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[the_bluefish]

Well, I'm in Hagerstown again. My mom is doing well after her surgery, which is good. The surgery went pretty well, although there was some excess bleeding. I'm kind of relieved to be away from the drama in hendo. Sometimes the discrepancies between apparant truths and reality are difficult to grasp. Liars are a foul breed. And some people

Comments

Re: *Comment Waiting to Get Deleted*

[ajlonginus]

I don't think Salvia counts as a real trip.

Also, just for the record, I'm not really defending substances and the such, just playing devil's advocate.

I think I'm not sure that it's "drugs" that are contributing factors. Obviously drugs do assist in things like that, but I think that if "drugs" were not used, then people would come up with something else.

I mean when it all comes down to it, noone should do anything in excess. Some substances shouldn't be done at all.

As for this comment: "And just think of all the lives one person's problem with a serious drug, like cocaine maybe, can affect."

I find that an uneven remark. We both know I'm not pro-cocaine, or any drugs like that. However, That phrase could be applied to anything. "Just think of all the lives one person's problem with belittling/taunting/Pushing attitude/depression/attempted or succeeded suicide/etc etc can affect."

I understand that this is a rant. And an argument wbout chocolate and drugs isn't what you had in mind. I'm just feeling a bit feisty myself, and my problem is not with substances, per se, but with the people that consume them.

For instance. Eric cannot properly appreciate the chocolate that means so much to you. While this doesn't mean that he shouldn't eat it (because he could very well be enjoying it in his own way), he might eat too much, and thus become ill because off too much of that substance. You have no problem enjoying the substance for what it is, and give it the proper respect. Eric just sees it dully, and consumes it for what he sees it as, with no regards.

Obviously cocaine and chocolate are two different things, But my point remains the same, it's not the substance in most cases, it's the people that do it.

Re: *Comment Waiting to Get Deleted*

[the_bluefish]

I don't think that drugs fill some natural void, and I don't think that we as a species are designed to use drugs. So, if you were to remove drugs from the equation altogether (which would be a bad thing to do) and somehow provided against their re-discovery, you would simply be removing drugs. People who had formerly built habits up around drugs might feel the need to replace them, but I think that because we did not evolve with drugs drugs do not /fill/ a role in our lives that would otherwise not be filled (although they do quite frequently fill roles that /would/ otherwise be filled), they /create/ one. I do not think that people become addicted to drugs simply because of some kind of pre-existing dysfunction (although that can definitely be a very strong factor in the formation of an addiction), I think that we (as organisms) are simply not prepared to handle drugs in a healthy way.

And I'd like to point out something about your examples of alternative phrases: every one of the problematic behaviors you listed can result from serious drug addiction. And there doesn't need to be any predisposition towards those behaviors. A perfectly nice person who somehow becomes addicted to a drug can be seriously transformed, by the properties of the drug itself, and by the effects of addiction in general. Oh, and one more thing: I named drugs abuse as what I believe to be the worst product of civilization. Depression, agression, and suicide are not produtcs of civilization, although they are frequently the products of civilized circumstances. Drugs abuse, that is, the excessive, dangerous use of mind altering substances, is virtually impossible outside of the framework of civilization. Some people might say that war is worse, but I'm not sure and we can talk about why if you're curious, but this is long enough alread6y so I'll cut it here.