To the uncool - stop getting so hysterical about drugs!

[PussyCat]

It makes me laugh every time I read a new post (either here or another forum) talking about drug use and drug users. Stereotypes and misinformation are being thrown about all over the place by non-users with no idea about drug culture who just enjoy sitting on their high horse.

 

The fact is - there are ten times more recreationaly drug users out there than actual addicts. Two studies in England (by Oxford Uni) recently even found that 74% of all people between the ages of 18 and 31 took illegal drugs on a semi-regular basis. But I guess you can find a statistic for everything. My own personal experience? I am a 28 year old lawyer. I have been doing drugs about once or twice a month ever since I was 21, because I hate the taste and feel of alcohol. Coke is simply my drug of choice. Most of my friends are users too. We all have succesful careers and healthy lifestyles, and my using does not hurt anyone else. It is a personal choice, and I wouldn't associate with anyone who didn't respect that.

 

Now, I completely understand that if you are a good law-abiding, non-drug-taking person that you wouldn't want a partner who gets high. Because frankly, there is a lot to be jealous of. But snooping around to catch them out is so lame. The signs of a user are usually pretty obvious, and if they won't get off the drugs for you then the fact is, they're just not that into you!!

 

I'm sure this will spark a few angry rants. I realise that illegal drugs can destroy lives (just like alcohol), but we are all adults who have to make our own life choices (and mistakes). I can honestly say that my life is 500% more fun because I use coke every other weekend. Most people might not understand that but it doesn't matter, because this is MY LIFE and I should be able to live it without the incessant nagging of non-users.

[Michael86]

I find your post quite disturbing. You're say we're "uncool" because we don't use drugs. That we should be jealous of you. Are you kidding me? You say you're 28 but I would have guessed you were 17 with comments like that. Alot of your comments had me shaking my head. You're accusing people of being on their high horse but that's exactly what you're doing, thinking you're life is actually better because you use cocaine. This is absurd to me. Your whole post is offensive to me since I lost someone I love due to someone's "recreational" drug use of cocaine.

 

You're a lawyer who is participating in illegal activity. And don't give me any statistics from Oxford University. Read the papers, watch the news and read this forum and see how many lives get destroyed from recreational drug use. You say you're leading a healthy lifestyle and you're drug use doesn't hurt anyone else. Do you really think it's healthy to use drugs? You've been lucky that there haven't been any consequences for you up until now. How are you going to feel when you get high and get behind the wheel of a car and hurt or kill someone. You'd be hurting someone else then. I don't know if you have children or not, but how would you feel if they started using drugs? Would you encourage them because it's fun? And let's see how much fun it is if you get arrested for possession.

 

It's also sad that you depend on coke to have fun in life. Which makes me wonder how recreational it is for you or really that you depend on it more than you want to believe. What is life going to be like for you when you stop using? Or maybe you never intend to stop. Maybe you can't.

 

Personally, I don't do drugs and I don't drink. I have a successful career (working for lawyers), a wonderful family, great friends and I have alot of fun in life. I don't need to get high to enjoy myself. I guess someone like you would have a hard time understanding that.

[Karlise13]

I too use drugs recreationally; caffeine and alcohol.

 

It's easy to rely on drugs. Too easy.

 

I enjoyed alcohol fairly sporadically in my twenties. By my early thirties, the pressures of a career change, family issues, etc. had me hitting the bottle with some fair amount of regularity.

 

Who did it hurt? Nobody. I'm a fun drunk. I really am; I'm lively, engaging, a good sport and I never had car accident.

I held a good job, got a masters' degree, no problem.

 

By my mid thirties I was easily downing a 750 mL bottle of wine per day....and it wasn't enough. I'd usually keep a bottle of rotgut vodka in the freezer (my reasoning being that if it was lousy, I wouldn't drink too much of it)

 

I'm in my late thirties now. I struggle with how much I drink all the time. I've cut back, way back, but I know in my heart and soul I can't stop at one drink. It feels too good. It's too good a friend. I love it. I LOVE alcohol. The thought of giving it up entirely frightens me to death.

 

So take this message any way you want. Am I preaching? Perhaps a little. Fact of the matter is, I have friends who've shattered their septums and blown six figure salaries away (not to mention wives and husbands) with their little coke 'habit'

 

It's a sly, insidious 'life enhancement' you're dabbling with.

 

Your use of the word 'uncool' really indicates how little you know about life. There are real people out there who will die from this recreational business.

 

We don't all become gambling addicts. We don't all become sex addicts. We don't all become binge eaters. But some of us do. People who wish to abstain from activities they instinctively feel are dangerous to them are not 'uncool'.

 

I try to remind myself of how far I skidded the last time I drove drunk. It was wet and rainy. I was driving on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia. Check it out sometime. It's a nice six lane highway that people get killed on with some regularity.

The car in front of me was just far enough for me not to hit it when I slammed on the brakes.

 

I woke up the next morning shaking.

 

And yet I still drink...... and oftentimes too much. I dont' care about your statistics.

I know what's true for me. I drink too much.

 

Cool isn't it?

[blind_otter]

I don't agree with the culture of victimhood that surround drug abuse and dependency. I myself am a recovering addict (the last time I used my drug of choice was June 12, 2001). Before I was pregnant I recreationally used marijuana.

 

I think that as adults we are (and should be) responsible for ourselves and our own actions. Everyone knows the risks of drugs, and they should be aware of the horrors of alcohol and I can't imagine anyone who doesn't know SOMEONE whose life was destroyed either by drugs or alcohol. You're lying to yourself if you are using without the knowledge that you could become addicted or dependent.

 

You can't protect a grown man or woman from the consequences of every stupid thing that they choose to do.

[moimeme]

'Uncool'? Someone who is almost 30 sounding like a high school kid? Pal, you're not 'cool' at all. The very fact that you care about being 'cool' demonstrates that. Life is about a great deal more than entertaining yourself and thinking you're 'cool'. So if you think you have presented a strong and persuasive argument for drug use, think again. You've actually done just the opposite.

[tokyo]

Crappy post.

[dyermaker]

The signs of a user are usually pretty obvious, and if they won't get off the drugs for you then the fact is, they're just not that into you!!

If you were high when you wrote this, I don't forgive you.

 

Addiction is a serious problem, it rewires the brain. People who are addicts need serious help from loved ones, and to demonize the addicted as uninterested completely clouds the issue of addiction. If your significant other has a drug problem, it is not because they do not care about you, it's because they lack the capacity to avoid the chemical stranglehold of drugs.

 

If you have a heart attack, a stroke, or a seizure, I hope you're too cool for a hospital bed, because there are many out there who actually need it.

[SoleMate]

Let's leave aside the lifestyle effects of drug use for a moment. I think the best argument against cocaine use is the hideous damage is does to grower societies, particularly Colombia:

 

"...the major drug dealers have thoroughly succeeded in corrupting the judicial system in Colombia... Police officers, prosecutors and judges in Colombia are poorly paid and poorly protected. Those who have integrity and backbone are routinely assassinated. Between 1979 and 1989, more than 220 Colombian judges and officers of the court were murdered. More than five hundred others resigned. In 1985, the going rate for a bribe to a judge was $50,000, and it was well known that, as one prosecutor put it, "You could take the bribe or you could die." The death was usually at the hands of a hired killer riding a motorcycle who would fire an automatic weapon into the judge's car. The weapon of choice was most often an Ingram MAC-10 handgun, a "box-shaped little black killing machine that could send big .45 caliber slugs through a car body at the rate of a thousand per minute."

 

On November 26, 1985, the drug dealers' henchmen took over the Supreme Court Building in Bogota, Colombia. The Supreme Court was considering the issue of whether Colombian drug dealers could be extradited to the United States. They had allowed Lehder to be extracted and seemed likely to rule that others could be sent to the United States, too. On that bloody day, eleven of the twenty-four Supreme Court judges were shot dead in their offices. Two of the survivors resigned as a result of continuing death threats. Eight months later, the new Chief Justice, the last surviving "hard-liner" on the extradition issue, was ambushed by the motorcycle killers. Not surprisingly, the new judges who replaced the dead jurists voted on December 12, 1986, to use a legal technicality to prohibit extradition. Thus, the law of the land of Colombia was changed by assassination. As one former Supreme Court Justice said at the time: "A year ago, to be a justice was every lawyer's aspiration; now everybody hides, so they won't be asked to serve."... "

- From http://www.showme.net/CapeCounty/pa/INETPUBCOLOMBIADRUG.htm

 

Uncool indeed. By the way, what kind of law do you practice?

[immoralist]

I see two basic points: all recreational drug users (RDUs) are not dysfunctional addicts and no one, especially non-RDUs, has the right to tell RDUs to stop taking drugs.

 

The poster, pussycat, is swimming upstream with this High Times message but her position is neither extreme nor beyond the pale. She definitely knew which buttons to push (lumping moralistic non-RDUs in the uncool category was sharp).

 

The thing about drugs is that when you're really caught up in the lifestyle there are two worlds: the drug culture of friends and acquaintances and the boring, uptight Straights who lack the imagination, courage, hipness to really let go.

 

The irony is that the RDUs are as judgmental, if not more so, than the Straights. That Hip judgmentalness was very apparent in pussycat's ""cooler than thou" post. Even hip RDUs can become tiresome scolds. The tyranny of cool.

 

For those adults who can handle recreational Drugs, I say go for it. It's your mind, it's your soul. Just remember there's that almost inevitable tipping point where instead of you doing the drugs, the drugs start to do you.

 

At some point, the fun usually stops, the body wears down and the mind starts that long descent into dark places. I guess dementia is cool, too.

[Merin]

Originally posted by immoralist

 

 

At some point, the fun usually stops, the body wears down and the mind starts that long descent into dark places. I guess dementia is cool, too.

 

[moimeme]

(lumping moralistic non-RDUs in the uncool category was sharp).

 

Nah. It was just the bogus blathering of someone who thinks 'cool' is somehow the aspiration of mature adults.

[savethedrama4allama]

Oh my God, you guys! PussyCat just helped me realize something...

 

I am so uncool.

[Texas]

If you don't like alcohol, then why not stay away from drugs all together. Is it worth the risk? Could you stop? Were you high when you posted that brilliant message? It is funny that you say people who don't use drugs are on a "high horse". I've never used an illegal drug, but I don't think I'm any better than anyone who has. I think it's a bad choice to use illegal drugs, it's a pretty simple concept. Coke is illegal for a reason, because it kills people. And, it's the most addictive of any known substance. Being a lawyer, I assume you know that. The fact that you've used it is one thing. The fact that you are so o.k. with it is another. When times get tough, do you turn to coke? Coke will never fulfill that empty void in your life. Only a relationship with Christ can. That's true for anyone. Call me a religous fanatic, but it's true. No drug will make you happy.

[dyermaker]

I have a relationship with Christ, but I'm extremely unhappy.

[tokyo]

Originally posted by dyermaker

I have a relationship with Christ, but I'm extremely unhappy.

 

How´s that???

[immoralist]

Oh my God, you guys! PussyCat just helped me realize something...

 

I am so uncool.

 

 

 

Ditch the cigar.

[EnigmaXOXO]

Sinner writes: For those adults who can handle recreational Drugs, I say go for it. It's your mind, it's your soul. Just remember there's that almost inevitable tipping point where instead of you doing the drugs, the drugs start to do you.

 

Ah, yes. The "tipping point."

 

Everyone starts out believing they can remain a RDU without loosing control. No one ever wants to imagine themselves as one of those pathetic stereotypical addicts (aka. Druggies). They always start out thinking they can "control" the drug and the drug will never get control over them. My ex husband did and so did my daughter.

 

The irony is, most people don't even realize when they've reached that "tipping point." It happens so gradually that the denial has actually set in long before the physical addiction has. A clear example of this has already been generously provided by our OP.

 

My husband, too, still stubbornly denied having a problem even after his nose bleeds became a daily occurrence. Even after his "recreational use" began sucking up his paycheck ($800 a week). He was in denial even when the creditors began to call the house because he couldn't make the payments on the $20,000.00 loan he took out to pay for his "fun" when the paychecks would no longer stretch far enough. He still swore he was "in control" even when he began hallucinating and hearing things because of his sleep deprivation. And he was still claiming "he didn't have a problem" when his own mother discovered the local police had him under surveillance because one of the buddies he had purchased coke from got busted and dropped his name.

 

The thing about drugs is that when you're really caught up in the lifestyle there are two worlds: the drug culture of friends and acquaintances and the boring, uptight Straights who lack the imagination, courage, hipness to really let go.

 

Glad you mentioned that, Sinner!

 

The most difficult part of my husband's recovery wasn't so much the physical and psychological withdraw. He counted himself among the lucky ones because he was able to detox for thirty days in a facility which provided round-the-clock monitor and care, along with daily counseling sessions to help him through the toughest phase (the denial).

 

What hurt him the most was that upon his return home, his cool RDU friends gradually stopped coming around. Once he was clean, his buddies no longer considered him any "fun." After all, who wants to hang out and get high around a "non-user" - someone who serves as a sober reminder of what you, yourself, have become - someone who doesn't have any coke to share or money to make a purchase? Only the chronics enjoy getting "high" alone.

 

Although my husband became very depressed upon being ostracized by his so-called friends, it was actually a blessing in disguise. Had they not been so repulsed by his sobriety, they may have very well lured him back into using. That's where family and new friends stepped in, giving him the support, love and encouragement he needed. For the first time in his life, the fog began to lift and he began to see who his true allies really were. And THAT revelation was the real turning point which inspired him to stay clean. He never used again.

 

So thank you: all of you oh-so-rational RDUs for segregating yourselves from the rest of us boring, uptight straights. You do us, and our families, a great service. As a matter of fact, I credit you for saving my husband's life by providing him with a shiny example of the kind of person he no longer wanted to be.

 

Party on!

[immoralist]

Great post, Enigma. Great post.

 

I got chills reading it. I can just imagine what you experienced living through it.

 

Party on.

[morrigan]

Great posts, Solemate and Enigma!!

 

I don't smoke marijauna or anything else myself, but I do know a lot of people who could be termed dopeheads. One of them, who has been smoking weed 2-3 times a week for about 10 years, says he does have problems with his long term memory.

 

Do I think marijuana is worse than alchohol? No, and I don't think it's always a gateway drug either. Any drug--be it cocaine, weed, alcohol, or pharmaceutical drugs--can have potential long term consequences if you use it frequently. And I agree that it's easy to claim you're not addicted to something, and harder to give the drug up. How many recreational smokers does anyone know?

 

I don't know anything about cocaine, but anyone who tries to claim they can use methampetamine recreationally is full of BS. Long term use causes the brain to be damaged similar to what Alzheimers disease does. People set up meth labs in rural areas and often these places catch on fire. One trailer being used as a meth lab locally exploded about a year ago--the owner's two little children got burned to death in the blast. I don't believe I'd call that cool.

[HokeyReligions]

All the lawyers I know call themselves "attorneys"

 

 

 

MY LIFE and I should be able to live it without the incessant nagging of non-users.

NOT going to happen PussyCat. If you are breaking the law, financially supporting drug trafficking, and putting my life and my finances at risk by supporting your drug habit, you are going to hear from me. Hopefully, you will be listening from behind bars and/or in a therapists chair while in treatment.

 

It doesn't matter if the person buying drugs drives an expensive car, wears a suit, and goes to work every day; or if they live in a gutter and their clothes are stiff with dried vomit---the money trail all leads back to the same place, and they are no different from one another. Strip everything off and they are still illegal drug users.

[blind_otter]

I have a question about that - since my soon to be ex-husband is in prison for growing. I know exactly where the money trail was in terms of the pot he produces. He invested $10,000 of his own money for a location and supplies and bought clones from a friend who drove to Canada for seeds. The money he got when he sold the pot went towards maintaining the production of the plants, he tended to re-invest his profits more than buying material goods.

 

So, where exactly does that money trail lead? I totally see it with ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, etc. But if you grow it locally....

[tiki]

I don't agree with your thinking, pussycat.

 

I lost my first cousin to coke overdose about a year and a half ago. I lost a distant relative to the same, several years back. I've seen the effects it's had on my brother. He's in jail now. He misses his birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.

 

I'm proud to be "uncool" in your book. Being uncool got me where I am today.

 

And just FYI, I'd never use you as a lawyer defending my case if I knew you used coke, sorry.

[HokeyReligions]

Originally posted by blind_otter

I have a question about that - since my soon to be ex-husband is in prison for growing. I know exactly where the money trail was in terms of the pot he produces. He invested $10,000 of his own money for a location and supplies and bought clones from a friend who drove to Canada for seeds. The money he got when he sold the pot went towards maintaining the production of the plants, he tended to re-invest his profits more than buying material goods.

 

So, where exactly does that money trail lead? I totally see it with ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, etc. But if you grow it locally....

 

He spent $10,000 for a location and supplies. Even if the vendors supplying the supplies and land did not know for what he was using the supplies, the drug promoters know. The more people who buy potting soil, the more potting soil must be manufactured and delivered---some legit and some not.

 

What about the seeds/clones? The money didn't stop with the guy he bought them from--it goes back further and further into a rich criminal's pocket. Re-investing in his 'crop' is re-investing in crime. It might not seem like much from one person, but millions of people spending money at all levels amounts to quite a tidy sum! The more money he makes -- even funneling it into legitimate business and/or savings and investments doesn't change the fact that it's money acquired via criminal activity.

 

If he sells his dope to a bunch of 28 year old attorney's it might seem okay. But drugs will filter down to school kids too. Whose to say the attorney's are not re-selling drugs? Or giving them to others who re-sell them? I wouldn't want some pot-head attorney handling any of my legal matters. I wonder if they defend (or prosecute) drug trafficking criminals too?

 

If there were one "drug lord" in the world and that person's merchandise were harvested and shipped out to others to prepare for sale, and some were prepared for a secondary market grower (your ex) then you can see the money trail. Drug related paraphernalia (used for growing, harvesting, marketing, etc.) all has to trickle back to the original source. If no one used illegal drugs anymore the "drug lord" would go out of business along with all the thousands of middle-men between him and the end-user.

[savethedrama4allama]

Originally posted by dyermaker

 

If you have a heart attack, a stroke, or a seizure, I hope you're too cool for a hospital bed, because there are many out there who actually need it.

 

 

Now thats funny.

 

PussyCat what made you post this rant? Are you trying to convince us to use cocaine? Or are you trying to justify what you do? And why would you post it in addiction & recovery? Freudian slip?

[blind_otter]

Well, I can see your point to some extent. But the seeds are legal in Canada, supplied by coffee-shops that purchase from grow-houses in the Netherlands, so I guess they count as drug lords in our country, but in the Netherlands they are, of course, running a legit business.

 

But I also know all the people we sold to. They were college students. I am 100% sure that they never sold to children, as I know all the people who were in the group who bought and sold from each other. We did it that was because it was safer - in the end they got caught because of an electrical fire, because everyone knew everyone else. THe majority for the money he invested was to pay for the house and the condo that he used as grow houses.

 

I still maintain that there is a vast different between trafficking cocaine and heroin and amphetiamines, and pot. I don't even smoke pot anymore and I still don't have a problem with it.