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Drug users use a lot of drugs

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Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#91
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think I gave myself some minor bladder damage just by drinking iced mint tea (since it's such a strong diuretic), so I can't imagine I'd react well to ketamine even in small doses.

Wow, how much did you drink?

Only one glass a day, so maybe 20oz. I was working out of a coffee shop, and would have an iced coffee or a latte in the morning but then wanted something non caffeinated in the early afternoon. I think the combination of the large coffee and the large iced tea was just too much diuretic for whatever reason. Fortunately the problem seems to have resolved itself after a couple years.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#92
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2C-B. Cathinones and other pyrovalerones. Some people even seem to enjoy absorbing Coffee through their nose.

Cathinones are amphetamines.

Sure, cathinones are a sub-category of amphetamines, but only in the same way that amphetamines are technically phenetylamines.

But cathinones differ from "pure" substituted amphetamines by a ketone group at the Beta-position, which is what I mean here.

And regardless, the point stands for substituted phenethylamines like the 2C family, which are clearly not amphetamines.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What non-amphetemine stimulants are people doing recreationally?

Cocaine? MDMA?

MDMA is an amphetamine, short for Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

I don’t know how I forgot cocaine, but it has the same jaw clenching problem

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide more details on what the "fantastic support system" consists of?

I found myself in a very accepting friend group of people that didn’t use drugs and (for my situation this was key) didn’t know where to get them. Aside from that, there was no shaming and very little drama. Essentially, my previous situation was that I was surrounded by extremely abusive family and dangerously messed up friends. I more or less made friends with “normal” people, got away from a really bad situation a…

How long did it take for the change in environment to make a long term difference to stop using drugs? A month? A year?

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#95
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found myself in a very accepting friend group of people that didn’t use drugs and (for my situation this was key) didn’t know where to get them. Aside from that, there was no shaming and very little drama. Essentially, my previous situation was that I was surrounded by extremely abusive family and dangerously messed up friends. I more or less made friends with “normal” people, got away from a really bad situation a…

How long did it take for the change in environment to make a long term difference to stop using drugs? A month? A year?

I don’t know exactly because I managed 0 possible access for a long time, so temptation was low.

About a year after I quit, I made a new friend. He was a nice guy, seemed normal, but one day he casually mentioned that he occasionally used stimulants including amphetamines. I cut off all contact with him immediately (as did all of my close friends. It’s a good example of support in this case.)

I guess I was able to recognize and decisively take action to avoid temptation about a year in. This was likely also luck. I was in a pretty good place with my life in general, had that occurred six months earlier or six months later it could have had a different outcome.

So the answer is either a day or a year or never. It’s been ten years and I’ve only known where to get meth for about one day of it. I still get cravings to this day, I’m just no longer in the habit of indulging them.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#96
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must admit the specifics of doing drugs is not that interesting to me, it's more interesting to ask the question: How does someone stop doing drugs?

A strong desire to quit and a big support network (family, friends, recovery centers, etc). We tend to look down on addicts, when in fact, we probably should be looking to help. And the more help there is, the better chance someone will have quitting/recovery. Support also means real support, not a parent there because they have to and so they have disgust on their face, nope nope nope, that can make things worse.

Yes!

I had friends, housing, food, a stable day to day routine and _nobody_ looked down on me for my problems. I was able to talk openly about what I was going through and the circumstances that led to my addiction in the first place.

Normally (at least as Americans) we think of addicts as getting all of those things in rehab facilities and getting “fixed” by that few weeks or months. I’ve been in rehabs and mental hospitals and genuinely gotten some necessary help from them, but in my case I only started getting really better after I found myself in a situation where I had all of that support without feeling like it had an expiration date.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#97
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, this is why "boofing" (intrarectal) dosing has found rising popularity in the 'research chemical' scene over the past couple decades. The liver's effects on drugs is really fascinating. Grapefruit has a chemical that can inactive liver enzymes, so some drug addicts regularly drink grapefruit juice to 'get more bang for their buck'. Plain old black pepper (in large doses) inactivates a different enzyme IIRC. Ther…

>There are also some interesting anecdotal cases of people who claim to have found regimens of essential oils, which when consumed at the right schedule saturate liver enzymes to the extent that otherwise inert substances can produce recreationally psychoactive effects. Are essential oils literally oils? Because I doubt they can have a metabolic effect due to their size and lipophilicity. My main concern is adsorptio…

I'm not sure what "literally oils" means in a chemical sense, but all of the essential oils I've ever interacted with are hydrophobic and form a distinct layer on top of water. I'm not sure but that might be definitional to what an essential oil is.

I've actually steam-distilled essential oils before: essentially you push a bunch of steam through plant material and condense it into a funnel that drains from the bottom, so water can flow out and be discarded while the oil remains in the funnel. (It's a pretty fun process IMO, and about as safe as boiling a pot of water).

I don't think the human body can process most essential oils for caloric energy: molecularly they look much more like drugs - no long carbon chains.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#98

There's recreational drug users, and then there's recreational drug users. Turns out some people I know who microdosed amphetamine took doses exactly in the ballpark of what doctor would prescribe them.

If they're microdosing amphetamine at medicinal dosage levels are their intentions even recreation?

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#99
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long did it take for the change in environment to make a long term difference to stop using drugs? A month? A year?

I don’t know exactly because I managed 0 possible access for a long time, so temptation was low. About a year after I quit, I made a new friend. He was a nice guy, seemed normal, but one day he casually mentioned that he occasionally used stimulants including amphetamines. I cut off all contact with him immediately (as did all of my close friends. It’s a good example of support in this case.) I guess I was able to re…

I feel bad for the guy who got ostracized by you and your entire friend group because he occasionally did speed and admitted to it. I understand your situation but I also think at some point you need to be able to stand on your own two feet without taking such drastic measures. Strength is both being able to walk away and then to say no in the face of temptation.

I say this as someone who abused drugs when I was younger and came from an extremely abusive family environment.

Re: Drug users use a lot of drugs

#100
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Must admit the specifics of doing drugs is not that interesting to me, it's more interesting to ask the question: How does someone stop doing drugs?

A strong desire to quit and a big support network (family, friends, recovery centers, etc). We tend to look down on addicts, when in fact, we probably should be looking to help. And the more help there is, the better chance someone will have quitting/recovery. Support also means real support, not a parent there because they have to and so they have disgust on their face, nope nope nope, that can make things worse.

Not only that, I always have time to listen to recovered addicts - they know more about persistence and will-power than just about anyone else.
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