Time To Stop Accepting Mind Alteration?

andy-hughes | 21:49 Tue 18th Jan 2022 | Society & Culture

292 Answers

I have been considering the effects of drugs - all drugs - and the reason people use them.

The conclusion I have reached is that every single person who uses any kind of drug - tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, does so in pursuit of a level of mind alteration.

Only the amount consumed, and the desired effect vary, the initial reason is identical throughout - to alter the mind's perception of the present.

Now this can vary from a glass or two of wine at the end of the day, or at a party, or a cigarette to 'calm the nerves' right through to the desired temporary oblivion of a large dose of heroin.

Of course, as a culture, we have absorbed the first examples as simply cultural norms, accepted and even encouraged, less so the last one which remains illegal.

But my point is, the subliminal desire to alter the mind to whatever degree is present in all of them.

Now the first argument would be - 'I drink because I enjoy the taste ...'.

Fine, then you can drink non-alcoholic wine or beer and not notice any difference can't you.

But no, we persist with 'acceptable' drugs because we, as a culture, accept that mind alteration is an acceptable thing to have in our society.

My question is - is it acceptable?

Should we not look at educating children and young people - the adults of tomorrow - that mind alteration is actually not a good thing at all, and is in fact creating a false reality, and leading to death through dangerous driving, liver damage, psychosis, and all the other results of ingesting drugs.

Drugs are not good, and we should be looking at getting rid of them as acceptable in society.

Thoughts please?

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Neveracrossword

A-H, I think it may have been the 'careless wording' in your OP that sent the thread off in wayward directions.

SparklyKid

Just having a ciggy and rum in my coffee. Sounds good to me.

naomi24

If by consider having a couple of glasses of wine to be ‘self-medicating’. That’s truly bizarre.

naomi24

‘I don’t’ - not if by.

SparklyKid

Reality is an illusion caused by an absence of alcohol.

pixie374

Exactly.

SparklyKid

The whole OP is completely flawed. I think AH has stated he is on meds.

albaqwerty

Sparkly, I'm going to state the bleedin' obvious, don't add the ciggy to the rum and coffee, makes it hard to light :-) x

Excess of anything can be bad, a little of what you fancy can do you good.

pixie374

He is differentiating between recreational. Which, I'm not.

SparklyKid

Moderation in all things. Got a bit of toothache at the moment, couple of paracetamol should sort it. Washed down with a rum n coke obviously.

bednobs

"My OP concerns the impact of mind alterations by use of recreational drugs."
no it doesnt.
You say "every single person who uses any kind of drug " which seems pretty clear to me to not meet your further definition

Teapots1

All in all there are far to many variables continually flying about to stand any chance of educating the younger generation / adults of tomorrow. Confusing messages about what we drink what we eat, whats good for us, whats bad for us. There are far to many self made experts though out the world all who have many different views. Regarding alcohol I would give one example, red wine, I've lost count of how many times one so called expert says that red wine is good for you, ( no doubt a French expert) and another saying it causes cancer? Then we have the well discussed debate on smoking, here I would say there's not much disagreement, its seems its a no no all round. But the latter is still confusing to the young because now our own NHS agree that vaping is ok ( a form of smoking )to replace tobacco. Now I've hit on the two obvious ones to make my point of confusion. Yep hard drugs for fun, not good, but then again young people are hearing that some drugs are good for medical problems, confusion yet again. The food industry is also full of confusion to young people. My own mindset at this moment is telling me that I require a beef steak tonight, yet some experts are telling me its not good for me? To conclude, we adults need to make up our minds of whats good and bad before even trying to convey to anyone.