Hey, how does everyone here feel about drugs? It seems that most journal people I read lean towards being straight-edge for some reason.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

Answers

good: MDMA, THC, shrooms, LSD

bad: coke, heroin, alcohol, tobacco, inhalants

That's just my opinion though, and I have personal reasons behind those choices (also, I live in California. Honest to goodness, I know few people who haven't at least experimented and are open about it, professors included). The recreational use of some illegal pharmaceudicals can be beneficial if kept recreational or as a one- time thing. Unfortunately not everyone has great will power (or whatever) and "good" drugs consequently turn into "gateway" drugs; I won't try anything physically addictive, myself, but psychological addiction is an entirely different thing--too many people delve into the world of drugs when life is sucking, which is a bad combo.

More than anything though, I hate close-minded people. For example, I lost so many friends after I tried pot for the first time. POT. jesus christ. It's a whole different world, and I really wish more people would give it a chance, or at least respect the choice that some of us have made to do so.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

Alcohol is way less harmful for you that mdma is. It pisses me off when snobby ravers take like 5 e's a day and bitch about people who drink. Not that ecstasy isn't fun as hell, it is, I'm just saying that it's not that good for you. If you drop acid every day you're probably going to become fucked up too, but I think that, in moderation, it can be used quite healthily (and you even get to learn neat stuff about your place in the universe!).

-dan

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

Well, my thing with saying alcohol is worse than e is this: Most kids that take e do not become perpetual etards. Alcohol, on the other hand, is addictive. MDMA is not, nor is it more of a health detriment than a mixed drink. . . . it's probably less! Ecstasy gets a bad rap.

"Fenfluramine, a serotonergic appetite suppressant is three times more potent than MDMA in producing the same experimental lesions in animals. It has been marketed and sold for more than 25 years, and millions of doses have been administered to people, usually chronically, without any particular side effects which would point to a lasting neurological lesion. In fact, one of its two isomers, d- fenfluramine, is in the middle of clinical trials for FDA approval as an appetite suppressant which lacks some of the side-effects of the racemic drug. Methamphetamine also appears to be neurotoxic in the same models, but even though it is a very abusable drug, no one would say that it produces obvious neurological deficits when used in the treatment of narcolepsy or attention-deficit disorder." -- Steve Dryer, who has no reason to "beat the drum for MDMA," from alt.drugs (c. way back in the day--1997 maybe?)

as an aside, is Dancesafe a nationalwide thing? Or is it just in the bay area? They frequent parties and will test your MDMA for free. E's bad rap is largely due to fuckup sick-minded dealers that mix other crap in there. Know your source.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

i haven't done a lot of drugs but i do like to drink me some beer and smoke me some cigarretes.

i've had terrible experiences with marijuna, just because it's been so intense and made my throat hurt .. and it didn't make me happy, which is supposed to be desired result, right? right.

i would like to experiment more, but i don't want it bad enough to actually seek it out.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

MDMA depletes serotonin levels in your brain. This is what causes the whole post-e depression thing. No one really knows what happens with long term use. It's pretty hard to get addicted to alcohol, if you use it responsibly. I could get a little tipsy every night for a week and be fine every morning/day; if I took a pill of e every night for a week, I'm pretty sure I'd be a complete mess at the end of the week.

-dan

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

By the way, fenfluramine or whatever it's called is outlawed now. Remember Fen-Phen? That shit that was killing people? Fenfluramine was half of that lovely drug combination.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

at the rate of a hit a week, most people would have to take five hits in ~3 months to feel anything. its effects rapidly decline with usage.

the fen-phen COMBO is lethal. lots of drug combos are lethal.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

"at the rate of a hit a week, most people would have to take five hits in ~3 months to feel anything."

This means you are doing way too much e.

-dan

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

I think the war on drugs is fucked up. It should end.

I think that marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes.

I don't do any drugs -- I'm allergic to smoke. Also, I am a control- freak. Well, a self-control-freak. I don't like to be out of control, in other words.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 2000

I've never done drugs, not even smoked pot. I'm proud of myself. I just never had an interest. My 15 year old brother, however, is a pothead. Funny how things happen.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2000

being under the influence of drugs will not deprive you of self-control in all cases. there have been plenty of times when i've been drunk and i've been completely consious of all of my actions.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2000

I just had one of the weirdest fucking days of my life thanks to drugs, actually. I feel like recounting it here, because I want to write it down anyway, and uh, yeah. So.

Ok, my roommate and I had planned to go to Montreal this weekend for some good old fashioned Canadian fun and what not. I guess his good friend lives there or goes to school there now or something. The bottom line is, the train left early. And so I decided that I would not sleep. Anyway, my roommate and I found a bunch of really good acid earlier this week that we'd been saving, so I figured I'd take some last night around 11 and just have a swell time until eventually falling asleep on the train somewhere. Yeah, so everything was going fine, blah blah blah, until we actually had to go to Penn Station to get the train from New York City to Montreal. We were running a little late, so I was worried, but we managed to get to the gate on time and all that. When we got there, the guard guy said that to get to Canada, I needed a birth certificate or passport, which, of course, I did not. My roommate did, because he is a Russian citizen and would need one anyway, but I was under the impression that all I needed was a license. No dice. I wasn't really all that mad, and there was some really nice Amtrak lady there telling me about some government office in Chinatown that had a record of everyone's birth certificate, and that I could go there and get a copy, and then take the 11:30 train to Montreal. It was about 8:10 at this point, and although I was pretty fucked up, I was also inspired. Oh yes. So I figured that I would not let this stand in my way, no, in fact, I would accomplish this task and journey to Mohnnnntreall! Hohn hon hoohn! I had no idea how fucking hard it is to navigate New York City while on acid. I don't suggest you try it, because I've lived here for a couple months now and I was pretty much hopeless. I managed to get to within a few blocks of the place I was looking for (it was on Worth street and I thought it was pretty funny that I was on a quest for worth), but I had no idea where to proceed from here. I was pretty tired at this point, and although the prospect of having some wacked out Hunter Thompson journey was very appealing, I decided it would probably be best for my mental and physical health if I just hailed a cab and came home. Which I did. And now I am here. Where I started. Anyway, I think I am off to Central Park, because it's all snowing and pretty out.

The moral of the story is that acid is good, but not when you have complex tasks to accomplish that involve sober members of society.

Thankyouverymuch.

-dan

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2000

dan, we need to get high together.

-- Anonymous, December 08, 2000

Dan, that's a great story. For any other Canadians, we all know that Montreal is the best party town ever.

Anyways, my first experience on acid was at a friends house when there were only a few of us girls and two guys. Being a the prep goody-goodies at school, the only drugs we do are weed (aside from smoking and drinking). So here we were laughing up a storm about pesticides. My friends Amanda started to cry and brought out visine thinking that there were pesticides in the air and that by crying she could emitt whatever chemicals were in here eyes? Then Magda started to freak out and said that it was the chemicals that were inside the house that were seriously fucking up people. So we were completely aware and for some odd reason everything seems to make so much sense, however much non-sense that you're citing. So here we were, 6 teenagers, totally messed up (we probably looked chinese) and then we ran inside (blind folded so we wouldn't have to be exposed to the house hold chemicals) and we grabbed bed sheets.

To make a long story short, 6 teens ended up sleeping outside in a bed sheet fort trying to start an anti-house hold chemical campaign.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2000

Dude, what is it with acid and bed sheets? Last time I tripped, (like a year ago) we dropped at like 3 am, so we were still going good when the sun came up. As you know, big orange ball in the sky = bad, so we took bedsheets and nailed them up over every window. It worked, too, but it made the really nice house we were in look like a harem.

That night, two guys I was with found a saw in the garage and attempted to cut down the neighbor's tree with it. When we asked them why they would want to do that, they said, "What ELSE would you do with a saw?"

Anyone ever had a visual on a Claude Monet painting? I reccommend it. That guy had to be on opium or SOMEthing.

-- Anonymous, December 12, 2000

"totally messed up (we probably looked chinese" What is that supposed to mean?

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2000

Damn, I've been getting high since 5:00 last night - just a constant smoking of ... I'm high and I'm at work - how much more fun can ya get? I only do minimal amounts of weed, to the you the truth. Last year during lunch, for about a week my friends and I went to the bathroom and sniffed coke, then for another week, did speed. I think out of them all, I like coke the best, although I'm not about to start up that shit again.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2000

haha snorting coke in the bathroom was a popular activity at my high school as well. the "threat of getting caught" was a joke. we couldn't afford school/bathroom/hall monitors or whatever.

-- Anonymous, December 23, 2000

I'd like to say that I enjoy doing E. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do any other drugs. When I found E, Back in November of 2000 I used it responsibly if that's the term you want to use. I use it once every 4-6 weeks and take between 1 and two pills. If you have a dealer that you can trust, a friend even, then they can tell you about the ecstacy you are buying. If it's good, how long it lasted for him/her, and if there were any unusual side-effects along with it. Don't do it if you're depressed, sad, or just plain having a bad day. Read up on any drug you're thinking about trying. Read all different sources. Well, stay safe, take care of yourself. And remember we all die one day, it's just a matter of how and when.

-- Anonymous, June 14, 2001

Back in my day (like 6 years ago) I realized (While tripping my ass off) that drugs are analogous to a video game. There are 3 levels.

Easy: Alcohol and Pot. It's fun, it's common, and it's easy to recover from.

Intermediate: Acid, mushrooms, and I suppose E (but it didn't REALLY hit until after "my day") These are the ones you dabble with, but you know you shouldn't get into it too much, because you're going to waste your quarters (or brain cells).

Expert: Coke and heroin: These you don't fuck with. They're highly addictive. They can kill you. Bad combo.

But anyway. Drugs should be treated differently, in the eyes of the law. Some should be legalized (like weed) since it can't kill you (like alcohol), and it's a $6 billion per year industry that could be taxed and MAKE money, instead of fought and WASTE money. The other drugs should be decrininalized: as in, not legal to import/sell, but not illegal to posess or use. This way, we can still prosecute heroin dealers, but we can treat the heroin addict as a person with a sickness, instead of an addict.

-- Anonymous, June 16, 2001

I was at a rave last night and someone was selling some BAD e. Everytime I walked into the bathroom, there were people puking and passing out on the floor and stuff. Fortunately, *I* got the GOOD kind and had a fun and exciting night. And it wore off just in time for me to drive home.

-- Anonymous, June 18, 2001