I am aware that people use all manner of licit and illicit drugs as mood-altering agents. I know that many plants, fungi, and mushrooms have hallucinatory properties. That sniffing solvents such as those in glues, aerosols, gasoline and even Freon can cause artificial highs. I'm aware of alcohol and drug addiction and that many have become addicted to narcotics and opioids prescribed to relieve the pain of injury. Some of these chemicals such as crack and heroin are instantly addictive. Anyone who has tried to quit smoking knows the power of nicotine. The latest drug to get notice for it's potential for abuse is the active ingredient in the diarrhea medication Imodium. Taken at many times the recommended therapeutic dosage this narcotic produces a high but also depresses respiration and can even stop the heart. The use of marijuana has become so general that governments are moving to legalize it so they can tax it and monitor its use and distribution rather than criminalize routine users.
I have had to use anti-histamines for allergic sinusitis that cause mental and physical depression. For the same reason systemic decongestants that cause mild euphoria. But I have never understood the desire to ingest or inhale a mood altering substance simply to get high. I value being in control too much to become involved in recreational drug use. I don't find alcohol relaxing, rather it tends to make me tenser. Listening to music and the worship experience can produce spiritual ecstasy. Others find similar experiences in running or other exercise, (the pump or runner's high), or in meditation or tantric sex.
Our courts and prison systems are over-loaded with prosecuting those who profit from the demand for illicit drugs. Our capitalistic free-enterprise system shows that where there is a profit to be made from meeting a demand some entrepreneur will come forward to fill it. And drugs reap soaring profits. Just look at the poppy fields of Asia, the use of molasses to make rum, grains to make beer and whisky rather than flour.
No matter what border controls and drug enforcement measures are taken so long as the demand exists and the profits sky high means will be found to exploit the market. Having built fences to keep drugs out cartels use catapults to throw drugs over them.
The war on drugs and crime with increased police budgets may make it look like politicians are seeking to gain control but a check on medicine and liquor cabinets will show that the use of tranquilizers and alcohol to relieve stress is pretty general. If we are to win the war on drugs we have to address the difficult and challenging task of establishing what is driving the demand in the first place. Crowding more and more people into smaller spaces in our cities. Ever increasing background noise. Stressful work environments. Over stimulation by the information explosion of our modern media. Loneliness bred of isolation and anonymity.
