Check it out. Just because a person can get high or drunk does not necessarily mean they should.
College is a place for experimentation and self-exploration. It is here at CU that many have been away from home for the first time in their lives – out of the family home with the ever present parental influence is a new found freedom. But with freedom comes responsibility, and let’s face it, responsibility sucks.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could just do anything – like a utopia of carefree frolicking in the world? Sadly, that world does not exist, not even at CU.
I think it was Newton, the guy who was hit by an apple, who said that for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction.
Now, I’m not much of a scientist but I certainly understand that what goes up must come down. I also understand that if I drink 15 shots of Yukon Jack I will most certainly be jacked up. In that same way I know that if I dose a few hits of acid I will become very wide for the next half day or so. I could go on but I think you get the point.
This brings us back to responsibility. As human beings we are all responsible for our actions. When I take a few hits of LSD I do not become another person.
Those outer-body floods of light, the tangible sounds that often follow me around and the Troll dolls, professing their undying love, might be miraculous, but they do not erase the fact that it is I who is experiencing them. Taking that blotter onto my tongue does not free me from being me.
Unlike Tim O’Leary, I do not advocate getting high. Let’s face it — some folks are not set up mentally or emotionally to trip out. In fact I have been with people who have had horrible trips that landed them in the hospital. Not good.
Even worse is when a person gets high and then hurts someone else. I’ve heard of people who have killed their friends while high. That may be an extreme example, but it illustrates the point that some people just shouldn’t be doing it.
So, I’m a prude right? Sure, why not. I don’t get high anymore. Why, well for one it got old; sort of like me.
It’s insane to do the same thing expecting a different result. I spent years chasing that first high, whether it was pot, LSD or heroin. And — surprise — I was never able to get back to the beginning. Sort of like trying to become a virgin again — it just can’t happen.
I certainly don’t want to sound like I’m preaching abstinence. That is asinine. “Just say no” is the biggest joke there is. However, I do believe in responsibility. Damn, that word again. But it is important to “know thyself.”
By all means, become educated about drugs and alcohol. If that means for you experimentation, then do so in a way that is safe and informed.
What does that mean?
First, if you’re going to use a hallucinogen, understand that someone much less intelligent than yourself probably manufactured the drug.
Can you synthesize a complex compound requiring precise measurements, expert techniques and a lab of sophisticated equipment? Well, unfortunately, most of the people making the LSD, methamphetamine and ecstasy don’t either. How do I know? I have been in home labs and have known bathtub chemists.
Secondly, don’t trip for the first time away from a safe place.
I remember a girl who dosed for the first time at a Butthole Surfers concert. She couldn’t wrap her mind around the bright lights, noise and mass of bodies. I remember watching her fall to the ground at the feet of several hundred people slam dancing. Later, as the hall emptied she was curled in a fetal position on the floor. Her gaze was absent. This is not how to take LSD for the first time.
I believe that LSD and other hallucinogens can be okay. But the bottom line is responsibility — once again with that dang word. Find the back of your mind, experience the flavors of sound and the colors of thought. But do not hurt yourself, and by no means hurt others. Out-of-body experiences do not free one of the realities that you are you, and that in the end, jails, institutes and sometimes death can be found at the end of a trip.
Contact Campus Press Editor Brian Malnes at brian.malnes@thecampuspress.com1
