In Defense of Drugs
by Jason Alan
I’m getting awfully tired of the crazy approaches so many people take on drugs. There’s either strong denial, ignorance or just plain stupidity when it comes to this subject. Or worse, a combination of the three. If you break it down to the raw basics, the vast majority of us do drugs in some form or another.
There are, of course, the two extremes. There are the heroin and meth users, and then there are the “straight” people. Aside from a very small percentage, even the straight people do drugs. Even if they don’t drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Whether it’s the caffeine in the sodas and coffee they drink daily or it’s the prescriptions they get from their doctor.
But what is the difference between these two groups? Nothing. Until they do something to hurt someone else. The “hard drug” users are always painted as the bad guys, even if most of them would never even think of hurting someone or stealing to get drugs or for any other reason.
The people in between are the ones who don’t do illegal drugs but they smoke and/or drink. The majority of people land in this group. Most people you know either smoke or drink, or both. How many of them do you think would rob a liquor store to “get their fix” if they didn’t have any money? Probably none of them, right? Yet alcohol and nicotine have proven to be extremely high on the list of addictive substances.
What’s my point? The problem isn’t the drugs, it’s the people. As a society we need to step back and look at the situation logically. To quit blaming the drugs and start focusing on the people that are doing horrible things. Who’s to say that the guy stealing money from his roommate for drugs wouldn’t do the same if he wasn’t doing drugs, or do something else equally as bad?
We have to accept that there are terrible people in this world. There always have been and there always will be. Throughout history there has been example after example of bad apples in the bunch, many of them not under the influence of any illegal drugs.
We need to stop imprisoning nonviolent people for no other reason than just having them or selling them to adults who want them. You could fill volumes with just the names of people who are locked up or have been locked up because of drugs. An incredible amount of them spend more time in prison than those who have literally raped or killed someone. Is this anywhere close to justice? Or sanity for that matter?
Some people also need to stop looking at others in such a negative light and take a good long look in the mirror. Do you look down at people who smoke a joint or drink some beers at the end of their work day, but behind the mirror that you should be looking into there are bottles of pills? Even if you aren’t one of those people, you probably know people like that, whether you know it or not.
And I’m sure that many would respond that they know someone whose life was ruined by drugs, but they would be wrong. It’s their own fault and they need to own up to it. The alcohol didn’t pour itself into a glass and force itself down their throat. The drugs didn’t sneak into their home during the night and march up their nose like tiny crystal soldiers. It’s time people take responsibility for their own actions.
I for one am sick and tired of being treated like a child. I’m angry about it, in fact. Who the fuck is anyone else to tell me what I can and can’t put into my own body? Fuck that. I can do whatever I want until I harm or steal from others. Until then, get off my fucking back, assholes.
It’s a cold hard fact that people want to do drugs, plain and simple. If you don’t realize this, get your head out of the sand. Or your ass, or wherever it may be.
Jason Alan. Writer, Character. 
Interesting point of view.
I’m in inclined to agree with you, that is if you can honestly say you’re not hurting anyone. Personal experience with my parents’ drug addiction makes me feel that is a mean feat to achieve. And then there are my current neighbors at my apartment. They were clearly under the impression that their pot smoking wouldn’t affect anyone else until it started coming into my apartment where my kids could be exposed to it. I fully believe in every man’s freedom, just make sure it’s really just you you’re affecting.
I will absolutely say that you are correct about caffeine. I rarely drink anything but coffee and soda, so I know exactly what you are saying here. I know it’s an addiction, and lately I started wondering if it hurts anyone more than I think. It might not physically hurt my family, but if I get sick from my poor decision, who will take care of them and provide for them?
Great post, mate! Your topic should drive a few things home for some people.
I’m not saying there aren’t problems associated with them, but we can’t just make everything illegal. Just because some people need their hands held doesn’t mean that everybody does. I’m not just talking out of my ass, I was severely addicted to alcohol for many years. It was me that drank and it was me that decided one day to not let it control me anymore. I say legalize everything and let the chips fall where they may.
That was right on the money. This is exactly the problem today. Let’s blame everything but the person.
You summed up my feelings on drugs so much more succinctly than I could have. I’ve always felt that we should be punishing people for the crimes they commit while on drugs instead of the mere fact that they are selling/using drugs.
If more people thought like us the world would be a better place and I would be able to grow a few marijuana plants on my patio without fear of jail time.
An enormous number of people in the United States of America feel it their mission to make life decisions and lifestyle choices for others. This did not just ambush us yesterday. It is called Puritanism. One can try to reason with them until one is blue in the face, but they will remain perfectly blind to their own hypocrisy. One either lives an exhausting life of resistance to this, or one leaves.
It’s not just the U.S. it’s a worldwide stack of bullshit.
Your point is well taken. I am focused on my own problem dealing with this sort of thing, which in the big scheme is not as bad as it might be. There are places where no one can make any life decision or lifestyle choice for themselves.
I have to disagree with the idea of stopping the punishment of drug dealers and those who have been caught with drugs. While some people might be able to keep their lives together after having taken mind distorting drugs, a large fraction of people who do “do drugs” mess up their own lives or society in some way.
If we ignore the moral and health reasons for the bans on most drugs of abuse we need to consider the fact that a person who “does drugs” may well be transformed from a productive person who pays their taxes into a person who can not (or will not) hold down a job or otherwise contribute to society. Such a person then becomes a drain on the tax payer.
Also the crime associated with drug abuse is a cost to the general public, while it is difficult to put a $ value on the peace of mind of the OAP, the freedom of a park/playground from drug litter (syringes etc) and for the time spent fixing the drug abusers when something goes wrong with them. I still think it is a cost to society which we would be better off without.
That “large fraction” isn’t large at all. It’s a small number compared to those that don’t screw up society. More people use illegal drugs than you know, they just don’t tell you about it. Putting people in jail simply for possessing and/or dealing a substance is ridiculous. It’s obviously not working and it’s a huge drain on taxpayer money. Legalizing drugs would cut down on crime, reduce the spread of disease and the taxes from them could fund not only drug rehabilitation centers but other public services as well. The government isn’t our mommy, and they need to stop treating adults like children, especially when so many of them are doing blow and banging hookers left and right. I appreciate your comment but you couldn’t be more wrong.
I can’t talk for your part of the world but here it is far more than a fraction.
Especially where I have just moved from…there it is a major problem.
I’m afraid I can’t be unbiased as I have been on the brunt end of addiction problems.
I fully agree it is the user to blame but, so often, it is others who do the suffering…like their kids.
People who are going to fuck up their kids are going to do it whether they are sober or not.
I think there are bad people who do drugs and do worse things, but I also think there are good people who do drugs and end up doing bad things becuase of the drugs.
Either way, we have to teach people to stay away from drugs.
Some people need to stay away from some drugs, but everyone is different and there are millions of people that handle them just fine.
i’ll take your word for it.
It’s the government legislating morality, plain and simple.
okay, on some issues, i’d agree about that. with drugs, i think it’s more a health concern.
If it was a health concern then marijuana would be legal and alcohol and tobacco would be illegal.
actually, now that i think about it, tobacco and marijuana would be illegal, and alcohol would be more heavily regulated.
I would expect that smoking weed is likely to be worse in some ways than “normal smoking”; if people are smoking some oily weed and try to hold the smoke in their lungs then it sounds to be like a perfect way to get lung cancer. While some people get a bit stressed when they can not get their “normal smokes”, I have never heard of nicotine causing people to lose their minds in the same way as weed can do. It is interesting that the typical psychotic is much more likely to be a weed smoker than a typical person is. So there is some sort of link between insanity and weed smoking,
Marijuana smokers are the peaceful and docile people I know. Your statement is ridiculous.
Maybe you should read the paper “Prevalence and Impact of Substance Use among Emerging Adults with Serious Mental Health Conditions” by A.J. Sheidow et. al., Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 2012, volume 35, issue 3, pages 235 to 243.
I don’t need to read it to know, from real world experience, that weed doesn’t make people crazy. I’m sure most psychotics eat eggs too, but it doesn’t mean there’s a link between the two.
you think if some guy goes and bites someone’s face off like a zombie and they can connect it with weed, people would stop smoking it?
No, because anybody with two brain cells to rub together knows that that guy in Miami was just crazy and it had nothing to do with weed.
i’m talking about a different guy, someone who hasn’t made the news yet.
Are you planning on toking up and eating some face?
no, that’s not kosher in the least.