29 Reader Responses

1. Jennifer Emick Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 1:57 pm

   I’d have to agree with the assessment that there is a stronger link between alcohol and ‘hard’ drugs than with marijuana. I can’t think of a single cocaine/meth user I’ve ever known who wasn’t also a hard drinker; yet very few of them used pot regularly. I think the studies get skewed because they look at teens who are experimenting, and most experiments start with either alcohol or pot. Pot isn’t a ‘gateway,’ it’s just widely acknowledged to be safe and therefore is often a first choice.

   As far as freedom is concerned, it’s not society that one needs to be freed from, but the strictures it imposes on us. There’s nothing ultimately wrong with belonging, or being part of a group; what entheogens do is make us aware of a larger reality. Often, we grow up accepting that things we have been taught are true, entheogens are just one way of cracking the arificial program that’s been imposed on us…whether one continues on to become ‘real’ is up to the individual. IOW, entheogens can give you a look out the window, but you still have to find the door.

2. Joe Chip Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 2:09 pm

   I have a longstanding relationship with marijuana and can assure anyone that it is deeply ambiguous. It has so much potential, but I think it gets squandered by using it recreationally rather than sacramentally. It can be a gateway to deep insights, but it can also be an excuse to withdraw into oneself and avoid direct engagement with life. There’s a balance to be struck with weed that is really hard to strike in a society that provides no sacramental context for it.

   As for pot being a gateway drug, I would have to say it’s both true and not true. Once someone tries pot and becomes a bit familiar with its effects, they realize that a great deal of the information they were given about this drug was total bullshit. This leads one to wonder what other aspects of their education have been total bullshit. You definitely become more openminded towards drugs in general. Of course, for me pot never became a gateway to heroin or cocaine (I tried cocaine once but didn’t like it as much as pot), but it did become a gateway to entheogens. And as we all know, that’s really fuckin hot.

3. David Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 3:50 pm

   I remember reading a classic of drug literature by Andrew Weil entitled the Natural Mind. In it, he suggests that the only things drugs do is trigger naturally occurring states of the human mind. They don’t give you anything you don’t already have. He cautions against becoming reliant on the substances themselves to achieve these internal states, when what you should really be doing with them is learning from them how to infuse every day of your whole life with the states they inspire.

   Couldn’t have said it any better myself. But someone else did:

   “There is another question that interests me very much,”I said.”There are
   substances which yogis take to induce certain states.Might these not be,in
   certain cases,narcotics?I have myself carried out a number of experiments
   in this direction and everything I have read about magic proves to me quite
   clearly that all schools at all times and in all countries have made a very wide
   use of narcotics for the creation of those states which make ‘magic’possible.”

   “Yes,”said G.”In many cases these substances are those which you call
   ‘narcotics’But they can be used in entirely different ways.There are schools
   which make use of narcotics in the right way.People in these schools take
   them for self-study;in order to take a look ahead,to know their possibilities
   better,to see beforehand,’in advance,’what can be attained later on as the
   result of prolonged work.When a man sees this and is convinced that what
   he has learned theoretically really exists,he then works consciously,he
   knows where he is going.Sometimes this is the easiest way of being
   convinced of the real existence of those possibilities which man often
   suspects in himself.There is a special chemistry relating to this.There are
   particular substances for each function.Each function can either be
   strengthened or weakened,awakened or put to sleep.But to do this a great
   knowledge of the human machine and of this special chemistry is necessary.
   In all those schools which make use of this method experiments are carried
   out only when they are really necessary and only under the direction of
   experienced and competent men who can foresee all results and adopt
   measures against possible undesirable consequences.The substances used in
   these schools are not merely ‘narcotics’as you call them,although many of
   them are prepared from such drugs as opium,hashish,and so on.”

   –Gurdjieff from IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, Ch. 1

   Addictive personalities or biologies of course–beware. And as a friend pointed out recently, people do use weed to become increasingly subjective, rather than exploring the potential of their consciousness, albeit temporarily.

4. Jack Mehoph Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 5:26 pm

   I’ve been a regular pot smoker and light drinker (beer mostly) for the better part of 20 years (i’m 35). Never tried anything else, except once long ago with LSD.

   I started drinking heavier about 3 years ago, and about a year ago tried cocaine for the first time. And have used it a bunch since.

   I’m not really happy with myself. Keep telling myself after a coke weekend that I won’t do it again. Then after a few weeks and a few drinks, it’s real appetizing. Terrible cycle.

   I miss the days where all I did was weed. Never had any urge for anything else. But when I get my alcohol buzz on, the other stuff looks really good.

5. pmp Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 6:35 pm

   If it’s a gateway drug, it may be in the sense of, “wow, those fuckers at DARE were sure lying about this! Maybe these other things aren’t so bad either…”

6. Jennifer Emick Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 6:53 pm

   That’s it exactly…I don’t think you’ll find that sort of escalation in adults. I know innumerous people who discovered pot as adults and have yet to become raging addicts..or even the lazy wastrels portrayed in the media. (In fact, nearly every ambitious person I know smokes..and ALL of the creative types I know do…

7. Jeremy Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 9:03 pm

   The majority of drug-users who are addicted either started young or moved on up to coke or meth with nothing to soften the blow in between. Marijuana is a gateway drug; a damn good one. I pity the fool who goes from drinking at parties at the age of 16 to one day getting a taste of a really good 2-day long coke bender. Because that fool may not be seen again for a very, very long time.

   Then again, there are people like me who didn’t start using drugs until the age of 20. And indeed, I muttered the words, “What else were we lied to about?” to my friend after just a couple of our first puffs of marijuana. As it turned out, we were lied to about an awful lot.

   It’s incredibly important that any potential drug user start with marijuana, actually. If I hadn’t, I would not have been wise or aware enough to realize that my extremely rare experiences with coke and meth should be exactly that; extremely rare. I’m more of a psychedelic man anyway.

   Speaking of that divide, through all of those I’ve met there is definitely a clear divide among users. It seems that all users come to a fork in the road when they decide whether they’d prefer their mind or their body tickled. Both have fairly unpredictable hills, but the latter has some dark and penetrating valleys.

8. hf Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 9:14 pm

   I think Joe has a point. (You leave out the fact that big dealers have a clear incentive to push hard drugs, in order to minimize the volume and mass per dollar of the contraband they transport. Also, if they mix rat poison in their cocaine people might assume it’s really pure. Not so with pot. Oh, and obviously pot has less of that money-making addictive quality.)

   Tim, exactly what kind of escape does pot prevent? If you mean people fail to find a particular use of ‘mystical’ experiences then I might agree, but again this seems like a function of the social context.

9. William T. Foxtrot Says:
   September 18th, 2006 at 9:37 pm

   That is, pot becomes sort of an attractor and a container for people who are headed out of the “gateway” of acceptable society. When you get to that gateway (just before you make a getaway), someone hands you a joint or you start doing bong rips and then you more than likely never get past the threshold. Which is not to say that nobody who uses pot gets outside the system - I’m more just trying to provoke conversation here…

   I don’t agree with this assessment. Of course, a lot of people who start smoking marijuana are rebellious youth who may or may not be on a path out of the “gateway of acceptable society” as you put it, but I would say the majority of people who smoke pot are just regular folks looking for a little fun. They might start smoking because they’re bored with their jobs or school, but in no way are they about to make a leap out of normal society. Perhaps that was the case in the sixties, but not anymore.

10. james Says:
    September 18th, 2006 at 11:19 pm

    Mary Jane is not a gateway drug– it is one of many keys that unlock the gateway.

    The gateway is actually in the mind, and the individual determines just how wide they want it to swing.

11. mandi Says:
    September 18th, 2006 at 11:29 pm

    I do agree with the above statement. It isn’t that the people for whom pot becomes a ‘container’ are thinking “Gee, maybe I should get out of this whole mainstream society thing” until they use pot, and then they forget all about it. But a lot of the heavier pot users I know use it as an escape becuase they are fundamentally unsatisfied with the state of their lives. The pot provides a buffer that, in many cases, stops them from further reviewing that dissatisfaction–which could potentially lead to some hopping out of the mainstream.

12. alistair Says:
    September 18th, 2006 at 11:32 pm

    o.k……… when i smoked pot as a kid i stopped being able to play the guitar. i literally couldn`t make my fingers move any longer. when i tried coke i really liked it initially because the feeling was familiar, but then when i needed more i said fuck that…..i like the me that recognises the high more than forcing the high it`s self. so i never tried it again. every now and then i smoke a joint and i`m always stunned into silence listening to my internal dialog run away with it`s self.
    i learned that getting high is a familar feeling that i can attain through meditation and my hypnosis and nlp stuff. i don`t need to jeopardise my health and sanity with jump-starting my consciousness.
    i had an interesting experience recently while on coffee, sitting with friends reminiscing about acid trips…….i found myself begining to trip mildly as we talked, the familiar thrilling of the guts and stirring of the neuro-chemical soup began and i sat back momentarily and remembered a conversation i had with some ducks many years ago…………
    is marijuana a gateway drug? sure, but you`ve got to be willing to walk though the door.
    i have noticed that certain people are drawn to types of drugs. the anxious are drawn to soporifics and the depressed are drawn to stimulants. kinda makes sense really.
    i honestly don`t know how my friends went to school stoned on pot though. teachers were hard enough to handle straight, never mind tuned in to the nuances………….

13. Gary Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:00 am

    I sense you are playing your own devil’s advocate here so I’ll attempt to further the discussion though my own conclusions match yours.

    You are suggesting that pot was released to keep people in the system? And that the numbing effects reduce your chances of breaking free.

    I admit it is novel (to me at least) and it does make for some interesting possibilities. Suppose, for example, that alcohol and it vast powers of numbing you to life and its drudgeries only worked on the 60% of the people. Some 20% or so were more inclined to the metaphysical and thus a new, more tailored “medicine” was required to do the numbing. (To make it popular it was kept illegal, right?) Light up some doobies and viola 80% of the people are kept from ever leaving bondage through the gate of freedom.

    Interesting. A similar case can be made for Coke/Crack in the 80’s and ’90s And Meth for now-a-days. And thus we can catch another 10% or so?

    A problem with this line of thinking is that pot, alcohol and other hallucinogens have been around and used for a long time. Much longer, it seems likely, than some evil cabal has been trying to rule humanity. Barring some preternatural human controllers, I’d have to say that it seems unlikely that beer and weed were loosed upon humanity by Hammurabi or his predecessors.

    Then there is the possibility that the aforementioned drugs are sort of neutral and their effects were studied, analyzed and calculated to produce the controls desired by an evil cabal. For example, abuse pot and it will eventually make you entirely numb. Perfect, cackles the evil overlord. You can still pay taxes, produce and consume things and obey. Abuse alcohol and you will almost certainly eventually die a horrible death. Not good, snickered the overlord. Creepy.

    These are some interesting avenues to explore. But they seem to quickly dead end. The control is either that complete (scary) or pot and it’s brethren is not that bad.

    A major problem, I think, is that the argument assumes that the majority of pot users are trapped or harmed but their use/abuse of pot. It is, as if, the anti-pot propaganda machine has gotten to your argument. I have nothing to back me up (except the fact that those propaganda forces are notorious liars and fabricators of “facts”) but I am not so sure I am willing to admit that the average pothead is less “free” mentally, spiritually or whatever than the average boozehead is or more damaged like anti-pot forces and commercials would like us to believe. (As if there are average potheads and alcoholics available for study) Alcohol is a stimulator then an unihibitor, then it becomes a numbing agent and eventually a depressant. That’s all in one night. Pot only shares the numbing quality with alcohol and that’s only after a lot of use/abuse? I won’t digress any further into a pot vs. alcohol debate but my instinct really says that the worst pothead isn’t quite as bad as the worst alcoholic in almost every category.

    I guess another thing I disagree with is that being trapped by “society” (or fill in any nefarious control you want: technocracy, illuminati, the shriners, reruns of Family Guy) is black and white. You are free or not. It seems more likely that this is not the case to me, especially spiritually. And if it is not Black and White and there are several degrees of freedom (mental, spiritual etc) then pot is almost certainly a gateway drug to that kind of freedom AND that could help explain both its intense popularity and continued prohibition. Further underscoring that popularity is the abuse of weed. If you desire the freedom it can offer but lack the tools to proceed beyond the gateway I suppose one might be inclined to linger in that trippy gateway as much as possible or even too much.

    I dated a girl to whom I became very close to and almost married. She was very interested in spiritual advancement – she was way more motivated than me at that age and together we made wonderful progress and shared amazing experiences. But one day we crossed a line (arbitrarily and suddenly by her own words) and it was all she could take and was interested in. Her progress, even by her own estimation, arrested. For reasons unknown to us that was where she got off the spirit train, (at least for the time being). Two years later it was over for us. I felt I had pulled her through the last couple of “stages” and now she was more exhausted than either of us knew.

    More likely, to me, is that psychedelics set you free in ways that were usually limited to the spiritually gifted (shamans and the like) and once some of the masses got interested they wanted to give this freedom a whirl. Free masses are exactly the opposite of what most evil rulers want.

    While I am worried that the idea that degrees of freedom could be an illusion I also consider and believe that a humans spiritual journey is one based on a progress of sorts and that most healthy people desire this progress. Almost always when they get some they want more in a way that my senses tell me is healthy. I like this explanation (and it seems more likely) as to why weed became so popular in the ‘60s better than the idea that it was released upon humanity. (By the way I actually believe most people are good or almost certainly start out good. The evil powers that be have a vested interest in us believing otherwise).

    While on matters of the soul, I also believe, however, that there is only so much progress a soul can take at once (and maybe even in one lifetime) and when you can’t get anymore of what you want some of humanity’s lesser traits kick in.

    And in steps abuse: Pot enlightened me some and I am too lazy or just simply unable at this time to enlighten myself any further so I’ll keep doing what got me here. Another possibility is that the enlightenment was too much: in steps abuse to numb me to the experience.

    A wise man once told me that some suicidal urges are actually growing pains of the soul. When the pain from a too quickly enlarged soul is too intense suicide can become a real option. The same but to a lesser extent almost certainly applies to enlightenment.

    I am also not to sure about the idea that people seeking various freedoms often turn to pot. I bet the case may be more often the reverse. People are more inclined to seek freedoms after smoking a little weed.

    What kind of freedom are hallucinogens and the like really giving you if you must return to prison afterwards? Good question.

    I don’t mean to sound smarmy but it’s a tad like trying to describe loving, moving soul enriching and deeply satisfying sex to a virgin. A six year old virgin, even. An awakened and healthy sexuality is almost a pure mystery to someone who hasn’t had sex. And just because I am not always having the best sex ever or even banging away 24/7 doesn’t mean that sexuality is shut off like it was when I was 6 or even in virginal teen years.

    Also, Snakes on a plane, my friend. Or Snakes in your brain, as Jeff writes so much better than I could. I can refer you here http://rigint.blogspot.com/2006/06/snakes-in-head_15.html if you haven’t already read this excellent post.

    I suppose when a magician is unmasked what is taken away is actually counterintuitive to the viewer. When one learns the illusion is just an illusion or even how the illusion is done the illusion still sort of exists. Once I learned how Penn and Teller did their tricks they could still “fool” me but I wouldn’t for a second believe they had any actual power. They are, however, able to continue their illusions though I am free of some or all of their trickery.

14. jlhart7 Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 8:30 am

    Thank you for this post, Tim. Perhaps it is the case that drugs can only help show you what you already have in your mind, and that “the raft is not the shore”, so to speak — not good to get attached to. With my addictive personality, I think it’s better I stay away from that stuff personally. As for what someone else chooses, good luck.

15. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:43 pm

    marijuana and can assure anyone that it is deeply ambiguous. It has so much potential, but I think it gets squandered by using it recreationally rather than sacramentally.

    Absolutely! I think one of the worst things that happened to pot was for it to become labelled a “recreational” drug.

16. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:45 pm

    I know innumerous people who discovered pot as adults and have yet to become raging addicts..or even the lazy wastrels portrayed in the media.

    Why are pot users portrayed this way in the media? It seems to be ALL that High Times magazine is about. Is that because it is so untrue and non-threatening?

17. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    Then again, there are people like me who didn’t start using drugs until the age of 20.

    Im in that boat as well…

18. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    You leave out the fact that big dealers have a clear incentive to push hard drugs, in order to minimize the volume and mass per dollar of the contraband they transport.

    A damned good point!

19. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:48 pm

    They might start smoking because they’re bored with their jobs or school, but in no way are they about to make a leap out of normal society.

    So it sounds like you’re agreeing with me, cause that’s a big part of what I meant. If you believe this urge to bust out of society disappeared after the 60s, then why do you think it happened?

20. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:49 pm

    But a lot of the heavier pot users I know use it as an escape becuase they are fundamentally unsatisfied with the state of their lives. The pot provides a buffer that, in many cases, stops them from further reviewing that dissatisfaction–which could potentially lead to some hopping out of the mainstream.

    Very well put! That is very much what I was referring to!

21. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 1:54 pm

    Also, just wanted to point out Philip K. Dick’s excellent Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch to anyone interested in this subject of unleashing illegal drugs to control people (as opposed to making drugs illegal to keep people safe, which is how we usually think of it)

    What do you think Dick’s real-world versions of Can-D and Chew-Z are?

    Also listen to this and then tell me why drugs are illegal:

    http://uroboros.wordpress.com/2006/09/...ic-effect-22-and-the-shadow-exploded/

22. Jeremy Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 3:05 pm

    I’m almost lost with all this talk of drugs being “unleashed” on us. I mean, I’m up for any kind of discussion, there’s nothing I like better, but the vast majority of drugs have been around for as long as humans have. The government does not know nearly as much as its drug-using counterparts. If they did, instead of LSD they would have been experimenting with salvia divinorum for mind control in the 60’s. It was certainly beginning to control my mind before I stopped using it. There are some things I’d just rather not know.

    Something I meant to make more clear is that when people come to that divide (psychedelic path or intoxication path) I think that although it may seem like a concious decision it is clearly partly dependant on their personality. Tim, you asked if the beer-drinkers are on a path to coke. That depends. It depends on whether they’re drinking because they love being trashed or because it is the only real legal alternative to marijuana. I’ve met tons of people who pull up in the car next to me in my favorite smoking spot and ask for a hit, and upon realizing it’s marijuana will say to me, “Oh, never mind man, I thought it was crack. Gotta pass drug tests, you know?” Marijuana stays in the system for up to 50 days in some people, depending on physical fitness levels and other things. So this has led me to believe that given an ALTERNATIVE to harder drugs, many people would actually choose to use marijuana instead.

    And I do not consider marijuana to be the equivalent to alcohol; alcohol is an intoxicant. Marijuana is a stimulant/depressant/psychedelic/intoxicant. That’s what makes it a gateway drug. It exhibits characteristics of all drugs combined into one and is generally the stepping stone that helps a user to decide which of those characteristics they enjoy more. It is a gateway drug, but as nothing is black and white in drug use (a favorite term of mine in relation to this topic), I think it’s important to point out that marijuana users have been proven to be more likely to experiment, but it’s been proven that these users are NOT more likely to become addicted to the drugs they try. From experience, non-users and even some users believe that use and abuse are one and the same. They clearly are not. Nothing is black and white.

    By the way Tim, thank you very much for this bloggery. Debate is a great thing. Unlike an argument, a good debate can be learned from and I’m glad we’re all here to learn something and not bicker.

23. Jeremy Says:
    September 19th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

    I also meant to add, most of you may know already but if not, I highly suggest check out Erowid. It’s a highly-touted, highly-trusted website for unbiased information, both personal and scientific.

24. James Says:
    September 20th, 2006 at 10:29 am

    My personal experience with drugs has been as follows: I was against them. For a long time. Then I smoked pot. All of a sudden, my insomnia disappeared. I actually had an appetite and gained some weight– healthy weight.

    I learned many many years later that I had been prone to seizures as an infant, and was regularly medicated with phenobarbital until I was 5 years old. This blew my mind– it meant that I was a drug addict even before I was an anti-drug crusader (I had to be weaned off of the pheno).

    All I know is, as a kid (after the pheno and way before the pot) I was weird, and other kids thought I was on drugs. Pot actually balanced me, and discovering that I was drugged as an infant (granted, it was for my own good) explained everything to me: the feeling of being “special” or weird, the energy and compulsive creativity…

    I have learned to live with all of it, careful not to mistake stoned enjoyment for righteous illumination.

25. Lono Says:
    September 20th, 2006 at 12:49 pm

    I personally don’t like the feeling I get on pot, but not for lack of trying. During my last attempt (I ate it instead of smoking it) I had a very intense experience wherein I felt the spirit of “pot” was communicating to me. “It” said that it was indeed a gateway, but not a gateway drug. Unfortunately most people use it as a lobby instead of a gateway,and never walk through the door. I had an image of a once-sacred space being polluted by vagrants, like a temple that had been vandalized.

    I now believe that different drugs do indeed take us to different “spaces,” and that they can become polluted by their users. This is why I agree it was a shame that marijuana ever became a so-called recreational drug.

    Hard drugs chemically created in a lab tend to have an Archonic quality to their space, like an imitation of the natural spaces inhabited by plant teachers. I’m not sure how LSD fits into this, but it seems to be a hybrid, with the natural quality given it by the ergot along with the chemical aspect.

26. JK Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 6:31 am

    Pot is there, as is heroin, Luvox and blow

    How I got to this point I do not know

    Gimme some weed

    And we shall see

    How far I should

    What was I just sayin’?

27. JK Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 6:35 am

    ‘Tis queer about the beer

    though

    Full of fizzle and causes cases of krang

    Were it not for it

    I’d see no tits

    Because the goddamn world can’t hang

28. Jennifer Emick Says:
    September 21st, 2006 at 12:15 pm

    Why are pot users portrayed this way in the media? It seems to be ALL that High Times magazine is about. Is that because it is so untrue and non-threatening?

    Honestly, I don’t know. I think HT is “Maxim” for pot, kwim? But my husband & I smoke, our friends smoke, I think everyone we know smokes-and we’re all successful, professional people.

    The ‘lazy’ thing is a joke, I think mixing up ordinary 18 yr old behavior with side effects. I don’t think I’m every lazy, in fact, when i’m not working I’m at PTA, I fundraise for the school, I read, I hike, I make art, generally go a million miles an hour and I can count how many hours I’ve spent on my couch this year on one hand.

    What’s funny is we all have this sort of consensus where we all do it but we don’t talk about it. ..not out of fear, but maybe because we think ppl will think less of us…that we’re lazy, burnouts, etc.

    There are side effects- it does mess with your st memory, etc- but it also provides insight, connections, etc.- I have always done my best writing with a little ‘help,’ same with art. One friend is a scientist who works for Nasa (biosphere stuff, not aero) and he is permabaked- and brilliant. That’s the part they’ll never tell you- some stoners will sit around and watch Jerry Lewis, some will cure cancer.

29. Jacob K Reist Says:
    September 23rd, 2006 at 1:42 am

    “Are drugs really freeing you from anything or is regular use of them simply making you reliant on a new set of crutches?”

    Dear HUman,

    I would have to suggest that everyone interested in searching the answer to this question read the out of print 1974 book “Getting there without drugs : techniques and theories for the expansion of consciousness” by Buryl Payne.

    Hard to find as far as books usually go, but certainly easier and less risky than the reefer madness.

    Sin,

    JKr