Untruthful: Weekend

Weekend
Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I thought, after pondering for a bit, I thought I would explain a facet of my life to both those of you who can relate, and those of you who would chide me for such actions. The best way I can think to do this, is in the form of a short narrative story.

This past weekend, there was a blizzard. Being snowed in can be depressing on a Saturday night, who wants to spend the night inside? Luckily I was amongst friends. Though, it was still a break from the usual weekend activities. Usually, in my circle of friends, Saturday nights are spent at large social gatherings. Most of these involve 10+ people. However, at my friend's that night, there was no more than five of us. Distraught, we looked for something to do. Perhaps, we could enjoy some sort of spiritual experience? Now heres where I have to tiptoe. We didn't do anything illegal. But we did do something that is quickly becoming socially frowned upon. And it did involve some sort of psychedelic substance, which, I will not say. Ask me in person if you really want to know. My friend and I decided that we would partake of this, in hopes that it might bring some sort of religious or trippy experience, as it has in past uses.

After the chemical was in our system, we waited about an hour before feeling its effects. That hour was spent smoking hukka and talking with friends. Its sort of hard to describe the effects with words, its easiest to explain to someone who has tried it once or twice. But I suppose, the best way to explain it to a lay-person, would be the song "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. Coincidentally, this short story is almost entirely about that song.

We sat down in front of my computer. We were having a pretty good time. But it was late, and probably time to start chilling out for the night. So we decided to listen to music. I played a few trippy songs by The Velvet Underground, Nine Inch Nails, and Elliott Smith, among others. Then I got the idea to listen to some of the trippiest music in my collection: Pink Floyd. Music by drug-users for drug-users, or in our case, users of a perfectly legal, non-addictive substance (lol...). I told my friend to get ready. Little did he know, he was about to ride a spaceship into his soul, or perhaps a rollercoaster made of rainbows, or perhaps even fly around in empty space while enclosed in a constantly resizing polygon. That is, while waves of numbing care-free happiness purge you of any worries, pain, or stress. We sat down, put on headphones, and listened. What followed, was what I can honestly say is the happiest, most enlightening experience I've had with any sort of semi-illicit to completely-illegal activity (of which I have a couple experiences. But I think I'm a good guy for the most part, right?)

I didn't spend much time on detail, which I had intended to when I started writing this, but I'm happy with what came out anyway. I have not-so-standard views when it comes to drug policy, and also when it comes to what defines addiction. If things went all my way, I'm sure the country would be in flames, or at least not what it is today (for better or worse). People demonize any form of substance use and usually tag any use of any mind-altering chemical as substance abuse. Well define "abuse" do you mean using something for a reason you disagree with? Or do you mean using to the extent of harming one's self, or others? If you say the latter, what about the people who use responsibly (they exist, as does a large community and knowledge-base about proper use, and misuse of any and all substances that are considered mind-altering see link at end of story)? I feel that 90% of addiction today is mislabeled. People who get easily addicted to anything, be it gambling, porn, stealing, or drugs, among other things, all lack one simple trait that is key to survival in today's world: Willpower. Weak willed people are addicts. Its that simple. How do I explain things like "High-functioning alcoholics"? Well I would say: a high-functioning addict doesn't have a problem if it isn't causing external harm (to family, friends, etc.), for example, not more smoking a cigarette would.

Anyway. I'm tired of typing. Talk to me in person about all this sometime. I'd love to discuss it with you.

And here's that link I was talking about:
Erowid
Read, learn.