People really need to learn how to enjoy life straight!

[miso honey]

You know, a natural high? I have been there, done that with altering the senses but it's not worth it and you cannot work on your spiritual side.

[Swamp Lover]

1. Recently came to the same conclusion.

Straight dreams are a whole new deal. Trippy.

[msongs]

2. ummm jesus drank wine. next? nt

[niyad]

4. "all acts of love and pleasure are MY ritual"--charge of the goddess

[miso honey]

5. That's organized religion. SPIRITUALITY is your soul's

journey. Why muddy your consciousness? Why be a slave to something outside yourself?

[saras]

17. Why presume you know what causes these effects in other people?

Just because Westerners are extraordinarily stupid about substance abuse doesn't mean it's in the nature of the SUBSTANCES to be harmful.

Personally, I find that media, religion, capitalism, and American culture in general muddy my consciousness and attempt to enslave me far worse than the worst drug I've ever read about, let alone experienced (painkillers after a severe burn). Worrying about DRUGS enslaving me is rather like worrying about METEORITES killing me. It MIGHT pay off. Hypothetically. Given some extremely unlikely circumstances.

Spirituality aside (i.e. I choose cocaine because no one has ever suggested it has any spiritual quality whatsoever), traditional Peruvian culture manages cocaine just fine. Western culture doesn't - we concentrate and purify it and consume massive quantities until we destroy ourselves. Urbanized, Westernized Peruvian culture does the same thing. It's not the drug, it's not the "Peruvian race", it's the culture and its attitudes.

When you're generalizing about "people", Western culture gets only one vote among all the cultures that have ever existed.

Given that a certain class of drugs are, when wisely used, by far the most reliable and safe way to whole classes of spiritual experiences, and have been for tens of thousands of years, why preemptively prohibit them to other people whose spiritual journey isn't your personal responsibility?

[niyad]

3. hmm, that avatar and that particular tone ring a bell. . .

[miso honey]

6. You can ring my BELLL-ELLL ELL

ring my bell...

[LadyHawkAZ]

7. It's a nice thought but

it doesn't work for everyone. Some people just don't have the emotional strength; others have health issues that make it impossible. I fought depression for 30 years, and wondered for most of that time why I never got that "natural high" that people talked about, no matter what I did. And I got lucky; they finally figured out what was wrong with me and fixed it. Some people don't get that lucky.

[miso honey]

10. Sweetie, people who don't take drugs

are not always in bliss. Did you ever think of depression as understanding that the Material World ain't happening? It's not always bad to see the world for what it is. But we are addicted to being in one frame of mind.

[LadyHawkAZ]

11. No

I thought of depression, from the beginning, as "Something is very fucking wrong with me and needs to be fixed, kthx Doctor". I always knew something was genuinely, physically wrong. It just took longer than it should have to find out what that was.

Sadness is not the same thing as depression.

[renie408]

20. Ok, this is definitely some kind of joke.

[Kali]

25. dPPRted troll

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Tue Feb 14, 2012, 10:44 PM, and the Jury voted 2-4 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: troll is already gone, post wasn't that bad - a bit of a snark attack but mostly just stupid, so since MIRT got it already I will vote to leave the post alone
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: Miso is perhaps an ethic reference but I don't think it's what the alerter is worried about. Miso, a food, I think Japanese. Honey, a female. Miso Honey, I imagine Japanese female. As for the post, please take another hit and calm down. We mj smokers can calmly address this foolishness. We don't need no censorship on this.
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT and said: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE and said: No explanation given

[spanone]

8. we are free to choose our own route and not tell others how to live their lives...

[orpupilofnature57]

14. Democracy!!!

[They_Live]

9. Terrific.

So I have to be sober AND you're going to tell me how to live my life in this wonderful paradise we've created for ourselves.

Thanks but no. You keep on working on yourself, okay?

[renie408]

19. I think I love you. n/t

[TlalocW]

12. For me

Since I'm not that spiritual, it's more of a James Randi attitude of, "I want to be as aware of the world around me as possible," so I've never taken drugs or even drunk alcohol in my soon-to-be 40 years. In high school, the term straight edge hadn't been invented yet - and my term of, "I hate my classmates and don't want to be anything like them," was deemed too wordy.

TlalocW

[provis99]

13. peace, love, dope!

[FarLeftFist]

15. I love marijuana.

[REP]

16. Where did you get your MD?

Let me guess.

[renie408]

18. Are you being sarcastic? Am I missing something?

This is a joke...right?

[MadHound]

21. Hmm, a number of religions would disagree with you

Native Americans and peyote. Various animus religions that use fermentation. All of these and more have used various drugs to alter their consciousness in order to better approach the godhead.

Furthermore, certain drugs can give you a greater understanding of life. There are lessons that I learned from using hallucinogens in my youth, understandings of art, literature, music and so much more that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise if I hadn't done those drugs.

The key with using drugs, as with most things in life, is moderation. Even with achieving that natural high.

[cyberswede]

22. This serial disruptor has been banned

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=280910

[Vanje]

23. Dooood!

I'm gay.

[Warpy]

24. Um, not quite.

Those of us who were raised in the regimented 50s found that experimentation with psychoactive drugs in the 60s showed us where a lot of neat things inside our heads were located. Since most of us wandered away from drugs over the next 10 years, the conclusion is that once we'd done the chemically enhanced exploration, we didn't need the chemicals any more.

In any case, long experience with people on the heaviest narcotics known to man has convinced me that normal adults really do prefer to have clear heads most of the time, even if they worry us by going "whee!" their first day after surgery.

Psychoactive drugs do inhibit deep meditation. However, not everyone meditates. For people who don't, they're a quick way to send one's brain on vacation for a few hours. For that reason, and because most people want to function with clear heads most of the time, they really should be legal.