Opinion - is it because they're illegal

[beentheredonethatagain]

why does the general public describe the recreational use of drugs, bad?
other than opiates and other physicaly addicting drugs, are they bad because they are illegal? bad because they damage your health?

generally the public views the use of alcohol as okay, unless it's abused on a regular basis, because it's legal?

so would drugs be okay too , as long as they were not abused ?

Let's hear what you have to say on this subject. thanks

Reputation Comments on this post:

An interesting topic- if a little broad.

[RedBaron]

Swim thinks that they're "bad" because they're illegal and
there is such a biased in soceity in those terms. Simple minded people
get brainwashed by the government into thinking drugs are bad but
really theyre just potential for growth. For example, look at all the deaths
and addictions alcohol causes and believe me the numbers are through the roof. Then look at marijuana and how much trouble it causes but is still considered worse and "bad" by the general unusing public.

we have to go forward with all the FACTS we have people!
change sum of this unyeilding legislation

Reputation Comments on this post:

going forward with all the facts, is great advice, aswell the rest of your post.

[Joe-(5-HTP)]

For many reasons.

Because they are illegal,
Because they can cause harm,
in the words of Ken Kesey: "Because they are afraid that there is more to reality than they have encountered"

The parts of a machine have to be well oiled and as such, individuals must be moulded to fit their place and play their part in society.

Propaganda, traditional beliefs and so on. People feel threatened when they realise that not everyone defines success in the same way as them. When they come to understand that people might believe that they are inhuman slaves to a mechanical system, they react in their predictable way...

Perhaps it is human nature to require a group against whom you hold ideological differences, perhaps it is just the influence of the capitalist regime or some other social force.

In my opinion, and in my experience, people's negative attitude to drugs is mainly due to ignorance. But it is not the kind of ignorance you can alleviate by telling people the truth: it is a deeper human - all too human ignorance stemming from people's secret pain of being alive. Perhaps caused by a reaction to this day and age- perhaps it is just human nature, perhaps it is just because most people are weak.

And I honestly believe most people have psychological problems due to their futile obsession with avoiding pain and suffering. Life is all about taking risks, getting hurt and if you don't accept this and ultimately find joy in that fact then all of the happiness you seek will become meaningless and boring, because you won't be embracing the fact that you are a human being. Your family, your relationships and your interests will ultimately become meaningless to you and that is the feeling which characterizes the pain of modern civilization. It is a suffering- not a tragic or important suffering- just a meaningless pain. and that makes it even worse. Deep down, many people just feel insignificant and useless.

As I have said somewhere on this forum before: Drugs make people feel real happiness, real pain, real life !

But in this day and age, most are too weak to seek real life because they are so caught up in the fact that their lives are fake. Hatred makes them feel alive, so they will hate you.

This quote kind of sums up drug-users place in society:

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed."

— Richard Adams (Watership Down)

You may totally disagree with me as you may think the ignorance is curable, and that society should be reconciled but I think that in many ways the attitude mainstream society has to drug taking is revealing of an inherent schism in humanity.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	great point , society does nead a whipping boy. and ignorance is not curable. love your post as a whole
	opinion is illuminated by fitting quotations

[Madcow]

SWIM has been trying to figure this question out for a long time...

And as of late, the question has come up more and more.

The hardest part of society's distaste for drug use and drugs in general (which is hypocritical in itself, but that's another story), especially when the people who share this common view are your friends and family. SWIM's girlfriend happens to be a firm believer that "any and all drugs and the use of them are bad," yet she knows that they're an important part of SWIM's life (introspection with psychedelics and a possible turn in the choice of career path towards pharmacology). It becomes very tough when his girlfriend knows that they're so important, but knows that she will get mad if he uses them. In turn, this will make SWIM be less apt to using anything for the simple fact that he knows she will get angry.

There are also certain friends that SWIM just cannot talk with about this sort of thing, knowing full well that there will be a change in their relationship.

This is just a small part of it, and it has become increasingly frustrating for SWIM...