Drugs are fun

[Rocker]

Sam de Brito

31st August 2010

Brisbane Times

 

http://blogs.brisbanetimes.com.au/executiv...rugsarefun.html

 

Doesn't this make a change; someone telling it like it is. This guy should be Prime Minister or at the very least the Minister for Health.

Cannabis is mentioned.

Visit the site and leave a comment if you wish.

 

 

Drugs are fun

 

 

August 31, 2010

Why? Why did Ben Cousins do drugs, everyone wants to know.

Why did the Channel Seven documentary Such is Life not answer the big question: what drives a man who has everything to risk it all with drugs?

 

It's actually pretty simple: drugs are fun, that's why people do them and it's certainly why Cousins does them.

I could try to articulate this further but no one I've read to date has done it better than Irvine Welsh in his monster classic novel Trainspotting - "the best book ever written by man or woman ... deserves to sell more copies than the Bible," said one critic when it was first released.

Welsh was writing about heroin, but it could just as well apply to cocaine, ice or pills.

"People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shite, which is not to be ignored, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not f---ing stupid. At least, we're not that f---ing stupid," writes Welsh ...

He continues: "Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it. When you're on junk you have only one worry: scoring. When you're off it you are suddenly obliged to worry about all sorts of other shite. Got no money: can't get pished. Got money: drinking too much. Can't get a bird: no chance of a ride. Got a bird: too much hassle."

"You have to worry about bills, about food, about some football team that never f---ing wins, about human relationships and all the things that really don't matter when you've got a sincere and truthful junk habit," writes Welsh.

Heroin. Cocaine. Ice. Pills. Marijuana. Special K. Acid. Booze. Bulbs. Petrol. Kava. Mushrooms. Nicotine. Coffee. People consume them because they make you feel good.

 

Given, none of them make you feel as good as a 10-kilometre run does, or an epic four-hour surf, or a three-kay swim, or falling in love or waking up to the squeals of joy of a toddler - but they're far easier to pump into yourself at 10pm on a Friday night when you've had a shit week and just want some cheap joy.

The whole of Australia seemed to be holding their breath for Cousins to break down in last week's Seven doco and admit that Santa had fingered him at the age of five or a nasty relative had fricaseed his favourite dog and fed it to him as a teen, and that's what drove him to drugs.

Maybe there is a dark secret at Cousins's heart - maybe he does carry some crippling inadequacy that he's not been able to assuage with his millions of dollars, sporting wizardry and hot and cold running chicks.

Or maybe he just likes taking drugs: it certainly seemed to be the subtext of the doco.

A couple of years ago I had a few beers with a reader of this blog named Tyler and we got talking about recreational drugs, in particular cocaine and ecstasy.

 

I've often said one of the reasons I'm alive today is that I've never been rich enough to support a serious drug habit because merciless binges on various illicit substances were always frustratingly cut short by the fact I had to go to work to earn money.

Boring, but necessary, keeping a job means being able to function and you soon learn that it's twice as hard when you're dealing with relentless Suicide Tuesdays caused by alcoholic poisoning and whatever else you ingested over the weekend.

Anyway, Tyler made the point that there've been thousands and thousands of rock stars in the history of the world and pretty much all of them seem to make the same mistake; they disappear into a haze of drugs and hot women.

Why?

"Because they can," said Tyler, "because it's the most fun you can have standing up."

Or lying down, as the case may be.

 

 

Moralising and medical conditions aside, there's a good reason people such as Cousins (cocaine, ice) Andrew Johns (ecstasy), Thomas Edison (cocaine), Salvador Dali (hashish), the Beatles (LSD), Lewis Carroll (mushrooms), Hunter S. Thompson (everything) and Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Newt Gingrich and Peter Garrett (marijuana) did drugs: they can be really fun.

Humans have been trying to alter their consciousness, to spice up the mundanity of existence since time began; kings and queens have done it, world leaders, priests and philosophers. And you know what?

It's not evil, it's not always stupid and we really don't need Channel Seven or politicians sermonising about it while they happily scoop up tax and advertising dollars from booze and ciggies like they're just a giggle for the good blokes.

Of course it's tragic when we see young girls expire after a night on the Es or musicians and sport stars OD on smack and coke, but they're an absolute drop in the bucket compared with the chaos caused by alcohol and tobacco.

Commentators fall out of the trees insisting the likes of Cousins or Johns take their hair-shirt show on the road to warn kids of the evil of drugs, yet cut to the commercial break and there's an entire suburban street dancing about the joys of getting on the piss.

 

You think, maybe, we're teaching our kids to be scared of the wrong things?

I love getting on the drink, I've also been known to give the Persians a nudge and I'm not a stupid person; I don't need to beg for anyone's forgiveness and neither does Ben Cousins.

He wasn't piloting an aircraft or doing heart surgery on children while under the influence of pingers, he wasn't passing legislation while on the rack; he was a consenting adult doing illegal drugs.

If he owes anyone an apology, it's the police for breaking the law.

People are always going to do drugs, kids are always going to be tempted and most of them will experiment and be none the worse for the experience.

 

It makes more sense to give them practical advice - like don't share notes when snorting, stop smoking pot if you're hearing voices and never, ever, inject anything - than trying to freak them out about a part of life that will always be there.

Edited August 31, 2010 by Rocker

[snooch]

Hunter S. Thompson (everything)

I love Hunter S Thompson!

 

You think, maybe, we're teaching our kids to be scared of the wrong things?

 

I sometimes wonder whether (some) parents are teaching their kids at all when it comes to drug use. I was watching a show last night and they were talking about this Cousins doco and one guy said something along the lines of "the good thing about the show was that since it aired I've had a lot of fathers come up to me and say because of it they've been able to talk to their teenage sons about drugs, something they haven't been able to do before". And it got me thinking that, if parents are unable to give talk to their kids about drugs and drug use, giving them all the information including the potential pitfalls and worst case scenarios, then how are they really going to learn? Do we just sit back and hope someone else is going to teach them those things? Or do we wait until...

 

we see young girls expire after a night on the Es or musicians and sport stars OD on smack and coke

 

If we want to avoid our kids from getting to the worst-case situation when it comes to drug use ie. addiction, I think it's crucial that we teach them responsible use of drugs (whatever they be). And that can usually only start in your own home, through talking to your kids, giving them information and leading by example through personal, life experience.

 

One part I thought was crap was

 

If he owes anyone an apology, it's the police for breaking the law.

 

Bollocks. The police, politicians, media and everyone else with vested interests in this war on drugs owes us an apology imo

Particularly those who deliberately mislead or lie about the benefits of cannabis.

[cybergenesis]

"Given, none of them make you feel as good as a 10-kilometre run does, or an epic four-hour surf, or a three-kay swim, or falling in love or waking up to the squeals of joy of a toddler - but they're far easier to pump into yourself at 10pm on a Friday night when you've had a shit week and just want some cheap joy."

 

Bullshit.. I have jogged KM in my youth, and it does not compare to various drugs. Indeed drugs can get you far higher than life, but the only safe one is pot, which gives me so much more than a niave person like this can understand.

[headstone]

Ben Cousins should apologise to the police because what he did was illegal? Fuck that for a joke. The police should say sorry to him for enforcing draconian laws that were put in place by drug consuming hypocrits

 

Oh and obviously this guy hasn't taken many drugs in his time or he'd know exercise feels absolute shit compared to opiates and even the most euphoric opiate high can fail in comparison to a great shroom trip.

Edited September 3, 2010 by headstone

[gottagrow]

"Given, none of them make you feel as good as a 10-kilometre run does, or an epic four-hour surf, or a three-kay swim, or falling in love or waking up to the squeals of joy of a toddler - but they're far easier to pump into yourself at 10pm on a Friday night when you've had a shit week and just want some cheap joy."

 

He cant of dropped really acid with a group of good mates thats for sure.And its just as good an exercise just tryin laughing ur ass off for 6 hours!

[stalker]

"Given, none of them make you feel as good as a 10-kilometre run does, or an epic four-hour surf, or a three-kay swim, or falling in love or waking up to the squeals of joy of a toddler - but they're far easier to pump into yourself at 10pm on a Friday night when you've had a shit week and just want some cheap joy."

 

He cant of dropped really acid with a group of good mates thats for sure.And its just as good an exercise just tryin laughing ur ass off for 6 hours!

Very well writen article, yes drugs arent going anyway, its better to give advice about all the facts of it rather than prohibit it all together, if someone wants it bad enough they will get it.

[buttery]

I never got all the facts from my parents when I was young, so I experimented wih other friends and found out what I did and didn't like. My mum was telling me when I was 15 that she smoked a bit of weed back in the day and it is bad! But having smoked it myself, I knew she was bullshitting, coz hardly anyone I know who has toked, has anything bad to say about mull.

 

If I ever have kids and find out they've been taking drugs, getting angry would be the last thing I would do. I would ask them what they like about it, if it brings them closer to their friends etc etc. Understanding why your kid takes drugs could be the biggest relationship building experience imo. I'd ask my son all these questions, then we would share a bowl and go for a nice walk down to the takeaway shop.

[ozweeder]

condemning only makes the dark side of drugs worse... i wonder what would happen if legalization where to occur. i think the appeal of drugs for many ppl, especially youth, would subside greatly because the mystery and excitement of doing something that shouldnt be done would be gone. ppl want to do the things they know they shouldnt do. once that veil is lifted people can start seeing things for what they really are.

[buttery]

condemning only makes the dark side of drugs worse... i wonder what would happen if legalization where to occur. i think the appeal of drugs for many ppl, especially youth, would subside greatly because the mystery and excitement of doing something that shouldnt be done would be gone. ppl want to do the things they know they shouldnt do. once that veil is lifted people can start seeing things for what they really are.

 

This is exactley true. I've always been one for doing the 'wrong' thing. If someone tells me I shouldnt do something, I probably do it anyway if I really want to. I guess that it is kind of good for me that weed was illegal at the time I first tried it, because if it was legal, i probably wouldnt have touched it, coz the 'fun factor' of it's illegality would have been gone.