Ah but chocolate is a drug. It has a variety of psychoactive ingredients.

Admittedly its rather weak in the form most of us eat it in but it remains a drug

The posts here advocating or even accepting drug use is normal (which it's not) is quite baffling.

There's not one post here from a non-druggie who then goes on add that all important caveat, be it "but I know this one guy who went too far" or "I've grown out of it now" or "I've tried this and that but not any longer", or "I had a bad experience once".

Utterly baffling.
For the record, I will never comprehend the attraction of cigarettes either – it leaves me equally perplex as to "why?".

Ti29r

Drug taking is normal tho – all human societies use drugs – from chocolate alcohol and caffine to Heroin and cocaine.

Some are more damaging than others but there is something within the human psyche that means we want to get stoned.

Queen Victoria used Morphine and Cannabis, Coca was and still is a normal part of everyday life for the people of the Andean altiplano etc etc

Yeah, and don't forget Francis Crick discovered the double helix of DNA while on LSD 😀

Gives a serpentine knowing wink to Keva in the process 😉

Ti29er – Member

The posts here advocating or even accepting drug use is normal (which it's not) is quite baffling.

There's not one post here from a non-druggie who then goes on add that all important caveat, be it "but I know this one guy who went too far" or "I've grown out of it now" or "I've tried this and that but not any longer", or "I had a bad experience once".

i've never tried any of them except for alcohol. never wanted to.
i have mates who use various things regularly. their choice. i'd rather not be around when they're tripping/high/whatever, but i have no right to tell them that what they're doing is wrong.
i also had mates who are no longer here as a result of their drug use. they got into it knowing the potential risks, and yes i'm angry that they threw their lives away but again it's up to the individual to decide whether they want to risk going the same way. most people that use any drugs don't, by the way…

ha.. cheers Si, hows's things… did I hear/read correctly that you've been back to Peru recently ?

Very true TJ, the Scythians of what is now the Russian Steppes used to sit in tents with large bowls of smouldering cannabis and were said to howl with laughter as they inhaled the smoke. Quoted by Herodotus the Greek traveller/historical writer. It is well known the Aztecs used coca as well as psylocibin containing mushrooms known to them as Teonanacatl. The mescalin containing peyote was also used by natives of the Americas and the Mayans extracted DMT from from the Bufo Alvaris toad and made snuff powders from it (toad licking is a myth) DMT is also one the active ingredients in ayahuasca which is still widely used today pretty much throughout the Amazon region of sounth America. The Soma of the Vedas from the Indian sub continent was more than likely a drink containing animata muscara otherwise known as the fly agaric mushroom, also widely used in shamanic practice throughout north western Europe and Scandinavia as were the more widely used today Liberty cap mushrooms. It is also speculated that Moses was using DMT, the arc of the covenant was made from acacia wood and certain species of the acacia tree contain DMT and harmaline which is necessary for the ingestion of DMT.

http://www.psychointegrator.com/down/biblical_entheogens.pdf

We've probably been using the 'plants of the gods' for about 50,000 years.

Kev

The posts here advocating or even accepting drug use is normal (which it's not) is quite baffling

It depends on your circle of friends, of course…when I was in my early 20s it did seem normal : a vast amount of people were doing a bit of speed or whatever now and again- normal people As I said before, most of us grew out of it.

Dont know what the scene is now as I have turned my back on it all. Cant imagine things have changed though.

…So how many self-confessed drug users on here have ever committed a crime to fund their habit or behaved in an 'anti-social' manner while off their heads? Sure, taking drugs is a personal choice and nobody elses business PROVIDED that it doesn't adversly affect anyone else. Just think of all the misery caused by crime to fund habits/protect dealerships and anti-social behaviour caused by alcohol etc.

Sure, taking drugs has been part of the human experience for thousands of years, often as an integral part of social/ritual life designed to pull a society together. It just seems to me that modern drug use is often more about escaping from the selfish and uncaring 'I'm alright Jack' 'society' we have become rather than enhancing social relationships…

very true steelfreak, it seems we've created our own monster by the nature of our society.

the war on consciousness, Graham Hancock
http://www.grahamhancock.com/features/the-war-on-onsciousness.php

Kev

The fact that some people & cultures down through the ages usd mind altering substances does not mean that everyone wanted to or did.
In many cultures it's readily available, often as a chewed plant grown in abundance.

Our society is vastly different, so saying that because some people in Peru or Nepal did chew tobacco or coca leaves for thousands of years is, what? Justification for doing drugs in our own society?

As has been pointed out, much of this drug taking seems to stem from ones friends, family & probably several socio-economic factors including ones environment. Yet the overwhelming thing gleamed from the posts here is that those who have, no longer bother and most seem to have lost pals along the way.

So again we return to what still perplexes me, that oh-so simple interrogative, "why?"; and truth, at 45, I'm hardly going to try cigarettes, or dope or chase some elusive dragon – so for me it's not a question you can even begin to answer nor for that matter even expect non-drug users such as I to really comprehend.

So, if it's OK with you (TJ), I'll wear a helmet when riding my bike and deliberately choose to not waste my life or money or (by the sound of things) whole days on these drugs. But thanks for the offer!

phoned the bloke today, and………

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCLs0jv_Efk 😆

Ti29er

i was just pointing out that there appears to be something in the human psyche that leads us to drugs of all sorts. Drug taking is "normal" in that it happens in all socisties and has done since prehistory.

do you drink alcohol? One of the most damaging drugs ever.