Honest drug users?

Apologies for the awkward title, but I have no quick way to express the question I wish to ask. I have noticed that many people who do drugs, particularly of the medical sort as well as alcohol and marijuana, beat around the bush about it, claiming an endless number of reasons why they take the drugs that are quite obviously not true. What I wish to know is, is there something in the brain preventing people from accepting and/or admitting that they do drugs to get loaded? How common is the ability and inclination to simply say "I smoke X because I like to get fucked up"?

edited 9th Jul '11 1:33:25 PM by Diamonnes

Because being able to smoke weed is seen as a personality flaw, while being able to drink alcohol is seen as a positive trait because it is a part of socializing in our culture.

^ That.

To the average american, if you smoke weed for any reason, you're automatically lumped into the "stupid deluded junkie" club.

Unless its beer. Then you just enjoy getting loaded because getting loaded is fun and what young kids should be doing for fun. *cough*

(really, could link any number of rap, reaggae or ska songs)

The reasons are social. People deny drinking too much. People deny smoking too much. People deny all sorts of things.

It might be because Weed tends to be slightly more addictive than alcohol and is harder to judge the strength of. There is also the cultural issues (as others have mentioned) and the fact that Weed... well it doesn't improove your evening as much as Alcohol because it tends to make you lazy/

Actually, weed is less addictive and safer for your body. I'm not saying that it's impossible for someone to become addicted to weed (heck, I know a few drug addicts), but saying that it's more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco is factually incorrect.

Funny story... Once, I was waiting outside the school nurse's office, and I saw a brochure on psychoactive mushrooms. "Shrooms", that is. It had a really psychedelic tie-dye pattern on the front too. The information inside can basically be summarized to the effect of, "It's like LSD, but safer."

Forgive me for not believing a graph based on information collected from surveys, with no actual evidence or studies proving the information on the graph accurate...

The majority of people I know who refuse to admit that they smoke weed just to get high are those with the medicinal marijuana license. I dunno if it's because they are trying to make themselves feel better, or if they could lose the license for admitting that they don't have any legitimate reason for having the license. But I'm betting on the latter...

@Lil PS: Does alocohol leave aftereffects that ast years, and cause lung cancer? No.

edited 9th Jul '11 5:38:34 PM by Erock

^ Erock: it does leave aftereffects for years in the form of the chance to relapse back into alcoholism and potentially cause cirrhosis of the liver or liver cancer, though.

You really have to abuse alcohol to damge yourself, while weed (like cigs) leaves damage with the smallest bit.

Please, none of you ever go to work for an insurance company. Please.

At least not in the actuarial department. Feel free to answer the phones or sit on the board.

edited 9th Jul '11 5:47:20 PM by blueharp

Hardly. Both require extensive overuse to get to extremely damaging levels.

Its true inhaling smoke isnt good for you in the least, but neither is drinking what is essentially a toxin.

The thing is, the human body is built to scrub toxins out, so to a point, neither is that big a deal. Its repeated use over years of abuse that starts leaving lasting impacts.

What are some of the reasons people have given you that obviously aren't true, if you don't mind my asking? Have they given in depth explanations for why they like a particular substance, going into detail about the particular effects that they think enrich their lives, or have they told you blatant lies like, I don't know, "I smoke weed because I have glaucoma", when they certainly do not have glaucoma? If it's the former, then you're mistaking people thinking analytically about their habits with people being dishonest about their habits. "I smoke pot because I like to get fucked up" is not very descriptive and does nothing to help other people understand one's habit. "I like smoking pot because it makes me think differently, causing certain mental breakthroughs that I would not have had otherwise", however, does.

Damn, I know I'm in a pretty party-heavy town, but I'm so used to people admitting they drink/smoke that I forgot some people deny it.

Hell I'm more annoyed by the people who act like they drink/smoke to fit in. I happily admit to not doing either because I don't, which unfortunately, due to my sarcastic/comic nature, has gotten people grouping me into that category.

When it comes to smoking weed, I could imagine people denying it if only because they don't want someone with too much free time to report them in to the police. Otherwise, they just make excuses so you feel bad for them or don't group them into the "good for nothing" people. Even though you probably should.

Druggies like to justify their behavior by saying taxing weed would save the economy, fake. The money got from that would be barely a drop in a bucket.

Otherwise, they use obscure studies later proven wrong or misquote people to make their unhealthy habit look healthy. The fact is, smoking weed will slowly kill you. It is bad for you.

So, no. I do not think there is an honest drug user.

edited 9th Jul '11 10:33:27 PM by NickTheSwing

Actually, what they say is that the billions of dollars spent on drug enforcement and the poured into the corrections system could be better spent.

Tax gains are almost irrelevant compared to that money pit.

Various things on weed alone: "I'm chronic depressive" (or whatever topical mental disorder of the day is) "I have chronic pain in X region" "I have a family history of cancer and I'm preventing myself getting it" etc. Pill-users tend to have things that would be more believable (for instance, chronic back pain from an injury) if they weren't walking around higher than a Georgia pine.

The question isn't whether they exist but how common they are. For instance, I smoke weed to get high. I drink copious amounts of alcohol to get drunk. I used to trip C's to hallucinate; all recreational.

edited 10th Jul '11 12:42:41 AM by Diamonnes

In that case there is no such thing as an honest smoker. Or, for that matter, an honest heavy drinker (as in the kind who aren't alcoholics but nonetheless go out with the objective of getting hammered.)

I have friends who smoke weed and say that they do it solely for enjoyment. So, there are honest drug users.

Yeah, I've never met anyone who used illegal drugs and said they used for any reason other than personal enjoyment. Or that they were pressured into it in one or two cases.

edited 10th Jul '11 6:33:29 AM by Hatshepsut

Regarding Drug Harm:

Here is another graph showing drug harm (both social and to the user) from a study published in The Lancet, carried out by a reputable group of scientists/drug experts (The Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs).

Link to graph.◊

Link to full text on study.

The graph shows that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol by a long shot, only slightly less harmful that tobacco.

I'm not sure that many people deny wanting to get drunk anymore... alcohol is a pretty mainstream drug, and people don't have as much incentive to hide that they use it.

Weed, on the other hand, is considered a drug for freaks, even though it's arguably safer. It's an Argumentum Ad Populum thing. "Everyone else does booze, you're a freak for choosing weed" etc. I don't use weed OR booze, (well, not much... I've gotten a bit buzzed on rum and soda before, but typically don't have much interest in it, and I tried a puff of weed before without feeling very inclined to try more) but I know a double standard when I see one.

In any case, I guess some people will therefore try to make excuses for their weed use to try to hide from the judgment of others. It's dishonest, sure, but there's probably weed users who don't do this. In a way, this social pressure helps...

*Puts sunglasses on...*

... WEED out the dishonest ones!

So the general consensus is that it's a social thing?

That pun made me want to kill my cat.

Nope, I think the general consensus seems to be that you meet unusual people and that most drug users are honest about it.

As for the chronic depression thing, I know a fair amount of people who self-medicate, but they would never actually say that was the reason that they smoked weed or drank far too much, or more rarely took class As. They would say, in fact, that they wanted to get fucked up, get stupid, get obliterated, shitfaced, whatever.

I agree that the most common reason to smoke or drink or do drugs is 'simply' that they want to "get fucked up".

But ask yourself this; what is the most likely reason someone would want to "get fucked up"? The phrasing itself tells you a large part of it; it's a violent act, towards the self. People want to kill the parts of themselves they don't like, or not see the parts of the world that they don't like/can't deal with. Abusing drugs is never a healthy sign, lolstatingtheobvious, and the line between use and abuse can be much more blurry than you might realise.

I feel very uneasy when people dismiss the depressed in the way you just have, especially when its linked to destructive patterns of behaviour. I've held that dismissive attitude, albeit in a more diluted form, in the past, and seen people experiencing it from others. It's extremely unhelpful and can be fatal.