On the one hand, that sounds reasonable. On the other hand - I'm not exactly thrilled with the way people use the current that's already easily available at stores.
A sargeant from the police department eventually called me back from his cellphone to tell me they caught up with the driver and reversed her.
It was traumatic and all things being equal I’m with you - alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, etc do a lot of damage.
He arrived to pick me up. She was in the front passenger seat and maybe a little out of it but that’s not exactly unusual…
A few minutes later, she was completely slumped over and taking gasping breaths. When I asked the driver if she was ok he said “She’s homeless and needs to get in to recovery but I’m taking care of her”. I can only assume (given the fairly rapid onset) he/she/them consumed drugs shortly before picking me up.
Needless to say, he wasn’t. After calling 911 I messaged the Lyft support team and provided pictures, etc of what (unfortunately) looks like a dead person. They followed the script and may or may not have done anything.
Meanwhile, the authorities took it very seriously (as I described) and likely saved her life.
I think what would it actually happen is more and more unprepared members of the general public would have really bad trips.
https://www.psypost.org/2016/08/study-bad-trips-from-magic-m...
Can't say I ever experienced that after a hangover.
It worked for me. I had a period in my life of sliding slowly to alcoholism.
I mean we are in a crisis of opiates with fentanyl.
It would be a massive net good.
From “smoke the devil’s lettuce and put your baby in the microwave” to “it’s natural, there are no negatives whatsoever” is very troubling. There is no free lunch and there absolutely are negative effects with all of these substances. Of course alcohol is the reigning champ for damage to society but marijuana, etc is creeping in with much less dramatic fashion.
It's highly individual so can't be recommended but for me switching to:
- first to flupirtine which is legal in my country. It has "liver toxicity" but .. ha! comparing to alcohol it's less toxic
- and then to some ..khm.. illegal drugs
worked.
If you take a few shots at 9 AM everyday few people will debate whether you have an alcohol misuse disorder and how problematic it is. Alcohol does it’s job - pumps your reward system and alters your perception of reality.
More and more, if you wake up at 9 AM and take a gummy, hit an incredibly high THC vape, etc it’s called medicine. While it won’t kill you and destroy your life as efficiently and ruthlessly as alcohol will I think there are fundamental issues and lasting effects from hacking dopamine rewards and using psychoactive substances to alter your reality.
The biggest difference here is how directly toxic alcohol is to the body (liver, brain, heart). Marijuana and others are substantially better from a “your body will physically give out from this” standpoint but that’s a low bar.
At one point in my life I was prescribed what I later learned to understand was an incredibly high dose of Klonopin. Drugs that bang on dopamine, GABA, etc are a sledge hammer for “life is suffering” the Buddha talked about. By the way, I‘ve met a lot of people with poly drug addiction issues and they respond to my klonopin experience with shock and amazement. FWIW it’s worth I fairly quickly realized the impact this sledge hammer hack was having on my life and quit it cold turkey. Now I know I could have died from it but I’m happy to be back to reality and process the struggle that is life with a scalpel instead of a sledge hammer.
Prohibition does not stop usage. It just makes the drugs cut with more harmful substances. I wish people would understand that