Ask Lemmygrad

Spoilering this because it's a WALL of text. Summary:
Psychedelics saved my life. I'd have killed myself nearly a decade ago had I been forced to only be able to take prescription depression "medication" that just made me worse. People in here shitting on them need to actually educate themselves on them instead of just spamming "drugs bad." Lack of education is why these things are used incorrectly and also seen as recreational when their main benefit comes from using them medically and meditatively. These are not recreational substances imo and they should not be used in that manner.

I only have anecdotal evidence to support my views, but in short I don't believe most drugs are problematic in of themselves, especially if used moderately or for their intended purposes. Psilocybin, from my understanding, has a lot of medical potential, and I know several people who have used careful dosages for therapeutic and recreational purposes - and even the recreational case was more spiritual than just "let's get high". I know plenty of people who smoke weed responsibly, drink responsibly, use tobacco products responsibly. I, myself, drink very seldom, but over-consume soda, so I think there's something to say about different addictive substances having more weight with different people.

Now, all that said, I also personally know people who are too into drug culture, who try everything and anything and think there's no problem. I've argued with a stranger who said meth was the same thing as Adderall and should be legalized, that people only have problems with meth because they don't know how to use it responsibly. I've seen people act like Marijuana and Psilocybin are God's gift on Earth, the tools for enlightenment. I know people who got hooked on Marijuana, overindulging on it, and showing the same "I don't have a problem" attitudes and withdrawal symptoms of coffee addicts, or began showing other, more troubling symptoms.

So, to me, I think a large part of the problem is our culture, in several ways. Misinformation, criminalization, demonization, which leads to a reaction of more misinformation and glorification. Most of those people I know who had problems with drugs were suffering intense levels of social and financial stress, looking for a way out. The people I know who responsibly use drugs are in pretty stable situations, with family who can help them if things go poorly. From my perspective, capitalism makes drugs - like so many other things - more hazardous and problematic than they need to be.

But this is all anecdotal, as I said.

I personally don't have anything against drugs themselves. Coffee is a drug. Tylenol is a drug. My season allergie medicine is a drug. Heroin is a drug. The drugs itself are not a problem. How they and their users are treated in society is problematic.

From the poor neighborhoods they run rampant in to the criminal side of it to the use of governments to suppress movements to whatever it is they are used in a harmful way. I think being aware of that is necessary as a communist but that doesn't mean you have to be strictly against drugs.

It is good to have a party line on no drug use probably to keep discipline within the party.

There's nothing wrong with drugs per se. Psychedelics are fun recreational drugs that don't have a lot of harm, and the harms they have are mostly because they're illegal. I also think being against drugs in general is kind of reactionary. Because there's a huge difference in LSD and heroin. And alcohol is a drug on the same level of cocaine imo but that doesn't mean I'm in favour of banning it, so why ban other drugs? People using drugs also says nothing about how socialist they are. Even if they're addicted, because then they are a victim.

There is finally a lot of successful research being done into treating mental disorders using psychedelics and drugs in general. Ketamine, psilocybin, LSD, MDMA - they all can be very effective therapeutic tools. But like all tools, they need to be used appropriately and handled properly. Don't go full psychonaut, read up on your issues and see if there's an approach that suits your personal needs.

And get fentanyl strips if you ever buy anything powder. They're cheap, easy to use, normally legal, and can save lives.

The CIA has historically used drugs, and especially psychedelics against anti-imperialist and leftist movements. Not only does it give the state an additional pretext for crack downs and arrests, it also negatively affects the movements themselves, damaging their mental state, getting them addicted or just more focused on individualistic hedonism than collective action, leading to de-radicalization and loss of discipline.

Hippie drug culture came with an entire philosophy that was inward focused and esoterical rather than sober and materialist. The bourgeois state is aware of these effects and has purposely cultivated such cultural movements, including in the domains of academia and the arts. Ultimately this is a form of chemical and psychological warfare no less subversive and dangerous than what the British imperialists did when they pushed Opium on the Chinese people.

Yes, as with any drugs they can have legitimate medical and therapeutic uses and the potential to help people with certain conditions, but their use should be controlled and regulated by medical professionals. They should not be criminalized (because criminalization is also a tool of the bourgeois state used to eliminate dissidents and perpetuate legalized slavery through incarceration), but communists should not encourage or trivialize their recreational use.

A serious revolutionary should endeavor to remain sober.

Dmt and Cocaine are both "drugs" but they are nothing the same. Aspirin is also a "drug." Alcohol is a drug though society pretends it is different from other drugs. Everything you eat or smoke alters your brain chemistry. You can get "high" by breathing hard or spinning in circles or eating too much sugar.

Abuse of drugs is usually a symptom of other problems not the problem itself.

Cocaine, alcohol, THC from weed are all foreign to natural brain chemistry. They interact with your system the way natural brain chemicals would but slightly different. DMT is naturally occurring in your brain. It is part of normal brain chemistry while you dream. So if anything DMT is less of a drug than other drugs.

Getting drastically altered occasionally is a normal part of the animal experience. All sorts of animals eat psychedelic mushrooms or get high in other ways.

Doing drugs is not inherently bad. Many great ideas have directly been inspired by drugs. Altering your mind allows you to see the world from a different perspective. This can allow you to see past preconceptions and empathise with people in different situations.

DMT can be an intense experience. It doesn't affect your capacity for reasoning like many other drugs and the effects are rather short lived. This means that even if you aren't having a great time you can stay calm and know that it will end soon. This makes it have a preferential balance between the positive enjoyment and perspective shifting versus the chance and severity of a bad experience.

DMT is pretty neat, very interesting ride, can find out some things about yourself, meet 4D fractal megabeasts in conversation, become flayed across time to become an art gallery for god. Unpredictable, but so are dreams, and you're smoking dream crystals.

Dont know of a single hallucinogen that is addictive, quite unlike cocaine.

I found psychedelics to be a fun way to relax and bond with friends. Done them quite a few times and they were harmless in my case. Some people abuse them and it can be not so good but the way their tolerance and experience works has a way of making this temporary. Drugs aren't inherently bad, its really about how and why you use them

Drugs are bad. Don't use anything addictive or too mind-altering. I think even regular (daily) consumption of coffee is bad but it's one of those things that under capitalism I suppose I understand as a kind of necessary evil.

Mind-control MKUltra drugs which encourage frivolous hedonism, individualism, magical/irrational thinking are of course a weapon of the enemy and often directly fund them and their proxies as well. Escapism would not be a needed thing under socialism as well, they are at most a crutch and I am very suspicious of those who advocate their use. This person you speak of is not a Marxist and may well be a fed.

Don't do drugs.