To think some people take drugs because it is fun?

[crunchymint]

There is the assumption that people take drugs because of mental health problems, or other problems. But plenty of people take drugs because it is fun. I am not advocating taking drugs. But sometimes it is as simple as that.

Four, I'm with you - ice and a slice coming up!

Yeah, I’d feel the same. It’s a lot less fun when you realise what it takes to get it hear. Beheadings and torture, including the murder of children, for my ‘cheeky’ line on a fun night out? Not for me. Would kill my buzz somewhat.

It’s prohibition which makes this so, but as it’s prohibited for the foreseeable future, I’ll pass.

I’ll drink to that !

Maybe, but if a person can't have 'fun' without them then it's a problem. So many (mainly young) people can't enjoy a night out without drugs. Does that sound fun to you, or more like a psychological problem? Maybe they have low self esteem or lack confidence. Maybe they are escaping a hard or boring life. No one takes drugs just because it's enjoyable.

And then there is alcohol. How many look forward to a wine or beer at the end of a hard day? Or a few drinks at the weekend with friends? Relaxing and fun, or an addiction? Depends. Can you enjoy yourself without it? Does it always feature whenever you have 'fun'?

I don't believe people who take drugs or drink regularly do it just for fun. There's always something going on under the surface where drugs are concerned, and more often than anyone will admit with alcohol.

@sink

I think sometimes doctors refer to it as “shit life syndrome”. That’s not meant to be as pejorative as it might sound. It’s just an uphill battle in some areas. People require treatment, but the underlying cause is that life is fucking hard for lots of people.

Was this a TAAT?

If so, presumably triggered by the vociferous posters explaining that if a young person takes drugs it must be because they have been abused or neglected or badly parented.

That was the sense I took the OP in: some people genuinely choose to do this because (they think) it is fun. Doesn't mean the OP endorses it (she specifically said she didn't). But worth recognising that this may well be the case.

Dh had the happiest childhood you could well imagine: loving parents who were always there for him, lots of fun. But he did smoke weed as a young student, out of curiosity. Now happily, dh has the least addictive personality you could well imagine: he was the man who was able to give up smoking from one day to the other with hardly any ill effects and hasn't had a fag since the day he decided to stop.

But that is not to say that it worked the same for all his friends, who may well have started for similar reasons. They probably all started out of a sense of curiosity and "fun". But one of them later killed himself after an episode of delusional paranoia. Doesn't mean his initial motivation was necessarily any different or that his family were to blame.
(some of the things said to the mother of the drug-taking boy on the other thread were truly vile)

Racecardriver
Surely you have mental health problems or at least a serious intellectual deficiency if you find drugs fun? I can understand sati g that they are relaxing or a do of escapism or something like that but I don't see how anyone in their right mind could find them fun. Or maybe they are just boring people with low standards.

Yeah, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Chatterton, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Philip K. Dick, Sigmund Freud, Stephen King, William Wilberforce, Thomas Edison, Carl Sagan, Francis Crick... All such boring people with serious intellectual deficiencies!

@cory

I didn’t see that thread.

It’s very, VERY stupid and dangerous to assume that the only children who will take drugs will be from a damaged or chaotic family background. What ignorance. Very foolish to think because you’re naice your children are immune to this.

@ZanyMobster I've done MDMA and coke a tiny handful of times since having kids, but it's not really worth it - the stress about having to be up and about and capable the next day, the worry about a dodgy batch, the fact that everyone is still bloody knackered and you can't get to sleep afterwards. It's just not the same as it was.

When i found myself pregnant at 29, I knew I would be saying goodbye to a long and very important part of my life.

LSD and mushrooms helped me to get past 'stuck' moments in writing my PhD.

MDMA was hugely healing when I came out of a very long, intense and destructive relationship - we took it together a few times during the post break up period and it helped us both to forgive each other and move on.

I was never a big coke fan, speed was always more functional, and I never really liked being stoned.

But I really really miss the magical nights of dancing and hugging and talking and learning and laughing, seeing beauty in unexpected ways, even the scary times at the very edges of reality (thinking of my first microdot which I took along with another 1.5 tabs...)

These days I pretty much just drink, which is not the same at all - easier in some ways and harder in others.

Sigh!

Of course most people who take drugs do so because it if fun!

Just like most people who drink alcohol when out with friends do so because it is fun.

Singing, it can also be about your social circles. As I said, the only 2 people at the drama school parties dd attends who don't take anything are dd herself and another young person with diagnosed MH issues, both of them because they know it's too risky. Everybody else does, on a regular basis. Presumably they don't all, every single one of them, have underlying issues. But it's the done thing. Like going to the boozer after work in my FIL's generation.

Genuine question for those who think drugs should be legalised?

Where would one get them from? A chemist or a special shop which sold just drugs?
Would any paperwork be needed - e.g. When was the last time you bought some?
Would there be a limit as to how much one could buy in one go, or could one just walk in and buy as much as one wanted?

Dapple -legalisation and standardisation works perfectly well with drugs at the moment - eg cigarettes and alcohol.
I suppose it would work in a similar way.

*Where would one get them from? A chemist or a special shop which sold just drugs? Yes.

@racecardriver do you think the same about alcohol too? It's the same sort of feeling just better IMO. How much experience of drugs do you have in comparison to alcohol?

I would 100% do speed instead of drinking if I could guarantee it was safe. The high is better, the low is not as bad, it's cheaper and like others have said it's less regularly used.

@gordonlondon yes the nights were magical. You make best friends on those nights that you never see again, it's a surreal time. I miss that.

@Zany alcohol is a drug. It is classed as a depressant. The only difference with alcohol is that obviously it can taste nice and can be used in cooking or can compliment a meal. So I can understand drinking for the sake of taste but drinking to get drunk is a bit beyond me. You ate essentially making yourself stupid and clumsy on purpose-why? Drunk people are bores to be around and being drunk is pretty boring. You can't do anything interesting while drunk. Unless you are getting drunk to forget about your prpblens/put yourself in a stupor for some other reason I don't see why you would do it. Same goes for all drugs. There are far more interesting things to do with your time. Must be something wrong with you if choose to do that to yourself.

@GorgonLondon for my husband's 40th recently, my mum very kindly looked after our children for a week and we went on a whistle stop tour round Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam. One of the highlights was taking magic mushrooms for the first time in years and wandering round Amderdam's Flevopark at night, marvelling at everything and laughing like twats. That will probably be it for another twenty years but it really was great.

(and left me with a deep sense of ease and wellbeing that actually lasted for a good few days afterwards)

@gorgon and good half of those people definitely has physiological problems, the other half I don't know but probably a quicj Google will reveal a lot of problems. I doubt they were taking drugs for fun.

I took loads in my younger days when I was mad into the rave scene and would dance until daylight. Haven't touched them for years and not interested in doing them again. OH has never done a single drug and is still shocked after 22 years together that I've tried so many. I've always been open with eldest DD and have told her that if she ever takes anything then to tell me so I can keep an eye on her. She's 20 and has never taken anything

Racecardriver
and good half of those people definitely has physiological problems, the other half I don't know but probably a quicj Google will reveal a lot of problems. I doubt they were taking drugs for fun.

Please do tell me which of these you think 'definitely has physiological problems' and which you 'don't know'. (Do you mean 'never heard of'?)

As a reminder, the list was:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas Chatterton, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Philip K. Dick, Sigmund Freud, Stephen King, William Wilberforce, Thomas Edison, Carl Sagan, Francis Crick

A quick Google might be quite informative and perhaps you would stop making insulting blanket statements on a subject that you seem to know very little about.

Just to start you off, while on and inspired by various drugs, Coleridge wrote the poem 'Kubla Khan', Francis Crick visualised (correctly) the structure of DNA, Charles Dickens wrote what are widely considered among the best novels of the 19th century, Thomas Edison invented and Carl Sagan made breakthroughs in theoretical astrophysics.

You might also want to add Paul Erdos, one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, who depended on amphetamines for his best work, and that's not to mention all of the brilliant musicians whose drug taking has led to some of the most incredible music of all time.

I'll let you enjoy exploring the rest for yourself.

Surely you have mental health problems or at least a serious intellectual deficiency if you find drugs fun? I can understand sati g that they are relaxing or a do of escapism or something like that but I don't see how anyone in their right mind could find them fun. Or maybe they are just boring people with low standards.

@Racecardriver - Most people who do drugs recreationally don't NEED drugs to have fun

But there is a chemical rush of dopamine when you take stimulants, it's a physiological thing, you're SUPPOSED to find them fun

If you go clubbing to some banging house music, it's a very different experience to enjoy the music sober (lots of fun, great dancing, good times) to coming up on a pill / MDMA when all your senses are heightened and the music takes on a completely different experience, it's very sensual, and the vibe is very different

When people started doing more K and less MDMA the clubbing scene really suffered, as instead of people getting loved up on the dance floor together in a shared experience, people on ketamine were more likely to be in their own head, disassociated from the experience around them

Noel Gallagher's Desert Island Discs had a section where he said he went to the Hacienda and thought that house music was the biggest load of crap he'd ever heard. Then he had an E and it transformed the experience on the dance floor

The experience of going to a rave sober vs going to a rave with some disco biscuits is fundamentally different. You don't NEED them to have fun there, but it shows a distinct lack of imagination to understand why a rush of dopamine might not be a pleasurable experience

I remember (vaguely) reading an article with a philosopher or possibly a monk... can’t remember. But basically, he was saying that taking drugs (and I assume that includes cigarettes and alcohol), you are taking a shortcut to happiness, so creating synthetic contentment. Apparently it’s bad for the soul for that reason. Not to sound too hippy dippy. And I do have occasional alcoholic drinks, so it’s not something I practice myself! Just found it sort of interesting.

Apparently it’s bad for the soul for that reason Hallucinogens can be a door to it