Drugs Aren’t So Bad
Erasmo Calzadilla
“Drugs are bad,” repeated Professor Garrison again and again, speaking mechanically to his students at school on an episode of South Park. Of course, not only did they not believe him, but they headed off as soon as they could to satisfy their curiosities, since they were sure the prof was lying.
I suppose this is the same effect engendered by many TV programs in Cuba where noted specialists attempt to turn drugs into the pariah. I wonder if any of those moralists have ever tried those substances that they purport to know about so well.
Drugs have always been consumed by people. They have offered incomparable aid in the human understanding of the divine dimensions of beings. Only sclerotic and sick societies are compelled to prohibit them to prevent people from harming themselves. However, I don’t believe that outlawing these substances is the best decision.
Drugs, at least a group of them, are the expanders of consciousness and do very little if no harm to the body. Among these are those that some of us call de-hallucinogens, because they make us see the world more as it is.
A series of walls protects us from reality, but at the same time they contain us and prevent us from getting closer to it. These walls get higher and higher if we let them, but de-hallucinogens knock them down, sometimes violently. If we’re too stubborn (and anyone can be) or if we resist what they want to show us, then they can become very dangerous.
I’m not encouraging anyone to try drugs (God forbid such a responsibility). What’s more, I explicitly advise readers not to get involved in such as tangle, at least not out of some excitement for adventure or without the help of a good guide with lots of experience.
Now, in an equally explicit manner, I’m affirming that the moralists on TV and everywhere else —with their stupid propaganda against drugs— are indirectly inducing thousands of young people to indiscriminately and unconsciously consume any shit they’re sold.
Telling the whole truth, and without fear of the issue, would do a lot of good.
I enjoyed your article. It offered an opposing view. I respect precisely your statement
“I am a bitter opponent of those who are bossy, abusive, and imposing, those who believe they hold the truth, etc., independent of their attire. To them, I occasionally dedicate a few angry words…”
In my opinion, we, collectively speaking, need to quit our moral agendas and crusades. This would require more courage of us than anything we have ever done. One thing – I think – that we should do about and for our fellow man is ensure he can provide for himself and create his own space and destiny and regulate this my not allowing whomever to omit or corrupt the efforts of others who are doing just this. That’s it. By doing anything else, we create power vacuums and misguided agendas that (again, in my opinion) are really what evil is all about.
I don’t think that the above will ever happen, but I don’t think that it is altruistic either. I also, however, don’t think that we can go on as we doing. Some of us can think drugs, abortions, contraceptives and – lets add this to the list – assisted suicide is ‘against God’ or immoral, but for God’s sake, let’s let individuals make their own choices and let the cards fall where they may. Now that takes courage, and I really think that we would be a much stronger people for it.
Feel free to email me at [email protected]. I’d enjoy the communication.
as growing up i went from being a “wierd mosher” then a “chav” now i like everything that i think makes me happy… i think everyone should work together… < without sounding gay haha… and ermmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm take drugs nd shag :)… like the writer embaraso i have learned all areas of life (history tells you alot about things)<sad haha, and drugs help me they give me funnn and have no adverse health effects on people only if you abuse em like gay crack pot lickers…. ;):P:O:Y:F:L:)()()()()()()()()()()(
As I read your intro,it reminded me of an anarchist saying that I read many years ago.
“Whomever lays his hands upon my shoulder to rule me is my enemy”
We do have many things in common Erasmo.
Good article on the drugs issue.We need more education and truth about drugs and less fear
mongering.
best regards
Guy
While I may sound like a moralist here this is my opinion with regards to drugs.
The issue with drugs is one of dependency.
When you are really relinquishing your free will and is not you really deciding to take the drug but is the dependency your body already has to the drug. That is the real danger.
Free will is what make each of us unique in some way. So surrendering your free will to drugs is not a good thing. Because is not you anymore who is in control of your body.
one feature of cuban society that i am absolutley opposed to is the prohibition against marijuana. it is absurd to me that a government that thinks of itself as progressive can outlaw something as harmless and enjoyable as pot.
Incidentally, when I related your comments to my 13–soon to be 14–year-old-daughter, she agreed. For the most part the preachings and prattlings of these so-called experts, who come to her class and school every few months, merely serve to pique the interest of her classmates, many of whom have already begun smoking pot. I’ve always tried to approach the issue honestly, without dealing in cliches, while expressing my fears about the temptations of overconsumption. BTW, I didn’t know “South Park” was viewed (via pirated satellite? via underground DVD’s?) in Cuba. Although “South Park” has already become a bit tiresome for my daughter, since my intellectual/emotional development halted somewhere around age 12, I still view and enjoy it, at least from time-to-time.
“You never know you’ve had enough–until you’ve had MORE than enough!”…Oscar Wilde Alas! Some of my contemporaries from the 1960’s and 1970’s had so much “more than enough” that it propelled them right into the next world–or, more likely, into the great cosmic void! I suspect that as far as drugs are concerned, the “Golden Mean” is a better standard. Still, I’m grateful to drugs for the heretofore unknown dimensions they opened, including several “out of body,” or astral projection experiences. At this point , however, my drug of choice is an occasional fine tobaco. As I puff on a Cohiba, the swirls of smoke create pleasant phansasms and evoke philosophical reflections, much as the did for Fernando Oritz and, before him, the pre-Columbian Cubans.