Pharmaceuticals, injestables, herbs and spices, amino acids and a million other compounds – as I see it, everything we consume is a “drug” of some sort. We categorize them differently, depending on potency, popularity, and possible unwanted effects; but we’re all on drugs, all the time. And the drugs we ingest are only complementing the ones already being made by our own bodies.
We alternately give way too much attention, and not nearly enough attention to these various drugs. Concentrated crystalline sugar could be considered an addictive and potentially lethal drug, but no one thinks twice about the sugar bowl on the table. Cigarettes used to be the same way, and in much of the world, alcohol still is.
My favorite drug is probably coffee. Thank the gods coffee isn’t illegal. Still, I do sometimes abuse it. Perhaps they should establish a maximum legal blood caffeine level.
I’ve been pretty down on alcohol my entire life, perhaps because both my parents were alcoholics, and alcoholism seemed to factor prominently in my family history. Then I encountered a charming article explaining how alcohol might actually be one of the best things ever to happen to humans. The irony.
As a child of the sixties, I’ve tried a lot of different drugs. But, aside from the obvious ones – cannabis, mescaline, LSD – I came to realize that even the oregano on my pizza was a drug. And the cheese? Definitely a drug.
Since we’re all drug users, I probably don’t need to belabor the dictum: “The poison is in the dose”. We all understand that a spoonful of sugar in your tea might be fun, while twelve spoonfuls might make you sick. It’s inherently difficult to legislate responsible use of substances, because safe dosage is hard to gauge, and because “responsible” depends largely on the intent of the user. So which is worse – obliterating myself with five slices of pizza, or obliterating myself with five beers, or obliterating myself with a spliff? I know, someone’s thinking, “All three at once!”, but my point is that there are a lot of different ways to medicate oneself, and that, in sufficient dosage, any of them can cause harm.
Visiting a utopian dreamland, imagine a world where everyone took full responsibility for their bodies. Actually, much of the world already does – and not just the affluent, with their yoga mats and essential oils, but also the humble who faithfully follow the traditions of their cultures. But throughout the world we see people who seem quite disconnected from their bodies; who, through ignorance or distraction, don’t seem to accept personal responsibility for the health of their own person. A world where self-care is the norm – taught in every grade, like math – would be free of many of our intractable healthcare and substance abuse problems.
Legislation to force people to care about themselves is a bit silly from the start. We could write laws requiring big rubber bumpers around everyone’s cars, and lower the speed limit to 20 MPH, but the smarter approach might be to help people become better drivers.
“Better driving” here would aim for not only physical health, but also mental and emotional wellness; and this is where it gets challenging. Happy people don’t generally get strung out on pizza or gambling or vodka or meth. But happiness is the most elusive of human conditions. If I could open a school that successfully taught happiness, I’d be rich as heck.
Meanwhile, we go chasing after symptoms of symptoms of symptoms – fighting the influx of immigrants at our border, caused by drug war violence back home, caused by our drug addictions, caused by our unhappiness and misdirected efforts to feel better.
So how might we untangle this web – where to even start? With little steps, all over the place, I’m guessing. But near the top of the list: Stop the drug wars. From the hills of Bolivia to the prisons of Chicago, the war on drugs devastates every community it touches. The problem is, there’s only one way to really stop the war, and that’s by reducing or eliminating people’s pathological hunger for dangerous drugs, to a point where these substances could be treated like whisky or tobacco. And that, by comparison, seems the most challenging solution of all.
A rat might take cocaine until it dies, but we’re not rats. Every human is capable of having the awareness and agency to intelligently regulate the substances they ingest. Many already do, and those who don’t could learn. Our drug laws treat people as if they were rodents.
I understand that some people seem biologically predisposed to crave certain drugs, and that, in the case of addictive drugs, some truly are “powerless over their addictions”. But even for these people – especially for these people – criminalization isn’t the best solution. If someone’s strung out on drugs, the first question shouldn’t be, “Where did he get them?” It should be, “How can we help him?”
Of course, we can also care where he got them. And we can care about the conditions in the countries where these drugs originated. If we had healthier relationships with these countries, we might find many creative methods to impede the production of these drugs. I’m not actually advocating for a world awash in meth and fentanyl; a substance can still be illegal and scarce, even if decriminalized.
The idea of decriminalizing opiates or meth may sound crazy, but if they were giving away free samples at Costco, I wouldn’t be tempted to try either, simply based on the abundant cautionary tales. I’m only moderately smart, and moderately happy, but would have no trouble making this decision. But if I was a little more neurotic, and/or living in conditions of misery, who knows? A plan to decriminalize drugs will necessarily entail the reduction of all forms of misery, and a greater focus societywide on the fine art of happiness.
Daunting task, for sure, but look at the alternative: Entire countries south of our border brought to their knees. Innocent bystanders forced to flee their ancestral homeland. Prisons full of people whose essential crime was a desire to be happy.
There are ways to intelligently unwind this situation. The legalization of cannabis is a start. Yes, one can definitely abuse cannabis, but no one gets a prison sentence for possession of Marlborough or Budweiser. Cannabis is a non-addictive, nonlethal drug that should never have been classified with lethal substances in the first place.
Given room to experiment with cannabis and other similar substances, many have found benefit, even in micro-doses. As with alcohol, and even table salt, a small dose of these compounds can produce an entirely different effect from a large one. I drink alcohol until I’ve had enough, not until the bottle’s empty.
I also don’t take a drug just because a doctor or pharmaceutical company told me to. Different problem, same idea. Like it or not, this body is my responsibility, and I need to be actively involved in its upkeep. (And, for the record, I definitely got vaccinated.)
And happiness? If I ever figure that out, I’ll open that school promptly. But for now, I’ll suggest that no ingestible substance is inherently good or bad – they can all be used or abused. My morning cup of coffee seems, on balance, to be a good thing. Research is showing that, under proper conditions, psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine can aid in recovery from PTSD and a host of other maladies. As always, it’s a question of dosage, and intent.
We needn’t be quite so afraid of these powerful compounds – and maybe we need to be a little more afraid of some of the common substances we medicate ourselves with. But sometimes, when I’m reaching the bottom of that tub of ice cream, I might mostly just need a sense of humor. We do the best we can.
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