I Need Your Opinions on Drugs?

Question by Alex: I need your opinions on drugs?
Some chemicals, when introduced to the brain, pass the blood-brain barrier and attach to reward receptors such as dopamine and serotonin. These range from benign, like THC, to potentially deadly, like diacetylmorphine (heroin).

As a motivated student (and recovering drug abuser) working toward his pharmacology master, I strive to learn more about this human phenomena that is psychoactive drugs. I want your opinions on them, and the people who constitute their use.

These chemicals are oppressed by our society, yet they have fascinating potential. Unbeknownst to a large portion of the populace, many of them are capable of treating or curing many plagues that we face today on a daily basis. For example, the NMDA antagonist ketamine has massive potential as an antidepressant; lab tests show that a sub-anesthetic dose of this drug caused neurogenesis and antidepressant effects within 2 hours – in roughly 50% of the recipients (compared to a much, much lower sucess rate for modern antidepressants). Many hallucinogens like psilocybin and LSD are capable of treating a vast variety of mental disorders and addictions. Yet modern doctors decide to give patients more dangerous drugs with much lower success rates than stated above (such as xanax or paxil). I cannot help but question their motives. Is this a government plot to keep citizens from getting high? Or do doctors have good intentions, but they fear the consequences of introducing such taboo chemicals to the public?

It’s very hard for me to understand, having seen the other side of the coin. Upon entering junior high, I fell into a severe depressive episode that lasted for nearly five years. Immediately, I gravitated towards drugs, primarily alcohol and whatever prescription depressants I could get my hands on. Vicodin, Valium, and eventually Oxycontin and Xanax. I would mix three, four drugs at a time, half hoping I would die from respiratory depression in the process. It was very serious, but luckily I only went to the ER once.

But then I had a life-changing experience in my junior year. I started smoking marijuana sophomore year, and I found that other users were very accepting of me, unlike my previous ego-obsessed, pill-popping ‘friends’. I grew tired of the constant grind of getting drunk and taking pills every night, and I decided to try something new. So I met with my dealer, and purchased several doses of LSD. I still recall the mind-bending experience very clearly, and the next morning, I felt as if I was a new person. I had a ‘revelation’ the previous night about my drug abuse and some very personal issues. Angry at my misfortune, I grabbed my vodka and my bottle of xanax and threw them into the local lake. I haven’t touched pills since.

Drugs are much more to me than what society makes them out to be. Yes, the dangerous ones like nicotine, heroin, alcohol and meth can seriously destroy lives, but there are such a vast variety of compounds that can help us. I see it as unfair to classify them all as ‘unclean’, and especially unfair to classify drug users as so.

Restating my previous paragraph, I want your opinions about drugs and drug users, taking into consideration what I have told you. Please don’t be inconsiderate. Many people can’t help but to keep using, and it offends them greatly if you treat them as a second citizen because of their choices/disease. I can personally relate to this.

Best answer:

Answer by Chaplin
Medicinal drugs are fine. Illegal drugs are harmful, they don’t “help” people at all, they mess people up.

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