Do you like to get high? Why? What do you do to get high? Could you do that in a healthier way?
Strange questions from me, huh? Really, and perhaps surprisingly, these are reasonable questions with innumerable health repercussions. Hang with me as I push this consideration a bit further than might be completely comfortable.
Our history with mind-altering substances goes back as far as our history of being human, and even earlier. We know of animals intentionally selecting plants that are hallucinogenic or otherwise intoxicating to them. Humans use alcohol, “street” drugs and prescription medication for many reasons. The phrase “getting high” trivializes that relationship. Almost all of us frequently do something to change our state of consciousness. A great deal of scientific study and even more campfire musing has gone into considerations of the nature of mysticism and less elevated forms of intoxication.
It is clear that altering our consciousness is both normal and potentially life-enhancing. It is also clear that this urge is easily perverted and can be extremely destructive.
One aspect of the possibly destructive side is prescription medications. Medical doctors are the leading drug dealers in the USA anyway you look at it. Prescriptions for opiod narcotics are shooting through the roof at the same time the non-opiod pain killer prescriptions are falling. Recent years have been marked by a doubling in the number of opiod prescriptions in the US. During the same period, prescriptions for non-opiod pain killers dropped by one half. This isn’t because some major study showed that non-opiod drugs are any less effective than we thought before. For some non-medical reason, we have been moving away from safer, non-addictive pain killers.
Deaths from prescription pain killers have been rising. At this point there are more deaths from prescription pain pills than from heroin and cocaine combined, or from car accidents.
All of this continues despite the efforts of various medical institutions to combat the problems. The state of California for example, recently required all practicing physicians to undergo training in medication for pain management.
On the non-prescription side of the American drug abuse drama, binge drinking has been in the news. In a national survey of over 16,000 high school seniors, about 20% reported binge drinking, just like in earlier surveys. That is obviously not so great. Half of those bingers have downed 10 or more drinks one right after another, and one quarter have somehow gotten 15 or more down their throats. Wow! A full one half-second’s reflection on that fact will flood your mind with a series of unpleasant health consequences.
I can tell you from working with many hundreds of patients, suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, that it isn’t the substance, its the pattern of use. Habitual use of mind altering drugs does not lead to expanded consciousness or heightened spirituality. Instead, they drag you down into the mud. When a person passes through a tribal initiation, the use of a mind altering substance is a sacrament and often a once-in-a-lifetime event. It is abundantly clear to me that these powerful agents and the experiences they help create are highly desirable, but equally fraught with danger.
People like to change their consciousness. One could make a good scientific argument that we are even biologically compelled to do so. There are lots of ways to do that, many (exercise, prayer, meditation, music, art) that do not involve drugs of any type. We need to do a better job of achieving these needed shifts in perspective by means that are positively transforming rather than harmful. At least sometimes, drop the drugs while you raise your consciousness in some other way.