> Some drug use causes horrible harm, as I know very well, but the overwhelming majority of people who use prohibited drugs do it because they get something good out of it — a fun night out dancing, the ability to meet a deadline, the chance of a good night’s sleep, or insights into parts of their brain they couldn’t get to on their own.
Just because 90% of drug users aren't being harmed, doesn't mean it's necessarily helping. If the mongoose is taking drugs to avoid facing reality, it is simply helping him avoid the problem at hand: his mate is dead. Ideally the mongoose should face the problem, and solve the problem (get a new mate and move on). As for other uses, most stimulant drugs provide false signaling. And this false signaling doesn't really have any positive effects apart from the false signaling (dopamine release) itself. And so what is left is for the false signaling to really cause harm to the 10% of vulnerable people who become addicted, creating an downward spiral of false signaling.
I also don't accept the argument that we should accept our own defects. Humans are genetically susceptible to cancer, depression, but that doesn't mean we should accept them and not fight it. Those are ailments that are easily seen as harmful though, unlike the false signaling of substance use.
That being said, most of what I said apply only to stimulant drugs like cocaine, ecstacy, meth, and not to marijuana or LSD.
I like how you just gloss over how one should "solve the problem". All they have to do is "move on". Well... perhaps drug use is a good way to move on. Drugs are part of reality, so it's rather silly to say they're only used to "avoid reality".
If I get cut in the leg, the doctors put me on morphine while things heal up enough. Am I avoiding reality? Should I just grit my teeth and be tough? For what benefit?
Likewise, if I cannot concentrate, doctors give me stimulants to help, and most folks view this as OK. But if I want to have an extra-fun night out and use the same medication, all of a sudden I'm a speed freak escaping reality?
And if I'm suffering mentally, why can't doctors give me the same morphine as they do for my leg?
How are drugs any more false signalling than doing other activities like seeking out a new mate, meditation or religion, or whatever other things you'd consider as "facing reality" and "moving on"?
You view it as taking drugs to "avoid facing reality". A less judgmental and, frankly, less jerkish way of putting it would be "stress relief." Because we are not a bunch of meat-puppet robots, able to turn off emotions with a blood-curdling scream of the lambda effing calculus. Combating stress is a positive effect. External signals that are internalized are not false, they are externally derived, and the idea of a blanket claim of negativity based on this idea that any avoidance is inherently a negative is wacky.
If you think the solution to a dead mate is to sack up and move on (and no, I'm not putting words in your mouth, I'm just getting at the inescapable conclusion of your line of thinking), I don't think you're particularly well-qualified to pontificate about either stress or grief.
(And I don't touch anything stronger than the occasional beer, I just don't like your tone or your presumption.)
Even you argue that 90% of drug use isn't "helping," the bigger problem that we have today is that criminalizing drug use makes it that much worse. The American Medical Association declared drug addiction "a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry" in 1987. Why then are we sending drug users to prison and ruining their chances for future employment? This only exacerbates the problem and is essentially a lifetime punishment.
We need to be treating it as a disease and a social problem, not a criminal one, with an appropriate and measured response.
It's hard to treat drug use as a social or medical problem because vilifying it is so tempting for evert aspiring moralist. It's as if there was a category of people who were addicted to demonizing addiction.
> Just because 90% of drug users aren't being harmed, doesn't mean it's necessarily helping.
Why would people use drugs that are not helping them? They avoid substances that make them feel bad. They use only substances that are helping them cope in some way or another. To say drugs aren't helping them is to dismiss their suffering and appetites for release.
do-not-agree. my example - after breaking up with girls, smoking pot make me come to terms with it rather quickly, gaining different perspective (ie that necessary step back that you don't have when deep in it). I see too many people dwelling in the past long gone, strong negative reactions when meeting previous lover etc (if one really moves on, meeting an ex is a "meh" experience no matter what happened... how many times did you see the opposite?).
Curing grief, and I mean really curing for good, instead of being depressed has a net positive effect for me. If this thing would be completely legal, I wouldn't be destroying my lungs by smoking it, but apply some nasal spray, eye drops or similar with no side effects.
Just because 90% of drug users aren't being harmed, doesn't mean it's necessarily helping. If the mongoose is taking drugs to avoid facing reality, it is simply helping him avoid the problem at hand: his mate is dead. Ideally the mongoose should face the problem, and solve the problem (get a new mate and move on). As for other uses, most stimulant drugs provide false signaling. And this false signaling doesn't really have any positive effects apart from the false signaling (dopamine release) itself. And so what is left is for the false signaling to really cause harm to the 10% of vulnerable people who become addicted, creating an downward spiral of false signaling.
I also don't accept the argument that we should accept our own defects. Humans are genetically susceptible to cancer, depression, but that doesn't mean we should accept them and not fight it. Those are ailments that are easily seen as harmful though, unlike the false signaling of substance use.
That being said, most of what I said apply only to stimulant drugs like cocaine, ecstacy, meth, and not to marijuana or LSD.