Are They Really that Bad?
To hold a higher state of consciousness has been desired since the concept of consciousness was realized. This has been accomplished through such practices as meditation, or through the controversial use of substances which alter the state of consciousness. Before their outlaw such substances as marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, coca, and even opium were used by people recreationally as a way to find deeper thought and attempt to understand the world in a different way. In some cases beautiful art has been the product of these substances, for instance, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, inspired by an opium induced dream.
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.”
According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, a drug is any substance used as or in a medicine, or as a narcotic, hallucinogen, etc. Abuse is to use wrongly, to mistreat, esp. by inflicting physical or sexual harm on. Addict is to give up to a strong habit, one addicted to a habit, as to using drugs. These mind altering substances for the most part have not harmed humanity, but through the introduction of modern science, coca, a stimulant similar to caffeine has been turned into cocaine which is highly addictive as well as harmful. In addition to this, opium has been turned into heroin which is more addictive than cocaine and even more harmful. Of course there are the other drugs that have come into existence with out the aid of nature such as MDMA more commonly known as ecstasy which is becoming more and more accepted by society, and methamphetamine which could be considered one of the...