A psychoactive drug is something that gives pleasure to people through means of a tangible item.
A psychoactive drug is not by definition euphoric. Some are, others are not.
Why do people do drugs? Its because of that pleasure that each drug gives to an individual which compels them to use it.
I use LSD and other psychedelics and dissociatives to explore my mind and to have religious experiences and feelings of merging with God and the universe, and to enhance my senses to get a deeper appreciation from music and art and sex. I also use some empatheogens to help me overcome social anxiety and have fun at parties instead of feeling very introverted. I also have used them to deal with past issues in my life. Other drugs, I use for mild intoxication and general entertainment, much as people use Alcohol, often socially. Not all drugs fall into the stereotypical pleasure seeking mechanisms of pure dopeamine release that you are taught in your social sciences classes. Sure, I do use drugs primarily because I get pleasure out of them. I do most things in my life that are not for the minimum of my survival to get pleasure though, or to bring pleasure to others. Isn't that what life is about?
Drugs give a relative "high", a feeling of absolute bliss and without care in the world.
You have probably never even used drugs but you talk like you know so much about them. You were probably taught by some social science professor and I am guessing work for the state in some capacity, probably as a social worker or such. Drugs are used by many for intellectual and spiritual reasons and for enhancing reality, including increasing the senses to touch, sound, taste, sight, smell past what is normally capable. LSD in particular removes all filtering for your brain and allows for raw input to be processed instead of a filtered input. Of course this is not a scientific explanation, but it describes the effects.
For this very reason though the
nature of drugs in relation to the human psyche is addictive. A person is inclined to abuse drugs because at a first look the risks vs reward
is very much in favor of the reward. A consequence of this is that a human will become growingly reliant on drugs.
Not all drugs are addictive. In fact, the vast majority of drugs are not addictive, particularly psychedelics. The primary addictive drugs are those which bind to dopeamine release rather than bind to serotonin receptors. Also, some drugs cause addiction because they produce symptoms when use is discontinued, such as heroin. These drugs can be used safely and responsibly by many, for others they are indeed a medical issue, and criminalizing them does not help people but leads to large amounts of death, suffering, violence, funds gangs, funds terrorism, spreads disease, all of which is preventable. Harm reduction is far far far more beneficial for society than zero tolerance prohibition, and it also does not violate rights as it is not you forcing your morality onto others but rather helping others minimize harm to themselves.
What intellectual reason does a person in "normal" condition have to do drugs? Nothing but to fulfill his desire and to disturb his emotional balance.
Therefore, a drug is actually an illusion of very high reward with no risk; in reality it is the opposite, a risk of addiction to short periods of ecstasy.
I am entirely incapable of religious experience with out the use of LSD. LSD is the only substance that allows me to feel a connection with God. Additionally, humans have plenty reasons to use drugs. Intellectual exploration, a social experience, recreation, sensory enhancement, working out past difficulties in life, gaining a more detailed appreciation for art and aesthetics, enhanced creativity and associative thinking, etc. For many drugs, the
only real serious risk is the risk of law enforcement. For many drugs with real risks, prohibition makes these risks
FAR worse than they need be. If all heroin was 100% pure, heroin users would not OD. Heroin users OD because batch purity is inconsistent, and a user may inject the same weight of a batch of significantly higher purity. Also, drugs like MDMA are counterfeited by criminals and replaced with PMA which is tremendously more dangerous, the lack of a legal operating market results in mislabled misdosed impure drugs leading to the vast vast vast majority of drug deaths which can not be attributed to incorrect purity. Also, drugs like MDMA have some inherent risk, but if used responsibly via harm reduction strategies, these risks can be minimized to near non-existant levels. By having a zero tolerance prohibitionist mind set, you are maximimizing risk leading to countless deaths countless people who could be any one of my friends dying from your stupid fucking laws trying to "help people". Please take your helping people and fuck off with it already! You cause nothing but death, hurt, broken families, people in prisons, distrust in communities, disease, etc. I truly think you prohibitionists are a fucking curse on humanity and responsible for enormous enormous enormous amounts of needless pain and suffering all in the name of your delusional moral bullshit that you try to force onto others. GET THE FUCK OVER YOURSELF ALREADY.
What does this mean to society in general?
Going into specifics, drugs have always impacted a society in harmful ways.
Today, we can see the most apparent effect in forms of power of the gangs and drug cartels.
Drugs being illegal FUND the gangs and cartels. YOU CREATE THE PROBLEMS. THE PEOPLE KILLED IN DRUG WARS, THEIR DEATHS ARE THE FAULT OF YOUR POLICIES. If drugs were legal, the terrorists who profit from them , the violent cartels, the street gangs would go fucking bankrupt over night. Your policies which lock up innocent people, which cause death and pain and all fucking sorts of problems on people minding their own business causing no problems for others, make profits only for VIOLENT CRIMINAL GANGS AND THE GOVERNMENT PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!
