I know this is not a very popular idea. You don't hear it too often any more … but it's the truth. I have taken drugs before and … I had a real good time. Sorry. Didn't murder anybody, didn't rape anybody, didn't rob anybody, didn't beat anybody, didn't lose – hmm –one fucking job, laughed my ass off, and went about my day. Sorry. Now, where's my commercial? - Bill Hicks.
I thought I would open with a quote by one of the greatest comedians whoever lived, since not only is it quite an honest idea, it also leads nicely into the topic of this blog. Drugs.
Now I am going to make this crystal clear for people reading this, when I mention 'drugs' I am talking about all drugs. I'm not limiting myself to the common misconception that drugs means illicit drugs, I'm including alcohol and tobacco as well, unless I suggest otherwise.
Every child in school is taught the same thing; drugs ruin lives, destroy families and even cause financial problems (that may have just been my school, totally elitist). I bought into this completely. From my own perspective, having been very exposed to drugs all my life, I knew first hand the problems associated with them. Other girls at my school believed this too, but not out of experience or any proper knowledge on the subject, they were convinced like desperate people watching some advertisement for a new diet regime. Completely ignorant, but so willing to accept what was being served to them.
I think I carried this idea around with me until my mid teens. I had spent so much of my life hating drugs, hating what it had done to my family and believing deep in my heart, that without drugs in the equation, everything in my life would have been so much better. I got older though, and when you get older you become more aware of things and hopefully, you learn to expand your mind to question other possibilities before you dismiss them. I remember thinking one night that perhaps it wasn't actually the drugs I hated so much, perhaps it could be the people I blamed, the drug takers as individuals. Perhaps it was what they did after, or even before consuming something, that was what I truly hated.
It is such much easier to blame something, rather than someone. I don't think any compassionate person on this Earth would want to blame their mother or father for genuinely being a lousy parent and having to admit and accept that, when they could blame what they perceive to be the source of their parent's lousiness. I can understand that, but believing that is just lying to yourself.
How could I honestly hate drugs when I come home after a bad day and listen to what they have inspired? Much of the music I love is the child of people out of their minds on all types of substances, creating beautiful and incredible sounds that have not been recreated since and have lasted the test of time. You listen to some of Paul McCartney's work, who admitted he was pretty much off his face, and try and tell me that drugs are all bad and cause chaos. Tell me that they they're so terrible after reading works by Hemingway, Poe, Burroughs or Huxley. Even if all their lives were tragic or ended far too quickly (that would be the destructive part), they created masterpieces and were all inspired by some substance.
The truth is, and Hicks said it a lot more concisely than I have, is that most people who take drugs are not raving lunatics or problem causers. Recreational users are common, I know quite a few and they are all just average people, just going about their lives and occasionally dabbling with substances to have a good time. Who am I to judge them for what they do? I have absolutely no right to do that, unless their actions cause harm or hurt me in some way. I have often found that it is people who have been drinking that are truly the worst drug users (remember, alcohol is a drug people), changing from being friendly, into aggressive and dangerous individuals. That could be said for all drugs though, apart from tobacco. You try and take cigarettes away from a smoker and see how quick their mood changes. Give them back the cigarettes!
I should end this now before I start ranting about the problems associated with smoking nowadays. Honestly, the anti-smoking laws in this country are actually bordering on breaking some of my human rights. I do still have rights as a smoker don't I? I mean, I pay my taxes, actually no, I pay more taxes than a non-smoker because my Government feels like it, even though they apparently don't want me to be able to smoke anywhere. I didn't realise they owned Sydney's airspace now, that it was a crime from me to smoke outdoors. Aren't I just so ignorant?
The sum of all my musings on drugs is just this; don't judge people who take drugs or just try them, unless it personally affects you and don't limit yourself to straight-laced (very Victorian) ways of thinking. There is always much more to consider than what you may be told or taught in school. Just by broadening your mind to even consider other possibilities is an achievement, even if you decide to dismiss those thoughts anyway.
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