As a child I was told only that drugs were bad. They were a
forbidden fruit. At school they taught of the horrifying side effects and possibilities of using drugs like
cocaine,
heroin and
PCP. There was little they could say about
marijuana. They warned of flashbacks resulting from use of LSD.
However, here is where I feel they failed me. They gave me all the bad. All the death and destruction that comes from them. They never once gave me any information about why people would even want to do them in the first place.
Being the big chicken I am, I was thankfully frightened enough away from the hardcore, eat your brain and your money, leave you dead in the street naked variety of illicit drugs.....But...The others. The ones that after some reading and some research, seemed to be largely used by REALLY intelligent people. People I admired and respected for their thoughts, ideas and contributions to society.
Through the years I have experimented with many of the milder, can't-we-all-just-get-along recreational drugs. Marijuana, LSD, Exstacy...
What is my conclusion? People need full education. They need the facts. Not just the reasons it will curl your spine and make you kill people in a fit of rage. They need to know that there are some very good uses for some of these drugs. Cocaine once had a medical use. Many of the commonly and currently used pain killers are opiate derived. Oxycotin and Ultram are in that list.
Exstacy was used in marriage counseling. I mean, really, let's not let the unhappy couples of the world try to talk about their feelings without defensiveness or anger. What an awful thing it would be if we could all just co-exist in this world and love one another. Peace breaking out all over would just be horrid, wouldn't it?