The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
A Discussion About [Alcohol and Drug Usage]
Slider
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
A locked thread prompted my interest in this topic.
I would like to discuss your opinions and personal experiences regarding alcohol and drug usage.
When I was growing up, I stubbornly refused to partake in any drug or alcoholic beverage. In fact, I had my first cocktail on my 21st birthday in Vegas.
I recall a high school party that I attended where everyone was smoking marijuana. I was the lone dissenting attendant. Even my friend, who would later become a police officer, took a hit.
My general belief was that drugs are bad for you, alcohol is bad for you, and the practice alters your perceptions and behavior. I didn't want to consume anything that might harm my body, nor did I want to behave in some abnormal way that was disingenuous or false.
At the same time, I believe that almost anything should be tried at least once. I tried chewing tobacco and it made me vomit. I tried smoking, but it made me choke. I never tried these things more than once. I have yet to try a drug, but I do drink alcohol.
I don't have very much experience drinking alcohol, but I have learned a few things. For starters, alcohol either kicks my ass and puts me to sleep, or it makes me extremely silly and goofy. I got drunk on my birthday in February and tried to feed a piece of chicken to a friend who is a vegetarian. On the other end of the spectrum, I had a few drinks while I was decorating the Christmas tree this year and it made me pass out on the couch.
Something to also consider are the new marijuana laws. Will you be smoking more often now that legalization is at the forefront?
Slider on
0
Posts
pre-high school: ALCOHOL/DRUGS = BAD!
High school: Alcohol tastes gross, smoking pot is much better
College: Pot is still good but the people are sort of annoying. Drinking is still gross, and the people are way more annoying.
Post-college: It's legal to drink! Gin & tonic for social situations. No more pot - too much trouble once you're out of college.
Few more years: I guess beer isn't awful, still not a fan. Wine is okay.
Current: Beer is convenient for people but still not that desirable. Just starting to like wine. Tried scotch and it's great, going to explore it more.
At no point have I consumed alcohol more frequently than one occasion every week or so, sometimes two weeks. Being asian and a non-frequent drinker, two drinks is usually enough to last me the night, maybe up to four if I'm celebrating something like my wedding.
I've gotten high a handful of times and generally enjoyed it. If it were somehow legalized now I might do out once in a great while, but probably pretty rarely since I have two young children and I would say that I moderate drinking in much the same way. I probably drink and get drunk 5 times in a year. Other than that I'll have an occasional beer.
Now that marijuana is legal here i'll probably try it once it's readily available. Probably won't smoke it though.
Recreational drugs are social lubricants. This was touched on by many people in the previous thread (e.g., @Quid, @Loren Michael, @mcdermott). If you're in a mood to be a dick to other people, you'll be a huge dick when you're buzzed, after a drink or two. If you're awesomely talented at something like the piano, you're likely going to bust out with something awesome after a drink or two. If you're super depressed about a thing, you're going to end up a huge waterworks by the end of the night.
Also, it doesn't matter who you are, after you've reached your limit and are completely out of your mind pissed; you're not going to make any sense to anyone that isn't as drunk as you are in that moment - and you'll likely (keyword) end up passing out on the bathroom floor after leaning against the wall attempting to arc your urine into the toilet (no photos were taken so you can't prove anything).
I have enjoyed greatly my company with sane, amazingly bright people that are in any stage of drunkenness. I have rued immensely being in the company of even buzzed pricks that can't stop acting like dicks for even one moment.
It is reasonable to argue whether certain alterations (through drugs or otherwise) are desirable or undesirable, but mind-alteration itself is unavoidable.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
It's all mind-altering substances, all the way down.
Also turtles.
My opinion > your opinion
I refused to drink alcohol until shortly before I turned 18 because I was a tightass who hadn't really made the distinction between legality and ethicalness yet. I now drink fairly regularly, and despite the problems alcohol can cause I feel it should continue to be legal. I hope and believe that autonomous cars will become the norm over the next few decades, which would eliminate the threat of drunken driving.
But I am old now and set in my ways and I hate that crap all so much also get off my lawn.
Although I did not enjoy the taste of beer for a long time, my peers began drinking around the age of 14. I wasn't part of that group so I have no idea what their level of consumption was. Stories varied from "omg, do remember what happened friday?!" to "omg, that was totally awesome! Did you see that?".
Around the age of 15 I began partaking in the drinking with a slip of beer here and there, but mostly just sodapops (breezers, mixed drinks) due to the sour taste of beer. My peers began switching to marijuana while continuing to drink. I believe there was a party or two where the resident class bongheads smoked a bit too much and they semi-passed out which made the rest of us worried. Fortunately it all happened under controlled circumstances (America could learn from that in regards to self-control), so there was help available if things took a turn for the worse.
From there on onward I began to increasingly like beer and liquor in all its forms. My own personal relationship to alcohol is somewhat strange. I know enough of my own physiology and how alcohol is burned in the body, but I swear my body is defying the laws of biology or something. After I finished high school, I made good on a promise of joining a gym and working out. Ever since I began and finished that (2 years of regular training), alcohol has changed for me. Now I can get a good buzz with only a beer or two while I retain my body's maximum capacity for drinking alcohol should I be invited to a drink a couple of shots. Furthermore, I never get hangovers and only feel tired due to dancing or staying up late. Sure, I can be queasy if I drank too much, but that stems from an imbalance in my salt/water levels. A couple of glasses of water and some rest and that's done.
To this date, I have only had 3 blackouts with a duration of the shortest being 5 minutes to the longest being 15-20 minutes. In all three instances, I was in a safe environment and apparently fully functional. I just don't remember those few minutes. In my case they have all been humorous. There is nothing so interesting and funny as to wake up in your morning robe in the bathroom, sleeping peacefully in the shower cabinet wondering how the hell you thought that was a better idea than sleeping in your bed.
I really enjoy the alcohol culture we have in Denmark. Every kid learns to drink and gets to know their limits under controlled circumstances, so when they strike out on their own, they won't be more liable to do stupid things. Sure, it still happens but only in the minority.
I've also been told that I'm a pretty nice drunk, that is, I'm not angry, violent, a dick, or loud. I just socialize more, I talk more, and with enough drinks in me, I might start dancing. When I start dancing, that's when I know I'm at my limit, because next stop is blacking out aka time-travelling.
I've never smoked MJ in my life. At 15 I was already working for the government and had to maintain a security clearance. In 2011, I was drug tested 8 times in 1 year by the Army because my unit was inept at handling urine samples. If MJ becomes legal in my state, I'd probably give it a shot, just to see what all the talk is about but until then, I really have no desire to try it: alcohol does exactly what I want.
Grow up
Jesus
If cigarette smoke smells so bad it makes you want to puke you must /hate/ living a big city
Most cities are pretty anal about cigarette smoke nowadays.. 30 feet or so from the entry way of buildings, and practiaclly never allowed to smoke in doors anymore.. At least I know NYC is.
I would argue that pot "culture" is fucking awful, but pot users are about as varied a population as alcohol users. Lots of financial workers, doctors, cancer patients, car salesman and high end wait staff who enjoy a nice buzz.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
This is pretty much me, well, except that I don't ever drink and I'd sooner end the "war on drugs" and use the same combination of taxation, cessation programs, and social shaming that has made cigarette smoking become less and less prevalent be applied to alcohol and other recreational drugs.
Of course, this will never happen, but hope springs eternal, I guess.
And yet smog is still omnipresent and still nearly as bad for you
"30 feet away from building entries" is fucking ridiculous by the way, that's basically "don't fucking smoke anywhere in NYC," because it is a goddamn concrete jungle
Yea, I sympathize with how onerous that 30 feet is and how most people do more harm to themselves than the brief exposure of walking near cigarette smoke outside, but I figure making smokers hike to find a spot to smoke is another Bloomberg health initiative.
Of course, we know we'll never be able to do it even if it's legalized because some feds are held to "higher standards".
I probably wouldn't do it regardless; it's just not for me. I like a few craft beers or some good vodka.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
By all means, have a couple of drinks to relax with friends or even yourself now and then. But stop "getting pissed"; you only make yourself look like an idiot.
Also stop bragging about how much you drank.
Yeah, there is a certain amount of confirmation/convenience bias here that the people you're most likely to associate with pot are the people who are least subtle about it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I have noticed that if I kick back a few, it relaxes me and makes me very sleepy.
Well alcohol is a depressant so this is unsurprising.
You should not be developing a habit of using depressants of any sort to go to sleep. This will become problematic quite quickly.
I think that this is exacerbated by a government that not only strictly enforces minimum age laws, but also occasionally launches media campaigns that say things like "give alcohol to a minor, go to jail!
We've pushed 'drinking age' as a marker of adulthood so goddamn hard, it isn't particularly surprising to me when early-20-somethings go apeshit with booze. After all, if booze is an adult thing, then more booze means more adult!
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Contrary to that, though, I have pretty liberal views on drug laws. Legalize it all, regulate it, tax it, and make available as much clear, straightforward information about the effects of everything as possible.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Though "I'm running down to the drug store to grab some cherry meth" does have a ring to it
But you could probably cut down on a lot of deaths from, for example, people taking ecstasy that isn't actually ecstasy at all if you could just pop down to the drug store and buy some that's guaranteed to be what it says on the tin.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
That's actually not just confirmation bias. It's selection bias, which has confirmation bias shoveled on top of it.
This is a problem with anything that you're not a participant of. Pot users are always pushy (because those are the ones you actually know use pot), gun owners are always fanatics (because for the people who aren't super into it, it's just a hobby like an other), vegetarians are always moralizing (because the ones that don't don't tend to bring it up, just order vegetarian food), etc.
Always be careful when you look at X culture - you're rather ironically usually only looking at a fraction of the total group that enjoys X.
Agreed. I find the idea of smoking anything repulsive. More power to whoever wants to stank up their lungs though.
You can get meth prescribed from a doctor. Most won't because they don't want you selling it though.
About half of the drugs prescribed for ADHD end up becoming amphetamine, which is methamphetamine without a methyl group.
Not that that means much, but I like pointing it out. People don't tend to realize stuff like that.
Methadone is also not meth.
Edit: For clarification, not the same as in lab created stuff like ADHD medication is safe as long as you take it in the reccommended doses. Synthesized meth made by a junkie/dealer has all sorts of shit in it that can kill you, sometimes fast, sometimes slow.
There aren't a lot of Heisenbergs out there.