So you've never ever taken drugs... but WHY?

It was very tasty.

fucking genius.

Why I've never tried anything else:

1) In school (and to this day) I was so much of an outcast that I couldn't even hook up with the Goth contingent. I've never known anyone who possessed drugs and would discuss this with me. 2) I've been depressed as far back as I can remember, and have generally trusted the notion that drugs would only mess me up more (not that I ever let it stop me from drinking alcohol). 3) From what I've read about the various drugs (from sources such as erowid.org), the experiences never seemed interesting enough to outweight the side effects, legal risks, and expense. 4) Any drug use in "the Washington, DC scene" is deep undercover. The rather puritanical atmosphere generally is attributed to Fugazi and/or their more zealously straight-edge fans.

That said, drugs have something of a glamour for me, *because* I didn't do anything of that sort as a teenager. And very often I find myself thinking of my current life, "if this is moderation can intoxication be all that bad?"

I suppose I might have been tempted to say to friends who loved dance music and came out with me "oh hey try this", but we all kind of gradually discovered it anyway. Since then other friends who were against drugs have tried out E too, and I feel slightly guilty about that, it's a sort of implicit peer pressure. I mean noone's telling them to do it, but when me and 6 other friends go to see Darren Emerson or whatever and spend the whole week talking about it, I can see how they're tempted. That is to say, I feel guilty because with a different circle of friends they might never try it. But I don't even believe trying it is so bad, so eh.....go figure.

I always figured that since I wasn't a terribly body-centered person, all I had to rely on were my sensory perceptions, and I'd better not do anything to distort them. I've also seen friends who were very fond of recreational drugs screw up their lives badly and permanently with them, and figured I might as well not bother with 'em.

I do regret not having wasted a bit more of my youth, though--I find druggies awful to be around, but many ex-users are really interesting and cool.

I've never understood the, um, pish-toshing of those that think it is unreasonable to not differentiate between legal and illegal drugs. As if the fact that a drug is illegal somehow makes it worse for you? Like, was beer worse for one during prohibition? I just don't get it.

heroin might not be consumed in the same situations and amongst the same sort of people as hash, but neither is hash (at least at the moment) necessarily consumed in the same way as, say, beer.

i'm not looking at an axis of strength/potency/mind-altering properties etc (although i am afraid you cannot deny that this too forms part of the debate, drugs are commonly illegal because they ARE (like durr) stronger than tea, coffee etc) as i am interested in the reasons people will shy away specifically from illegal substances.

yes beer is worse than pot (supposedly, i wouldn't know... that's kind of why i started the thread), yes if alcohol had been invented last week it would have banned. these are not arguments that are either insightful or relevant to this debate.

sorry if it sounds like i'm being picky...

I do like a pint, though.

whoa, long sentence...

people smoking weed at an REM concert = hilarious

i've never tried it, it's just not my kind of thing = bad science

people smoking weed at an REM concert = hilarious

*shrug* The people right in front of me were smoking hand-rolled cigarettes, and the area smelled of marijuana smoke. Later that evening I came to feel agitated and paranoid, and wound up prowling the concourse. While that experience of mine may have been predicated on what you call the "myth" of second-hand pot smoke, it was more than I ever felt on the several subsequent times I tried smoking grass.

can't imagine going to an REM show and NOT having a spliff beforehand tbh

http://ilarge.listal.com/image/2558103/968full-wayne%27s-world-2-screenshot.jpg

Not Everybody Hurts