I am 37 years old. I don’t have close to all the answers. This is my perspective so take it or leave it.
I have tried various drugs Marijuana and Adderall. I took a supplement that was called 1AD a precursor to an androgen. I have taken many legal supplements and over the counter drugs. I have drank alcohol on and off at different times, many times to excess. Some drugs I have taken wanting to feel better, some to help optimize my performance though not for competition on the sports field.
My advice with drugs is generally as little as possible and no less. I like caffeine because it has helped me concentrate better. I have drank alcohol for bad reasons and some good reasons such as thinning my blood. I only took Marijuana once. Adderall only once as far as I know. I suspect that I might have been dosed with LSD in the past though it could have been something else. This was not my choice. Psychological, Lack of sleep, and other stresses and health problem has affected my cognitive functions at times as well.
Some people need medications to survive. Problem is medications often bring side effects, some on the label and some off the label. Drinking alcohol makes me tired, so I might drink caffeine to counteract this a bit. This doesn’t make it ok to drive, just saying drugs bring a bit of a balancing act which is hard to maintain for prolonged periods in life. What happens when you lose a job, you get delayed in an environment where you don’t have access to it, or what happens if it’s side effects make you miss something you would have otherwise caught. You might catch other important things with heightened focus, though the key here is to know the effects of what you are using and they are not always obvious under the influence. This world has a lot of evil in it as well, so those under the influence are easier targets for it both direct and indirect.
The more drugs the more side effects, and the optimization balancing act continues. This is a requirement for people that have Diabetes or other health problems that require medication. We as a community need to support each other, because people could be at a different part of the balancing act and we don’t know it. Further some medications bring stigmas Marijuana – lazy, Alcohol – out of control, Caffeine – wired, etc. Some of these stigmas are unfair though they exist non the less. We live in a competitive world, and in bad times it will get more competitive. Smoking pot shouldn’t mean you end up in a homeless shelter, though often times in reality and practice it can. It doesn’t mean everyone in a homeless shelter is there because of smoking too much pot. The reason I say this is to make people understand what is being risked, because it is not always obvious.
I have generally thought Marijuana should be legal. Over regulation seems like it causes significant problems and being lied to doesn’t make me want to believe in the laws. At the same time I don’t think it should be used by everybody. CEOs, Doctors, Engineers, and infrastructure are a lot of good jobs. I don’t think I would want someone that smokes pot too frequently doing these jobs because they might miss something important. I don’t want to smoke it because I have enough other problems that attack my productivity.
Music, Art, Video I think has likely been influenced by some drugs in creative ways. Creativity is also very powerful, so one might question under the influence if people would miss something, or maybe create something that is detrimental. There has also been studies that have shown Marijuana is bad for children and I tend to believe this.
Lack of real healthcare leads to people self medicating, so until we fix this as society I can’t judge anyone for self medicating. I also don’t believe in judging someone for their past use. Sometimes what people need is a real chance for things to get better. Further anyone could have something slipped into their drink or airstream, so I am not a big believer in drug tests. I might be more apt to believe lie detector tests, though in oppressive systems they can be detrimental too. Also money and profits control a lot about medications and this causes numerous problems. Just because they can fix something doesn’t mean they do. Marijuana might be a safer route than some of the medications pushed by Big Pharmaceutical. Also people that are pushed to the point in their life to take Marijuana should be protected from the evils associated with cartels and people modifying supply lines. Legalization and regulation can at least give people some quality control, though this isn’t perfect and is subject to the dollar like other support systems. Bring in oppressive governments or people trying to teach you a lesson and it is hard to rule things out. More influences the more difficult it is to know what’s the effect of the drug and what is not. Evil people can use this fact to their advantage.
There are some drugs that can remove taste and smell. In normal cases this could be no big deal and might lead people to be safe. If there is a gas leak this could be a significant problem. So again sometimes less is more and we always need to look out and support each other because we are all viewing life through some distortion.
I am not perfect. I believe sober people haven’t always treated me right and people under the influence have protected me at times. The inverse is definitely possible and probable at times as well. Alcohol has brought problems at times in my life, it has also reduced anxiety. What people don’t always understand is when we are young we take for granted things like being able to sleep and eat without problems. Drinking alcohol has led to stomach problems in my life, and made me more anxious at times when I go without it. Not really the warning label you get when your going out for a drink with friends in college.
It would be ideal to find the optimization algorithms that give the benefits of heightened awareness and physical strength without balancing act and side effects. This is a competitive world as well, and some with the knowledge of the optimized life might keep it as a trade secret. This world has more than one solution to many problems, and finding the optimal ones aren’t always easy. If we could trust everything people tell us that would be different. Some people don’t want us to succeed. Some people want us to chase the wrong solution to gain a competitive advantage. Some people might not like the idea of you or me advancing because of preconceived ideas or one comment we made in jest they didn’t like.
Important to remember that Christ’s way of thinking and forgiveness is not embraced by everyone. So in a competitive job market it is easy to be labeled in an unfair way. Whether you smoked pot 5 years ago shouldn’t matter when you are considered for a promotion. Other’s might not be that forgiving, specially when things are neck and neck. Specially when automation is taking away many of the jobs we have, and the pace is accelerating. Being young it is not easy to be saddled with so many burdens and I wish our world was better at forgiveness and not being sharks. Would be nice to think jobs are plentiful, people are forgiving, and every word doesn’t matter. Sadly when times are tougher it can be more of a problem.
If you made it this far I am impressed. When I was younger I was a bit more full hearty and didn’t listen to everyone. Not saying all voices have your best interest at heart, just sometimes we forgo good advice for popularity and convenience of a quick fix. Some people are saying the right things but possibly in the wrong way to you, so if my advice and wisdom doesn’t get through hopefully someone else will. Younger people can egg each other along as well, so bad ideas can snowball and turn a simple night of having drinks with friends into something really bad.
Beautiful young women you have a lot of power to do good, so please try and be a positive influence to the men in your lives. The battered wives later in life might come looking for the woman that set their man down the wrong path. You like them bad? I liked them bad. The Devil is popular until he’s not. Easy to confuse disobeying good laws with fighting oppression, if we had a better system it might be easier for younger women to discern the men that are looking out for them and the rest of society.
I have rewarded bad behavior at times as well, not always easy to stop caring about the ones you care about. Can I have the attitude without the problems? The attitude that stands up and fights for what is right, makes me laugh, the strength to tell me when I am wrong. Without the passive aggressive attacks and miscommunications and the years of unforgiveness? The beauty without the pain. Sometimes the same qualities that bring out the things we love about a person are qualities that rub us the wrong way. Attitude, I like that, sometimes yes and sometimes no