The psychedelia conundrum

[apophenia]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

I done shit on acid that I would never have done no matter how drunk I was. For me, a trip was a hyper alert event that accidentally, randomly, and only incidentally corresponded to reality. I spent four hours roasting peanuts, one at a time, over candles once, with Pink Floyd giving me very specific directions and the people who lived in the candle flames telling me when the peanuts were done.

[HomerJay]

Are You Experienced?

[Svartalf]

Which is way more interesting than what happens to you on booze.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Which is way more interesting than what happens to you on booze.

I have never blacked out on booze, but the details are often damn shaky. I sometimes remember too much of an acid trip. Not enough to understand it, just enough to be disturbed by some of it.

[Svartalf]

Well, it Has happened to me to wake up some mornings not remembering clearly all that had transpired the day before, or worse, with clear evidence that I had done abnormal stuff between coming back home and bed (like putting the clothes I'd been wearing in rather odd places)

[Animavore]

LSD is incredibly powerful. Ketamine and peyote even more so. There were times on these drugs I literally felt like a madman. These drugs are not particularly safe. I'm not sure they should be illegal, but then, I think all drugs should be legal anyway.

[FBM]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

My best guess is that it goes back to when alcohol and tobacco producers became convinced that "reefer madness" was a threat to their profits. They lobbied (bought) a few key politicians, who put the propaganda machine to work on it and presto, suddenly anything that made you feel good except alcohol and tobacco was evil.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

My best guess is that it goes back to when alcohol and tobacco producers became convinced that "reefer madness" was a threat to their profits. They lobbied (bought) a few key politicians, who put the propaganda machine to work on it and presto, suddenly anything that made you feel good except alcohol and tobacco was evil.

Henry J. Anslinger, the guy who was responsible for enforcing prohibition, was out of a job when it was repealed UNLESS he could find something else to persecute. Hemp was his drug of choice.

[FBM]

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" Upton Sinclair

[Audley Strange]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

Because our culture has deemed the latter socially acceptable and the former dangerous. We have or should I say had no social rituals where psychedelics played a part. Other than that, the effect can be daunting. You build up slowly to drunk, some psychedelics overwhelm you in less time than it takes to drink a pint, and I do mean overwhelm. Booze and cigarettes don't really fall into the same category I think. It's like the difference between jumping of a wall or skydiving, different orders of magnitude unless your on the D.T.'s.

[Rum]

Is taking powerful but non-addictive psychedelics any different than ingesting alcohol socially? Nicotine?


Why are psychedelics generally thought of as more serious than alcohol and tobacco?

Personally I believe they are more dangerous for mental health (let's not get into definitions of that!) certainly in my case and for a number of 'acid casualties' I knew in my early to mid 20s.

I used a lot of acid and a lot of hashish during that period and I developed what I believe now to have been a psychosis. Thankfully I recovered in my late 20s (though some might not agree!). It was at the root of a depression that has returned from time to time too and it has left me with a deep sense of the transparency and contingent nature of what is generally thought of as reality.

I am sure alcohol kills more people and that it is more physically dangerous, but a lot of people use it just to 'get by' I suspect. Acid is like playing Russian roulette with your mind.

[Svartalf]

Dunno... I didn't need drugs to get into depression deep enough that I need a dry suit and diving armour; and I'll never know whether I could have done certain things (like unleash whatever creative spark I may have) if I had had help from the right pyschotropic substances.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I think they're right on the edge of releasing something inside us that wants to get out.

[Svartalf]

That's not psychedelics, that's your SO or right hand.