I smoked marijuana for ten years. I did not smoke heavily. It was never something I had to do. It was something I enjoyed in certain situations. I did not make an effort to quit. I lost interest. The only problems I had with marijuana were caused by the fact that it is illegal.

I smoked a pipe for fourteen years. Again, I never had a craving for pipe tobacco. I enjoyed smoking several bowls while reading and listening to music. Unfortunately, it stained my teeth. My girl friend did not like kissing a mouth full of nicotine. A hundred pounds of girl friend was more enjoyable than the several pounds of the pipe tobacco that I had, so I threw it away.

I never smoked cigarettes. When I see someone smoking a cigarette in the rain because he cannot smoke inside, it is difficult for me to believe that he enjoys it.

I probably drink more than I should. I rarely drink two days in a row. Unfortunately, I do not feel satiated until I have had six or seven glasses of wine or ale during the course of a day. That is unhealthful. I do not behave outrageously, but it interferes with my sleep.

I have never taken heroin, cocaine, or methamphetamine. I have never known someone who has. My question concerns these hard drugs. Is it possible to enjoy one of them on occasion without becoming addicted? If you choose to answer, please share what you have learned from reading, observation, and/or experience. Discuss alcohol and tobacco, also if you want to.

 

I think some people simply have addictive personalities, and are prone to getting hooked on certain types of behavior, as well as drugs or alcohol. I've never had that type of personality...although some might say I was addicted to this site, or addicted to porn, or addicted to sex. I've always been able to quit doing things that were self-destructive.

Thankfully, I never took up smoking -- the ultimate test of my hypothesis.

 

I'm quite certain there are people who do any of the 'normal' drugs (I'm excluding fucked up shit like sniffing glue) in a positive and relatively safe way, without causing any significant negative impact on their lives and without becoming addicted.

I would think that how easy it is to achieve this varies a lot between drugs, but I don't have any personal experience.

 

I've spent most my life in the drug culture and know by personal experience and observation that actually most people who do illegal drugs don't get addicted and if they do are able to just stop using the substance on their own.

Now I am not trying to claim that I've never seen illegal drugs cause any damage. I have but I believe in all those cases the unconscious motivation for self destruction was already established and it wouldn't matter what they got addicted to it would tend to destroy them. As an example I know a woman who because addicted to her church and religion. When her husband and children refused to join her she left and filed for divorce even though they had been a model family before that. She threw more than 20 years of marriage, and the love of her husband and kids right out the window because of a Church and minister.

This is my experience and I would add that I think someone who has had to face a destructive addiction and has dealt with it successfully will be able top avoid future addictions or at least control them before they become destructive. The benefit of practice you know.

 

It is possible, and many do, but, and this is a very big but, some will get addicted the very first time they try the drug. Some may even die. It is a crap shoot. I believe that everyone has a slightly unique brain chemistry and some are more susceptible to addiction to different chemicals than others.

I have a slightly different perspective as I struggled with addiction for years. Mostly alcohol, but there was lots of other shit thrown in there too.

 

My younger brother is a registered amphetamine addict. He gets 120mg/day of dexidrine BP from the state and he has been a registered addict for more than 12 years and has been using the drug for most of his adult life. He got caught into addiction because he worked nights for almost 10 years but could not do without a social life. His body would pack up without his supply.

In my youth (early 20's) my friends and I tried almost everything acid, speed, heroin, cocaine, mushrooms, weed, you name it we tried it. Nowadays, 25 years later, I like a drink and I still smoke the weed. I remember heroin being the most dangerous because the high was euphoric but you did not need anybody else to enjoy it. When you came down the first thought you had was where can I get some more of that. One of my friends in my youth was trapped by heroin and has been an addict for 20 odd years. Following a four week binge on heroin I made a concious decision to not take anymore. I managed to do this by going on a strict Guiness diet for 2 or 3 weeks and it worked.

Here in Holland now, I would suppose the most popular recreational narcotics are the party drugs which are all mostly chemical variants of MDMA. There are centres operating in the centre of Amsterdam around the clubs where the "kids" can have their tabs checked for purity and safety.

I agree with Kimiko to a certain extent that some people are more susceptible to addiction than others but whether this is genetic or environmental (early childhood trauma for example) I do not know, it is probably a combination of both.

Thinskin

 

I have to agree with Kimico. I think it depends on your addictive tendancies. I've also heard meth is highly addictive and that you can get hooked your first time trying it. I think you'd be gambling with the the chances but that's just my opinion.

 

Using Narcotics is just like having sex with a Gorilla...





You don`t get to say when it is over,The Gorilla does.

 

Is it possible to enjoy illegal drugs without being addicted?



Absolutely. Buy them on the street. Go to a party where there are lots of people. Give the drugs to as many of them as possible, either overtly or covertly.

Go sit in a place where you can observe the people.

Then ENJOY watching them zonk.

 

I don't know about meth re addictiveness, but if you decide to try meth with the aim of enjoyment :S it's obviously going to fuck you up, I'd guess you'd be more likely to try it at the end of a long spiral into addiction through other drugs, but the not utterly stupid drugs (I guess they're anything worse than heroin) will not get you addicted first time you take them. Maybe accepting for the few people who are very susceptible to the addiction, but I think it's pretty rare...

This = 1 reason why a culture more accepting of drug use is good.

 

What I like most about your post is the example you set for people who have not been brainwashed into a certain closed minded moralistic view of drugs and addiction.

I experienced the same thing. While working 12 or more hours a day on a rig for seven or more days in a row just the labor intensiveness and cumulative time made methamphetamine very attractive because in is a very effective pain killer, and fights off fatigue helping to work safer and more aware.

But also myself included I've seen hundreds of people just put the meth down and walk away.

Elements of our government and culture, especially the Conservative/Republicans hate you in the Netherlands because you go against their desire for laws and punishment and yet have lower incidences of social ills.

Its something thinking people in the US need to campaign for.

One of the reasons Cocaine kind of snuck up on the nation is because it was believed to be relatively harmless and non addictive. They found out however after cocaine addiction was a serious problem that they had missed cocaine's addictiveness because in intersected so highly in the brain.

But when they studied it people seemed to break down into three equal groups. Some people became addicted with their first hit. Others, developed addiction after weeks or more of exposure. And the third group just said they did not want to use anymore cocaine.

I think that is true for almost any drug and having done meth, I can't say I found it anymore addictive than Crack for example, and in my experience even Crack is less addictive than nicotine.

I guess I'm going to have to play the "devil's" advocate here but once again I have to say that doing meth one or a few times will not necessarily fuck you up. If it did the Air Force would not have required their pilots to take Methamphetamine during certain missions. That may have changed due to bad publicity but in the study they did on it methamphetamine was the best drug for extended missions.

And like Hunter Thompson I don't want to advocate sex, drugs, and guns to anyone. That's just what works for me. And I would have to say that any negative consequences I incurred from methamphetamine were far, far outweighed by the benefits.

I had a ball and found it to be the only true aphrodisiac I've ever seen in my life and I've tried just about everyone I ever heard of.

 

"Back in the day", we all smoked pot. We all had a stash, papers, roach clips, and several of us had bongs. It was nothing to get together on a weekend, smoke, drink, and of course, eat. I do remember the panic I went through when I found out I was pregnant a few days after I had gotten high. Shit, will that change you point of view, as you worry about the health of your baby.

Out of the seven of us couples who hung around together, no one smokes today, and two are recovering alcoholics. Like others, we just lost interest in pot. It cost too much, we were afraid of getting caught, and the only difference between that and a good drunk, is that you were hungry.

I was concerned the first time my daughter told me she tried it. I was honest with her about our use, and told her she had to be real careful about where she was getting it. After our talk, she said it just wasn't worth it.

 

I took a different approach with my kids. I just sat them down one at a time and told them if they were using drugs they better damn sure give me some of them of there would be hell to pay. The cheap little fuckers didn't start using any drugs like alcohol, tobacco or pot until after they moved out of the house.

But I still make them give me some sometimes.

 

Eleven years ago when we were trying hard to get pregnant it was becoming a toil, we had suffered two misscarriages and there was no fun in sex.
My birthday came around and we let our hair down, drank, smoked and did a few other things we should not have done. My wife flirted with the son of my best friend (he even had a grope) and I had my hand up my best friends wifes skirt (short skirt).
When we got home we told each other about our adventures and had the fuck of our lives.

Result: One very healthy baby boy!

Thinskin

 

Sounds like your wife got a-dick-ed.

 

I'd say it depends on the person's tendencies towards addiction. If you have that trait, most likely you'll get hooked on something.
My personal experience? I had to watch closely what I did, because I'm quick to pour myself into anything I enjoy. Be warned that it could only take once to either end your life, or continue chasing a high that you once experienced. Hard to take that chance anymore, friend.
Oh, and I'm a 3 pack a day smoker.

 

I like you. My wife and I had four kids essentially by similar methods even though after our first two kids she was on birth control. And during our time together there were at least three times when I thought our sex life had reached the peak of a meaningful, and hot, and fun, and loving relationship. And I was not only wrong. Despite what I'd considered to be a fun and adventurous sex life up until then we found out we never really even learned to fuck until we hit our early 40's and literally reached levels of sexual arousal and passion I did not know was humanly possible.

And that involved experimenting with a lot of different things and none of them do I regret.

 

Yes, you can...

I smoked out daily between the ages of 15 and 20. Walked away from pot for 7 years before doing it again casually. If it is around I have no problems taking a hit or 2 to mellow out.

LSD. Yes again. I used to use this as my "party" drug. 2 hits at about 7PM on a Saturday night and the next 12 hours were awesome. One side effect, flashbacks. Only ever had 3 of them but wow. It is like tripping your balls off hardcore for 2 minutes then back to reality.

Speed (pills), sure. Pop some for a weekend of partying and go at it. Spend from Sunday noon until 6AM Monday sleeping and it was all good.

Cocaine, never liked it. I am a pretty intense person and coke turned me into an asshole. Never did it enough to tell you if you can use it in a recreational way.

Thorazine, now we are talking. That little nugget of heaven was great. Pop 1 or 2 and you wouldn't give a shit about anything. Lobotomy in a bottle. I had no addiction issues with this either.

Ritalin makes the world and your brain feel fuzzy. Never had a problem with needing this either. Fun to do but left me feeling disconnected for a day or 2.

Pot laced with opium. This is hands down the best thing I ever did. I was mellow, happy, felt no pain, and felt as if I could fly. Colors were more intense, sex was amazing, music washed through me, and nothing could upset me. I would sleep for 12 hours after doing it but never had any feelings of addiction.

 

I am in agreement with stumbler and the guy from the netherlands. I have fought with one of my friends about this many a time. I think that if the government wasnt so tight about drugs, there wouldnt be much of a problem. First off there is the fact that if drugs where legalized the prices would not be so high, so in turn the cartels would get out of it. I also believe that if a person is going to do a drug there going to do it, legal or not. I have not met one person who has said, I would do meth if only it was legal.

In America we have such a high amount of debt towards other countries that it is rediculous to persue this war on drugs, many ex police officers have told there stories, and they have shown that it is not effective. If we taxed drugs there would be a huge amount of revenue and the Government could at least pull themselves out of some of the debt. Pot alone is the biggest cash crop in the world, way higher then cotton or anything else.

This war on drugs is just to save face. On to my personal experience, I have done most drugs that are commonly known, and easy to get a hold of, other than the fact that I have never injected myself with anything (I'm a tattoo artist with a fear of needles lol). I smoke pot prolly three times a week, relieves stress and helps me sleep. I also occasionaly do shrooms. Out of all the drugs I have tried, the only one I got addicted to was Booze. That was only for about a year.