In response to someone who said:

> I believe it is necessary at this time to put energy into increasing
> people's awareness about the positive aspects of drug use.

Perhaps, but let us not forget that drug use, whether it be by informed individuals or not, has risks, and is not always a positive experience. The 'quasi-religion' that can can arise in the rave culture can, in my opinion, result in elevating the use of MDMA and its derivatives to some kind of way to achieve Enlightenment and come closer to the Brotherhood of Man or some such. I believe, after much experience, that this kind of equation of drugs with spiritual upliftment can do more harm than good. Ultimately, taking drugs is about getting off your face, and if there are any spiritual benefits to be gained from this, they arise directly from what one puts in to the experience.

The message I think I have received from all the postings, and from experiences related to me by my friends and associates, is that you never get something for nothing.

Drugs need to be interpreted within the framework of yin and yang. Where you gain something positive, there is a negative attached to it as well. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction etc etc.

For an excellent overview of how the 'fun' of taking lots of drugs turned into the chilling realisation that drugs can have VERY negative effects on oneself and one's friends, I recommend that concerned parties read the Afterword in Philip K. Dick's classic novel "A Scanner Darkly". It is guaranteed to alter the way you view drug taking. For the best, I hope. We need to remember that having fun in the short term should not be made the highest priority in one's life, given that you may spend the rest of your life regretting your over-indulgence. This is not some kind of apocalyptic, anti-drugs message. This is a request that people who take drugs should face the reality of what they may be doing to themselves,
physically and emotionally, in the long term.

I'm not saying this because I am trying to cause friction in the scene, I am saying this because I care about what happens to my fellow Netravers. An ounce of prevention, as they say, is worth a pound of cure.

Regards,

FrankE

February 1998

 

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