Choose Your Drugs Wisely

We're all getting fucked up in one way or the other. Some of us drink, some of us smoke, some of us shoot and snort. Some of us turn to religion. Some of us get our opiates in the political realm. Sometimes we need a little boost. Sometimes we need to come down.

I used to be a drinker, until I realized I was going to commit suicide if I didn't quit. I was drinking every night. It was ruining my life. I woke up with pains in my liver and depression every morning. It took a few attempts, but eventually I did it. Without groups and without Jesus. I know some people need groups and Jesus to quit, but I didn't, and I don't think everyone does. I've been sober for 2+ years now.

Now I'm going back and forth on caffeine. There's no real reason for me to quit my daily sugar free energy drink, but I feel compelled to. Back when I was a christian, I thought it was all about stripping away--getting rid of the things that stood between you and God. Maybe I'm still in that habit, and still trying to strip away things to get closer to something I don't even believe in anymore. Isn't that weird? Maybe that's what I'm doing.

But caffeine is not a horrible drug. There are tons of good drugs. Caffeine. The mood stabilizer I take every night. The antidepressant I take every morning, Antihistamines. Antibiotics. Stuff like that. And there are some drugs that are worse than others.

'No pills or powders' is what Harold Ramis's character in Knocked Up advises Seth Rogen's character. That seems to be a generally safe rule of thumb. Heroin, Meth, and Crack are awful. I've seen too many lives ruined and ended by those drugs. Then there's alcohol--way worse than marijuana, if you ask me. I would be more upset to find out my sons had been drinking booze than smoking a little pot; maybe it's because of the damage I have seen alcohol do to myself and people close to me.

But we will all get high. 'Everybody must get stoned', as Bob Dylan put it. Think about the shit that is in the food you eat. Talk about some fucked up drugs. We put horrible things into our bodies. And what about the shit we put in the air? Christ, we breathe in some horrible things. Then there are the ideas. We get high on those, too. Some are good, some are bad. We have to choose our ideas carefully. At least as carefully as we should choose our drugs

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