Why Dirty Old Uncle Roger Opposes Drug Use and Shut Up.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Me, I use drugs for the pleasure of the high.

And there's nothing really wrong with that.  It's pleasant to be cousin Milty for a while.  But you have to remember the whole leopard thing.

The most disappointing thing about this whole civilized society thing? NO LEOPARDS! how the hell am i going to kill myself in a way that isn't technically suicide now??

Statistically, probably motor accident.

It's kinda like a motorized leopard.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Me, I use drugs for the pleasure of the high.

And there's nothing really wrong with that.  It's pleasant to be cousin Milty for a while.  But you have to remember the whole leopard thing.

The most disappointing thing about this whole civilized society thing? NO LEOPARDS! how the hell am i going to kill myself in a way that isn't technically suicide now??

Oh, there are still leopards.  They're just called different things now.

[McGrupp]

In moderation and not every day drugs can be pretty fun (not magikal, though)

The big negative for me with drugs and the one that doesn't seem to get talked about that much is that it's easy to rely on them when you're bored or upset or just to deal with what you're doing at the time. But here's the thing, do that long enough and all the time you would have spent, painting, writing, going outside, creating, thinking, and making new friends was spent on drugs.

Sure it was all a good time but then you wake up and realize that years have passed. You didn't do the things you were really interested in. You're an artist that never made art. You're a writer that never wrote. You go to a party and realize you have nothing to talk about because all you've done is drugs for weeks. And the older you get the more pronounced this gap with the rest of the world becomes.

Alternate states of consciousness can be a lot of fun but if you're fucked up all the time it's not really an altered state, it's just a state.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

The big negative for me with drugs and the one that doesn't seem to get talked about that much is that it's easy to rely on them when you're bored or upset or just to deal with what you're doing at the time. But here's the thing, do that long enough and all the time you would have spent, painting, writing, going outside, creating, thinking, and making new friends was spent on drugs.

Sure it was all a good time but then you wake up and realize that years have passed. You didn't do the things you were really interested in. You're an artist that never made art. You're a writer that never wrote. You go to a party and realize you have nothing to talk about because all you've done is drugs for weeks. And the older you get the more pronounced this gap with the rest of the world becomes.

Alternate states of consciousness can be a lot of fun but if you're fucked up all the time it's not really an altered state, it's just a state.

DING DING DING

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

In moderation and not every day drugs can be pretty fun (not magikal, though)

The big negative for me with drugs and the one that doesn't seem to get talked about that much is that it's easy to rely on them when you're bored or upset or just to deal with what you're doing at the time. But here's the thing, do that long enough and all the time you would have spent, painting, writing, going outside, creating, thinking, and making new friends was spent on drugs.

Sure it was all a good time but then you wake up and realize that years have passed. You didn't do the things you were really interested in. You're an artist that never made art. You're a writer that never wrote. You go to a party and realize you have nothing to talk about because all you've done is drugs for weeks. And the older you get the more pronounced this gap with the rest of the world becomes.

Alternate states of consciousness can be a lot of fun but if you're fucked up all the time it's not really an altered state, it's just a state.

If this angle (and the complementary "addiction is when you screw up your brain's reward system and seek out lame rewards instead of awesome ones") were used in educating children and adults about drugs, the world would be a better place.

[AFK]

In moderation and not every day drugs can be pretty fun (not magikal, though)

The big negative for me with drugs and the one that doesn't seem to get talked about that much is that it's easy to rely on them when you're bored or upset or just to deal with what you're doing at the time. But here's the thing, do that long enough and all the time you would have spent, painting, writing, going outside, creating, thinking, and making new friends was spent on drugs.

Sure it was all a good time but then you wake up and realize that years have passed. You didn't do the things you were really interested in. You're an artist that never made art. You're a writer that never wrote. You go to a party and realize you have nothing to talk about because all you've done is drugs for weeks. And the older you get the more pronounced this gap with the rest of the world becomes.

Alternate states of consciousness can be a lot of fun but if you're fucked up all the time it's not really an altered state, it's just a state.

Also known as dependency.

[Lord Cataplanga]

In moderation and not every day drugs can be pretty fun (not magikal, though)

The big negative for me with drugs and the one that doesn't seem to get talked about that much is that it's easy to rely on them when you're bored or upset or just to deal with what you're doing at the time. But here's the thing, do that long enough and all the time you would have spent, painting, writing, going outside, creating, thinking, and making new friends was spent on drugs.

Sure it was all a good time but then you wake up and realize that years have passed. You didn't do the things you were really interested in. You're an artist that never made art. You're a writer that never wrote. You go to a party and realize you have nothing to talk about because all you've done is drugs for weeks. And the older you get the more pronounced this gap with the rest of the world becomes.

Alternate states of consciousness can be a lot of fun but if you're fucked up all the time it's not really an altered state, it's just a state.

Also known as dependency.

This is a very interesting take on dependency. Dependency not as "I have to take drugs because if I don't I feel sick/tired/depressed/whatever", but dependency as in "I'm bored, and I could work on one of those things I always wanted to do but didn't becuase I had no time... but drugs are easier"

It's like that experiment Bruce Alexander did with some rats. He gave heroin to some lab rats and they were completely dependent. But then he moved the rats to a much bigger cage, where they could socialize with other rats, play in the running wheels and whatnot. Suddenly, the rats were not dependent on heroin anymore.
( I read about that experiment here: http://boingboing.net/2013/09/16/bruce-alexanders-rat-park-a.html )

An analogy could be made with masturbation. It's usually more about relieving boredom than relieving horniness.

[AFK]

Basically, it is dependency if you alter your regular daily life to take drugs.  When it replaces those things you listed to try to get the same impacts and feelings from those activities.


It becomes abuse when it is more about trying to regulate and maintain your biology.

[LMNO]

What if I take drugs regularly, yet I don't alter my regular daily life?

Not being a jerk, I was curious if there's a term for that.

[AFK]

It would still fall under dependency if you now depended on that being a part of your daily life.  A part that wasn't there before you started taking drugs daily.  If you could quit it tomorrow and forever with no impacts on your daily life it wouldn't be dependency.

[LMNO]

Now, that just doesn't seem fair.  First, it's dependency if it takes the place of other activities.

Then, it's dependency even if it doesn't take the place of other activities.

[LMNO]

Essentially, you're saying all drug use is dependency.

[AFK]

No, I'm not, I'm saying precisely what I said.

[LMNO]

It would still fall under dependency if you now depended on that being a part of your daily life.  A part that wasn't there before you started taking drugs daily.  If you could quit it tomorrow and forever with no impacts on your daily life it wouldn't be dependency.

Ok.  What you said, precisely, that it's dependency if you're dependent on it.


There's a term for that.  I think it's called Circular Reasoning.

[AFK]

No, common sense.  if you depend on a drug as part of your daily routine it is dependency.  That's why it is called dependency. 


Using myself as an example, I drink alcohol like, maybe two or three times a month in strictly social settings.  That isn't dependency because a) it hasn't altered my daily life and b) if i never drank again starting today I'd be fine.  But if I needed to have that drink every day, we are talking about dependency.