This was originally by mah niggah gadzooks
I decided to put my own personal history of drug experimentation into a spoiler box, because I know how people around here respond to overly long posts. That way you can't say: tl;dr. But it's there, in case you're curious. To summarize: I basically just explain how I've always been curious about novel experiences, in this case chemically induced novel experiences.
Spoiler
From quite a young age, I have had a burning desire to experience novel states of consciousness. I was a bit of a social outcast, though, so I didn't have any friends who used drugs. When I was 13/14, things were different. Erowid would have been brand new, and probably highly unknown. I got most of my drug information from the Anarchist's Cookbook (bananadine, anyone?), and from this website called
http://textfiles.com/ . But those text files really amped me up over drugs. I was reading about how to cultivate cannabis before I had even seen my first joint. I was trying to understand LSD synthesis instructions before my first experience with any hallucinogen.
One day, on my way home from my summer job at the fair, working in the mini-golf stand handign people their balls and clubs, I ran into a couple of the "bad kids" from my school, and they asked me if I got high. I said no, but I was intrigued. They asked me if I wanted to try it out. I enthusiastically replied, "yes!" They told me to meet them there the next day with $5 to chip in. I spent the rest of that summer smoking with them pretty much every day.
I then met some new friends at the new high school I went to after that summer, and we established our own extra-curricular activity: skipping the class before lunch and heading off to a nearby forest to blaze. These two were older than me, and one of them was even 19 already (and still in high school... I can't remember how that worked...). So one weekend, they invited me out drinking, and I had a fantastic time. At least, I was told I did. I don't remember much of it.
From then on, I basically never turned down an opportunity to try a drug. I kept researching about drugs all the time, on Erowid, Totse, and so forth. I had to try DXM by myself for the first time, because I couldn't find anyone open-minded enough to drink cough syrup. Years later, I started stocking up on all the legal and not-so-legal drugs I could find online, often having to try them on my own because none of my friends were willing.
So anyway, I always found it peculiar that some of my friends had no interest in trying certain drugs, and even more peculiar that there are people out there who have
no interest at all in trying
any drugs. I find it both fascinating and depressing. I mean, how unbelievably boring and close-minded? Some sXe'rs and teetotalers will make the silly argument that it is in fact the drug user who is boring, since they "require" drugs to have a good time.
But since sXer's and teetotalers are not exactly known for their intelligence, they do not see the huge gaping flaw in their argument:
It does not automatically follow that drug users require drug-induced states to have a good time. Perhaps the drug user has just as good of a time sober as the abstainer, but has their life improved that much more by adding the benefits of drugs to their already enjoyable and fun lives.But of course, leave it to the abstainer to find more ways to criticize the drug user, when the obvious fact of the matter is that they be jelly - straight jelly.
Most of the reasons that I hear abstainers use to support their poor lifestyle choice have something to do with drugs being dangerous or unhealthy. These same people usually do not go around criticizing users of motor vehicles, and are frequently users of motor vehicles themselves! But are they not aware that 10s of thousands of people are killed in motor vehicle accidents per year,
in the USA alone! And that does not include non-fatal, but still horribly tragic and debilitating injuries sustained!
But motor vehicles are a necessity, the abstainer might argue, and although this is still open to debate (we managed to get along without motor vehicles for millenia), I will grant them that motor vehicles are essentially necessary for society to function at the rate of efficiency that it currently does. Those 10s of thousands of deaths per year are just collateral damage...
But what about recreational activities? As it turns out, horse-back riding, for example, is more dangerous than MDMA (see:
Equasy vs Ecstasy). I won't go into the statistics on other sports injuries, but I'm sure that, if they don't surpass, they at least come close to the amount of injuries seen from recreational drug use.
But what about the drugs that are generally considered more dangerous than MDMA? Like heroin, for instance. Well, heroin turns out to be essentially benign to the body in and of itself. The major health hazards associated with heroin come from factors such as
unknown purity. And why is the purity of heroin so variable? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it is not regulated by the government in the same way that alcohol is. Perhaps if heroin were regulated in the same ways as alcohol, we'd see a significant drop in heroin-related injuries and deaths.
And of course, this is all assuming that the drug abstainer making these arguments is not a consumer of that legal drug alcohol. If they are, then, well, that's just too easy...
So we've established that abstaining from drug use for health and safety reasons is essentially bogus. What other reasons do abstainers give? Some say, simply, "because it's illegal." Well, I appreciate your honesty, but have you ever heard of the concept of
Civil Disobedience? I tend to associate people who equate law with morality as being not only immoral, but, well, rather stupid.
Now are there any other reasons for abstaining from drugs? I'll admit that there is one that I have a hard time dismissing as being dumb. It's the one that goes like this: "I like to keep a clear head at all times." It reminds me of the Eightfold path in Buddhism, especially the last two tenets about mindfulness and concentration. I can respect such motives for abstaining from drug use to some extent, but if one thinks that the Eightfold path is the
only way to enlightenment, then they clearly are not maintaining a very open mind. I'm not saying here that drugs are
necessary to achieve enlightenment, nor am I saying that they are
sufficient. All I'm saying is: Keep an open-mind.
Which brings me to the main point I had in mind when I started writing this thread:
the correlates of drug curiosity. Is it just coincidence that I generally find drug abstainers to be such bores and so difficult to relate to? From my experience, people who are drawn to novel experiences are much more interesting to talk to. One need not be exclusively into drugs to be interesting either. In fact, such one-trick ponies can be quite boring themselves. But perhaps there is an underlying factor that accounts for this appreciation and attraction toward novel experiences.
Conveniently, it has been given a name:
Openness to experience. Anyone familiar with one of the leading theories in personality psychology,
the Five Factor model, or simply The Big Five, will have seen this term before. It is one of the five dimensions of personality, and it represents, well, openness to experience: an appreciation for novelty. It also happens to be correlated with intelligence, creativity, political tolerance, and more liberal sex attitudes.
So if you've ever wondered why some people around you express no interest in trying new drugs, maybe they're just stupid. You may never be able to convince them of what they're missing out on, so take that into consideration before trying to take on such a futile task.
And most important of all: if you happen to be gifted with a high degree of openness to experience, use it to its full potential. The curious people throughout history are the ones who have given us some of the most useful inventions, who have solved some of the most perplexing mysteries of the universe, and who have perpetuated the traditions of asking questions and building up our knowledge of our universe and the universe within our minds.
Keep on exploring, fellow wielders of curiosity, the most valuable gift a human mind can posses.
