Elucidate the Sober Hour

Elucidate the sober hour by maddening your dreams, such sayings appear insane but still convey just what I mean, although I know it looks quite droll it’s smarter than it seems: It brings to eye something you think instead of things you’ve seen.

I just want to say that there is nothing wrong with drugs. Call it aspirin, ibuprofen, NyQuil, antihistamine, penicillin, nicotine, marijuana, Ritalin, ecstasy, Zoloft, cocaine, codeine, LSD, Oxycontin, morphine or heroin; they’re all drugs, and they all have their uses. These are not the problem. The problem is that most humans (present company not excluded) lack the capacity to use drugs responsibly.
Now of course there is a rather valid theory that the use of drugs such as marijuana or cocaine has a negative correlation with acceptance of responsibility. Okay, that’s bullshit; it’s actually not a theory but a fact that most real drug abusers are pathetic emotional masochists highly dependent on the support of their social circle. Some would say that this behavior is a direct result of the drug abuse because of damage it has done to his/her brain and coping mechanisms, while others might postulate that his/her inability to develop emotionally in this matter predisposed them to drug use.
To me, it’s obviously a bit of both. We have a self-feeding cultural stereotype of drug users as degenerates and failures. This social consideration alone is enough to keep any individual that desires to be respectable and successful from getting involved in drugs, while to already “shady” characters a drug habit is just another drop in the bucket. In any case, the government’s main case (unspoken, of course) for the war on drugs is the effect that drugs have on people’s civic behavior and the types of people that gravitate to drugs. Statistics show very effectively that this is, in fact, the case, and I don’t in the least intend to dispute it.
Government drug campaigns often insist that this is always the case with drugs, and they are very nearly right. But on occasion, a freak ripple runs through cultural norms and a perfectly decent and contributing member of society will smoke some weed. And a perfectly average and ethical student uses illegally acquired Adderall to help in studying, and a wife with a sprained ankle will pop one of her husband’s old hydrocodones from when he had surgery. Whatever, it happens, and it happens all the time, everywhere. And I, personally, don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. “That,” of course, referring only to this paragraph. The other aforementioned situations I think everyone can agree are regrettable. We just have to appreciate that the propaganda isn’t always accurate, and sometimes perfectly reasonable people do drugs.
Cosmically, the legality of the drugs matters very little as long as they’re psychoactive. You’re just as high or higher on Ritalin than anyone has ever been on pot, so don’t try to tell me which is “worse” for “coping mechanisms” or whatever. The fact is that drugs do alter your mindstate. The fact is that sometimes this is a bad thing, depending on the drug and the mind. The fact is that sometimes this is a good thing, also depending on the drug and the mind. Currently that is at a doctor’s discretion for psychiatric therapy, usually reserving drugs for the “troubled.” Classically, drugs were taken and issued by tribal priests and medicine men, as sacred aids for contemplative rituals, during which individuals reflected on life and overcame inner obstacles. Well, shit, it seems near enough the same thing to me. But what sort of spiritual legitimacy does a psychiatrist have, representing what higher ethical authority than the US government?
Now, I’m not trying to be Timothy Leary. I think he was crazy, that the acid had addled his brain as it is prone to do, and then subsequently the brains of everyone who bought into his philosophy. His religious dependence on LSD is exactly what made him so ludicrous. Aldous Huxley, on the other hand, took a much more responsible approach to psychedelia. He experimented, though notably not enough to fry his mind, and conceded that while psychoactive substances can help a person change and progress into a happier and more enlightened state, they are by no means necessary. Nor are they healthy to use excessively for extended periods of time, because each drug naturally has eventual negative side effects to counterbalance the positive. This is just evolution telling us not to get carried away with all the poppy seeds and morning glory, and that we need to stay connected to reality instead of indulging emotional dependencies on altered mindstates.
I just hope that someday a trend will emerge for responsible drug use, but remembering human nature, I’m afraid that won’t happen. Maybe the next step in our evolution will grant us self-control, now that we’ve got the thumbs.