What drugs do you take, or have taken? Any interesting experiences? (Legal drugs are fine.)--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), February 19, 2000

Answers

i have been taking the conventional heart drugs, water pills, anti-histamines, thyroid pills, etc. etc. nothing interesting there. when i was in hospital, early on, with a broken neck etc. there were some very unreal days that i am sure were drug related, but during that time i did not have too much pain. . . . . pretty good trade off.

-- doug (ionoi@webtv.net), February 20, 2000.

I was once watching an awards show that was presenting awards to comic strip characters and other like cartoon shows on television. I loathe the Simpsons (sorry, Simpsons lovers) but I cracked up when I heard Homer say, "Can I have some Flintstone's chewable morphines?" I never quite understood the reason why a person would want to have chewable morphine pills near them until I was on it in the hospital a few years ago. You feel NOTHING with morphine nor can you actually follow out a complete thought process. Everything is... bliss. I took proventil (a prescription medication that is to be inhailed for bronchitis or asthma). Proventil is some strange medication -- two shots of the stuff and you feel fine enough to carry on normal life. I sat up after taking the medicine and attempted to walk down the stairs until the medicine hit. Ouch! I landed at the bottom quickly, but I do love that stuff. *laughs*

-- Meg (meghlcl@aol.com), February 20, 2000.

Al, in your Clockwork Orange analogy for medicating people for violent activity, I'm surprised that you would cite Kant, but not Kierkegaard. He said that angst feeds purity as well as depravity, so the proposal to medicate negative behavior from people would involve insulating them from any uncertainty of life. I believe it's the attempt itself to insulate ourselves from uncertainty that is responsible for all arms raised against others. The wifebeater proving that he is masculine. The Christian proving that he is worthy of salvation. Perhaps even Clinton, by affirming peace in Kosovo, that he is worthy of the White House, as well as his appetites. Insulating ourselves from uncertainty, I suspect, is why Fortune Tellers were damned in Dante's Inferno (The poem was a tough read for me, so I can't be sure.)

Tesserae even mentioned recently how her attempts at insulating the rest of her life from the suffering of her childhood had diminished her function as a mother, which was insight I was thoroughly impressed by from someone of our age.

-- Mike (mleung@mikeleung.com), February 20, 2000.

i was prescribed Zoloft for my depression - i took it a whole 3 days.

ya know the side effects on the side of the box ? well i had them ALL, no surprize why i took myself off them. being a mild altering (changing, fixing - pick a word) drug, the effects lasted over two weeks and my depression deepened.

apparently this happens to 1/10 people - that chance is just too high for my liking, having gone through what i did.

go figure..

-- Alisa Perne (rain@noosa.com.au), February 20, 2000.

I have clinical depression and dysthymia (another type of depression). When I went to Planned Parenthood to get on the pill, I told the people there about my depressive disorders. They then put me on the pill. Almost immediatly I started having severe depression, emotional tantrums and thoughts of suicide/homicide---very unstable. Every month I went back for my refill, told them my systems and was told to "give it another month so your body can adjust". In 4 months I was looking at the knives in the kitchen thinking about ending it all. I got off the pill on my own and now have a fear of any chemical altering birth control. I never was close to suicide when I had depressive episodes until I was on the pill. My Mom, who has the same disorder, reacted the same way on the pill, although not as severe. We have to be very careful about what we put into our bodies. Has anyone else had a negative experience with the pill?

-- AJ (joijoijoi@hotmail.com), February 20, 2000.

i've taken codeine and percaset for various sports injuries, and i take birth control pills right now. i'm constantly taking ibuprofen (in small doses) for my headaches and body aches.

when it comes to illegal drugs, i've only smoked pot on a couple of occasions. but my boyfriend's roommate has done tons of drugs, many of which i've been around for. acid, mescaline, ecstasy, shitloads of pot. he's very casual about it which frightens me a little, but (aside from the general dangerousness of illegal drugs) he general takes them in a very controlled environment where there are a fair number of sober/not taking drugs people, namely myself and his roommate.

-- aggie (donkara@carleton.edu), February 20, 2000.

One comment about the journal that provoked this thread.

It's easy to say, "All violence is bad." but you have to be careful with that.

The INITIATION of force is bad, but force is frequently necessary to protect and defend basic human rights.

For example, say the Nazis peacefully round up all the Jews and put them in camps. If the Jews use violence to defend themselves, would that be bad?

The idea of a peace drug sounds great on the surface, but do we really understand the war in Bosnia? Do we have the right to say, "Your war is stupid. Cut it out."

This is where the 60's peace movement went wrong. War is not always bad. The INITIATION of war is bad. Conquering and enslaving populations by force is bad.

But sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. When a racist dictatorship is invading your country, violence is an appropriate response.

History has shown that the only way to prevent force is with the credible threat of superior force. This applies to individual criminals just as it does to criminal nations.

As far as the moral implications of using drugs to pacify criminals, it's important to match the response to the crime. I'd say it would be moral to drug murderers, or to use the drug on someone with a history of assault.

But I would oppose any kind of "permanent" or "pre-emptive" use of the drug.

BTW, I don't mean to imply Al was supporting any of these positions, I just wanted to apply libertarian rights theory to this problem.

Peace,

Jaffo http://www.jaffo.com/

-- Jaffo (jaffo@jaffo.com), February 21, 2000.

I've taken codeine for injuries and while recovering from surgery. It has the odd effect of completely shutting down all sensory input--if I'm lying in bed watching tv, I can't tell what position my arms and legs are in unless I move. I become a pair of eyes and ears sitting on the pillow, in a literally vegitative state.

I bet hospitals might think this is a pretty good thing for somebody who's fresh out of surgery.

No recreational drugs, not ever. Remember when Dan Quayle was quoted as saying, "not only have I never done drugs, I have never been present where drugs were taken"? That's me. Aside from watching peopls smoke pot like, twice.

-- Colin (cfmckin@uswest.com), February 24, 2000.

well i don't want ne one to think that i am saying hard drugs r alright...but when on pills or tripping u can get to the most intermate details in your brain. this is especially good if you're with some1 u love. stay clean though, i also suffer from a lot of not v.nice things!....oh, and some of the visuals you get and the funny stories afterwards. by the end of your trip u find the bad parts good, just not during them.

-- fukcup (nuttaaaar@hotmail.com), November 01, 2000.

I take adderall on a daily basis, i do not have ADHD or any other problem that adderall is perscribed. I have emotional and mental issues that i have a hard time dealing with including having a friend commit suicide, abusive parent, and proprosed manic-depression. I have done harder drugs like oxycontin but they are hard to get. i have done weed but i don't do it on a daily basis. Cocaine is readily at my school along with other hard drugs, along with nitris which i have used a few times. i drink a lot and most of the time by myself, and i know that everything i do is wrong buti really dont care. thanks

-- Joselyn Elise Mormile (Blossombabe823@aol.com), December 22, 2001.

I have done alot of x-tacy, some acid, smoked alot of weed, a little bit of opium, and a whole lot of perscription shit. To tell you the truth though, sober life sucks. Now I am pretty much living for the paxil, it's weak as all hell, but it is the only thing that can let me sleep at night. The really weird thing, is that every day since I first started taking it, my body temperature has been around 102 degrees, I don't know why. I keep going to the doctor, but he tells me that is a normal reaction, I thinks that is quite a load of it, but to tell you the truth, I would rather feel like I have a fever every day than think about all the stuff i do when I don't have it in me. Anyone else ever hear of anything similar?

-- Joseph Peters (noone@hotmail.com), February 24, 2002.