general blah!
I find it incredibly interesting how many people enjoy altered states of mind.
At the minute we've got an estimated 6.8 BILLION people on earth running about, give or take. And at least 1 billion are online, be it casual web access or constantly online. And from those numbers you have to consider at least 3 billion people are drug takers.
now of course I'm including "safe" drugs here, such as caffiene, which is considered so basic a human need in developed countries its not even considered a drug, yet it is. A mind altering performance enhancer. A "a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic" according to wikipedia. the source of knowledge for a lot of people if the internet is your main source of information. Caffiene itself is naturally found in plants, where it acts as an insecticide. yup, you read that right. Naturally its formed by plants to kill insects as a self defense mechanism.
the curious thing is that many people who have ethical views on food and spend a lot of time regarding nutritional information such as vegetarians still have this in their diet.
what I find really intruiging though, is how many people like the feeling of being in an altered state of conciousness. Being from the UK, particularily England, where binge drinking is not only prevalent, its a primary ingredient for a night out. caffiene and alcohol are mixed, drugs are taken and a good time is had by all.
I have to wonder if its simply because its a break from normal braintime. its a chance to go on "holiday" from your usual method of thinking. for some certain moods are what some people feel they need to do things they like. I know many people who need a drink to do creative work, and I challenge you to find less than 1 in 10 people who feel they need a dose of caffiene before they can even go to work.
I'm not getting all superclean living here, but the amount of people who still smoke strikes me as a good indicator of human behaviour, and the attitudes towards it shocking. As far as I'm concerned smoking is an addiction. we're talking general tobacco and day to day smokes here. Pretty much 9/10 people where I work [a bar] smoke. These are people who on a daily basis sell poision to people for a living, smoke themselves. and of course the pubs main sales are coffee and alcohol [usually mixed with caffiene for shorts.]
I have many people come into my work when it opens at 9am [some having been waiting for us to open even] on weekdays, ordering whiskeys and tequilas and the like, to start their day. it makes you wonder just what they do all day in that state of mind, usually, for the kids, its drank on a night out where they crash a few hours later after they've gotten home from the pubs and clubs. but for people drinking in the morning or the middle of the day, do they simply get home and sleep early? it'd certainly explain how they're awake so early to harrass us to open early each morning.
people have been eating caffiene via plants since the stone age, so its not exactly a new phenomenon, and its certainly worked its way into most developed areas as a daily occurence and a way of life. the stronger drugs maybe not, but it seems to be a prevalent human nature to find out what can get you trashed and seek out ways of perfecting it.
on a recent trip to amsterdam i was amazed to see how casual the attitude to smoking marijuana was, and how its seen as so different from tobacco, which is actually banned publicly. even in marijuana smoking bars and clubs.
The attitude of a lot of my social circle is strictly against marijuana and yet tobacco is something nearly everyones parents do or did. and yet to be so against that, and to drink multiple times a week and claim its different strike me as more than a little hypocritic.
anyway I've lost my train of thought on this. but "a 2008 study suggested that pregnant women who consume 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day have about twice the miscarriage risk as women who consume none." says wikipedia.
At the minute we've got an estimated 6.8 BILLION people on earth running about, give or take. And at least 1 billion are online, be it casual web access or constantly online. And from those numbers you have to consider at least 3 billion people are drug takers.
now of course I'm including "safe" drugs here, such as caffiene, which is considered so basic a human need in developed countries its not even considered a drug, yet it is. A mind altering performance enhancer. A "a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic" according to wikipedia. the source of knowledge for a lot of people if the internet is your main source of information. Caffiene itself is naturally found in plants, where it acts as an insecticide. yup, you read that right. Naturally its formed by plants to kill insects as a self defense mechanism.
the curious thing is that many people who have ethical views on food and spend a lot of time regarding nutritional information such as vegetarians still have this in their diet.
what I find really intruiging though, is how many people like the feeling of being in an altered state of conciousness. Being from the UK, particularily England, where binge drinking is not only prevalent, its a primary ingredient for a night out. caffiene and alcohol are mixed, drugs are taken and a good time is had by all.
I have to wonder if its simply because its a break from normal braintime. its a chance to go on "holiday" from your usual method of thinking. for some certain moods are what some people feel they need to do things they like. I know many people who need a drink to do creative work, and I challenge you to find less than 1 in 10 people who feel they need a dose of caffiene before they can even go to work.
I'm not getting all superclean living here, but the amount of people who still smoke strikes me as a good indicator of human behaviour, and the attitudes towards it shocking. As far as I'm concerned smoking is an addiction. we're talking general tobacco and day to day smokes here. Pretty much 9/10 people where I work [a bar] smoke. These are people who on a daily basis sell poision to people for a living, smoke themselves. and of course the pubs main sales are coffee and alcohol [usually mixed with caffiene for shorts.]
I have many people come into my work when it opens at 9am [some having been waiting for us to open even] on weekdays, ordering whiskeys and tequilas and the like, to start their day. it makes you wonder just what they do all day in that state of mind, usually, for the kids, its drank on a night out where they crash a few hours later after they've gotten home from the pubs and clubs. but for people drinking in the morning or the middle of the day, do they simply get home and sleep early? it'd certainly explain how they're awake so early to harrass us to open early each morning.
people have been eating caffiene via plants since the stone age, so its not exactly a new phenomenon, and its certainly worked its way into most developed areas as a daily occurence and a way of life. the stronger drugs maybe not, but it seems to be a prevalent human nature to find out what can get you trashed and seek out ways of perfecting it.
on a recent trip to amsterdam i was amazed to see how casual the attitude to smoking marijuana was, and how its seen as so different from tobacco, which is actually banned publicly. even in marijuana smoking bars and clubs.
The attitude of a lot of my social circle is strictly against marijuana and yet tobacco is something nearly everyones parents do or did. and yet to be so against that, and to drink multiple times a week and claim its different strike me as more than a little hypocritic.
anyway I've lost my train of thought on this. but "a 2008 study suggested that pregnant women who consume 200 milligrams or more of caffeine per day have about twice the miscarriage risk as women who consume none." says wikipedia.