing is, as a recreational drug user myself it is hard to understand why people are so against it.

2 different things though, not liking them and being against them. Shamefully, people mix them up too often. I don't use them. I will never use them unless it's a "life or death" thing. But I'm in favor of them being legal.

Why I personally dislike them? Don't need fake experiences, "keepin' it real" and all that.

To elaborate, there's 2 major reasons:
One of the major problem with drugs, you see, are the side effects, and they ALL have side effects. Drugs are essentially things that enhance or decrease the effect of other things already in your body. They do so by raising the normal quantity of specific chemicals to absurdly high (or low) amounts. The issue there is that the principles of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, in short, tell us that our bodies are constantly adapting to whatever values we have, in order to achieve homeostasis (or "normalization").

Your body is never at one constant value of chemicals, they just keep going higher and lower balancing themselves constantly. When you add repeated use of drugs, which throw the values off the chart, your body will start adjusting to the absurd levels as if they were normal, which is why you have withdrawal. The drug set your body to think the normal levels of a certain chemical were very high, so it started releasing other chemicals to lower them a lot. Once you're out of the drug, your body takes a while to catch up, and keeps lowering those values a lot... Except now you're no longer on the drug that threw them over the roof to begin with.

What this means is that you start taking drugs to feel good, and end up taking them to not feel bad. Ecstasy and PCP are particularly brutal exampled of this.

In short, I don't want to need drugs to feel good normally... Along with all the other dangerous side effects I really don't need.

The other reason is of a more ideological nature. Don't take it personally, but to me drugs are for the weak. If I have no reason to feel happy, why would I want to feel happy? I face life, with whatever it brings. If things are going bad, and I'm not feeling ok, then I do what I can to change that... So things are ok, so I can feel happy about it. Using drugs to feel good is just... fake. It's running away from problems and hiding under the comfort blanket, pretending everything's alright. Well, it's not. If it was, you'd be happy. Emotions exist for a reason. If you're not feeling happy, perhaps you should think about why you're not feeling happy, perhaps change whatever's making you miserable.

It's all about fixing the causes, not the symptoms. If your boat is leaking, you plug the hole, you don't go get your swimming gear.

Despite this though, I'm a firm supporter of legalizing drugs, for adults at least. If people are mature enough to buy a gun, drink booze (which is a psychoactive drug), and drink a motorized ton of steel, then they're responsible enough to decide what they want to do with their lives. It's not even the whole "don't judge people!" bullshit. We judge people all the time, and those who say they don't are just hypocrites. It's not about "not judging", it's about not forcing our judgment on other people.

 

[Billion Backs]

I've just been inspired by the poll of people saying they don't do drugs, and kudos to you people for standing up for... something....
Thing is, as a recreational drug user myself it is hard to understand why people are so against it.
As such, I wanted to open up this thread for logical reasons why one should not do drugs and I'll see if I can respond to them.
Just so we're clear, alcohol is a drug as well. If you tell me you don't do drugs but you occasionally drink, you are a recreational drug user just without the stigma of being one.

Well, I used to be a fairly enthusiastic weed smoker, but it started giving me panic attacks so I stopped. The anxiety it caused is now manageable but has pretty much stolen years of my life where I haven't been able to work or even enjoy simple things. Sure, it won't trigger mental health issues in everyone, but if someone has an underlying predisposition then it will inevitably trigger it, even if that person would otherwise have lived their whole life without it actually manifesting. That's why I don't use recreational drugs and never would.

The unfortunate fact of the matter it that drugs are illegal for a reason. Unfortunately, drug users often mistake government exaggeration about the risks of drugs for outright lies. Newsflash, a single E won't always kill you, but the likelihood of it doing so is high enough to justify the illegal status. I even once saw a leaflet that was circulating around the group I used to smoke with that claimed that the government was gaining money from restricting marijuana use and taking a cut from columbian drug dealers after they sell it at higher prices on the black market. Seriously, the justifications that drug users will come up with to convince themselves that their chosen vice is actually safe are often frankly ridiculous.

I'm by no means a 'if the government says so, it must be true' kind of person (in fact I research any prescription I'm given and make an educated decision based on that information), but when it comes to illegal drugs they're usually right.

Or perhaps some people have libertarian views?

Why exactly should government tell you what you can or can't do with your body? Even now, there are plenty legal and completely deadly goods. Tobacco, for example. And if you bought cigarettes, you'd see all the warnings they have to put on them now.

And I'm fine with that. People should be educated about things, instead of simply banning what is harmful. Plenty of things are harmful, and frankly I don't need the government to babysit me. If I choose to participate in a harmful activity, whether it's drug use, extreme sports, or anything really, it's my own body and my own choice. And I'm the only owner of my body, thank you very much, as it should be.

Government should educate instead of banning.

 

[miscelaneous]

Too expensive and they dont appeal to me.

 

[linwolf]

It's mostly because of the fact that if you buy drugs you support criminals.