Drugs.

Coping, escaping, feeling, distracting, hurting, pleasure, passing time, alternative states of mind, consciousness; all reasons, great ones at that, as to why a person would use what is so commonly referred to as, “drugs.” Drugs, for they are a nasty beast, or at least get a nasty reputation, enter the body, stimulate the brain, and artificially stimulate in what would otherwise have been an impossible situation. I mean, how else could I stay up for two nights in college to ace a test, only to feel extremely depressed and slightly paranoid afterward? How else can a man see the world inside his carpet and imagine little creatures stealing his pills? How else can another person relax at all, for they have what a psychologist referred to as the physiological implications of “trauma?” How else can one person get an erection, while another person fall madly in lust, both disregarding all social implications?  

These alterations of an average self, a desire among the common folk. A stimulation for “in addition to,” whereas otherwise we would have to feel that which is organically ours. The brain chemicals as they naturally come to us, the ones that we are familiar with and want to escape. 

Alcohol is a drug, it is mind altering, it causes unfathomable problems to those who depend on its lucid effects. Alcohol also kills people, influences, “poor” decisions. Yes, alcohol somewhere, despite the obvious consequences, and even in addition to other consequences, passed the test to become of legal use to ANYONE over the age of 21. Yes, we could alter the age; for at 21 I shouldn’t have been allowed to leave the house, much less, consume alcohol. We could make it harder and more expensive to get, ahem cocaine, though, then people would just make their own. MMMM, fruit and yeasty bread, aka prison juice. 

I am out of superficial and spur-of-the moment ideas. In fact, I am not sure anyone has a cure for why a person would so justly depend on a substance of any type. I am not sure anyone really knows or understands why some people rely and why other people reject, even after many attempts. I cannot tell you why alcohol didn’t do much for me, or that any other drug, despite performance enhancing of course, never seemed appealing. These things have no answer, but yet, "drugs" remain one of the largest businesses in the world, and most aren’t even legal, but simply derivatives of some "medicine." 

Drugs as an escape are here to stay, sold as a “recreation,” yet doing something very un- recreational, they alter, consume, and take, when recreation is supposed to contribute, enhance, and make a person “more of” something. Recreational activities should enrich our lives, not leave us “less than.” Shouldn’t drugs simply be referred to as, "distractions," for if what we experienced naturally was good enough, would we then need or want to “enhance” or “alter” at all? Isn’t it a pretty old cliché, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it?” Why would anything involving consequences as common knowledge as the enhancement, become a consideration, unless something was missing, something ary? Are we trying to fix something, even if it is to alleviate boredom? Are we attempting to cover pain, knowing this thing will not solve anything? Are we openly lying to ourselves that an inhalation, snort, injection will actually, “solve?" If we believed it would, long term, then even the most basic of feeling creatures would know better than us. For the pain inflected after the initial rush is all that remains. 

Maybe drugs aren’t as, "in addition to," as we want them to be, but instead they cause pain and that initial feeling is merely the side effect. Maybe the body is content as is and the pain of withdrawal or the “comedown” is what the substance was always meant to do, thus leaving a person sick and needing more. Maybe, the high, short-lived compared to the consequences is nothing more than a surprising side-effect? Either way, none of this matters, for drug use is too emotional to be this logical. Nobody wants to question the safety buoy that drugs offer in the sea of life. After all, if I don’t have some sort of escape, legal or not, then how in the world am I supposed to live? 

I too understand dependence at an unhealthy level, one where consumption is norm and destruction lingers like a smell of gas in the air. To this, I say that we are all broken and need a little reassurance as to what our next moves are to improve upon. For my story, click HERE.