Why We Should Say Yes to Drugs

I've noticed that weed from legal shops is dressed up and made to look great. More than half the time, I'm disappointed. Sometimes it'll be rock hard or it will look great and taste like garbage. I really miss the black-market stuff I used to get in college. Back then, if it looked good, it was good and if it looked like crap, it was crap. No gimmicks.

I still remember when I could touch and sniff weed before I bought it. Weed's hyper-marketing and strict regulations are making it much less appealing to me. I'd rather get weed directly from people who grow it, or just grow it myself. This is a rare case where a peer-to-peer service actually makes a lot of sense to me. When weed is entirely legal, I would not be surprised if there really was an Uber for weed, even though "Uber for X" is kind of joke these days.

Disclaimer: I'm a former recreative drug user who particularly experimented with various psychedelics throughout my early '20s. Most of these were legal or decriminalised at that time, in my country. I've found out at the age of 35 that I have autism, and wish I knew this earlier in my life. I recommend every human being to, instead of self experiment, follow the conventional scientific method instead, and solely (although, yes, this can be expensive and long road and a matter of finding the right therapist/diagnosis).

"Above all: God forbade it."

Says who? In medieval Europe (and to this very day) monastaries were growing hop (arguably a drug) brewing beer (arguably a drug). Pharmacies are arguably selling drugs. There is evidence of drug usage throughout our history, especially a.muscaria (fly agaric).

"This, it immediately impressed upon me, was an intimation of godness; it opened my heart to the divine; this was a sacrament, a fusing of the material with the ineffable. Pollan tells the story of a woman called Mary who ate two or three spoonfuls of mushrooms one day and, she told him, “had the most profound experience of being with God. I was God and God was me.”

This is supported by the works of John Marco Allegro and some of his, eh, followers. [1] [2] [3]

"And the word “drug,” like “psychedelic,” is horribly loaded. Like the miraculous weed, psilocybin comes from the earth. LSD comes from bacteria. They are not addictive; yes, they can be abused, but very few who have had a psychedelic experience want to have it again and again."

Its dangerous to throw all psychedelic drugs on one pile. Psilocybin cannot be used effectively in tandem (e.g. multiple times a week) however LSD can. LSD is actually an oddball, pharmacologically, though I'm not an expert at this field, see Wikipedia [4]

Also, LSA comes from bacteria (ergot and the like). [5] LSD is made via chemistry of human interaction (synthesised).

Now we come to my actual point: we have the scientific ability to diagnose people. We have the scientific ability to figure which medicine/cure works on them. We have the scientific ability to standardise drug dosages. Recreational drug / "natural" drug usage uses practically none of these abilities. Its experimenting often done irresponsibly. I'm all for experimenting, but it should be done in controlled settings, following the scientific method. There are scientists who are proponents of that, but articles like these are not going to win them grants because they resonate with the experimental/recreational drug use culture only. The general public is against that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sacred_Mushroom_and_the_Cr...

[2] https://logosmedia.com/the-holy-mushroom-evidence-of-mushroo...

[3] https://logosmedia.com/SecretHistoryMagicMushroomsProject

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Pha...

[5] https://azarius.net/smartshop/lsa-seeds/

Weed can most definitely be dangerous, and it is going to vary from person to person, from situation to situation not in the least the other drugs/medicine they use.

FWIW (anecdotal), I've had small psychosis ("bad trip", a BS name for that IMO) lasting a few hours to half a day on it multiple times under different circumstances (one time combination with one glass of alcohol plus not being used to either, one time where I passed out after -apparently- too much of active substance, one time combination with anti-depressant). All these 3 times occurred in The Netherlands where marihuana usage is decriminalised. Why did this happen though? Turns out, as I figured much later, I have autism, and weed made my autism-related symptoms worse in certain settings (ie. when I was not alone). Consider, for example, that I can get anxious in large groups because of all the stimulations. Consider, that weed increases these feelings and makes me even more receptive to these stimulations. Doesn't take a genius to figure that can lead to a (mild) psychosis. I've never had a psychosis on weed while I was alone though. Every psychosis I had was related to stress, apparently autism-related.

I don't want to forbid others what I did myself, but what I feel I can do is warn them and share my experience.

How so?