WHY DO DRUGS EXIST IF THEY ONLY HAVE NEGATIVE EFFECTS?
*Plays video games and becomes obese*
A good point, but incomplete. Videogames contribute to a sedentary lifestyle, but their effects are behavioral. The general drugs people go on about affect the actual physiology of the brain/lungs/heart/whatever. A robust gaming habit can be countered by taking a jog a couple times a week. The hallucinogenic aftereffects of LSD or shrooms or some such cannot.
I also wonder whether a thing like videogames, or sports, or anything that produces joy based on motivating the user to a higher level of some kind of mental or physical performance, achieving an actual goal, and possibly engaging in good-natured competition with friends, is wholly different than ingesting a substance that alters the chemicals in the brain to produce "joy." Drugs can be enjoyed socially, yes, but there seems a wide disparity in the social joy of two people taking drugs at the same time and two people playing a round of... jeez, what? Mario Kart? I don't know, I only play Pokemon.
I just know someone is going to tell me about how they got saved from suicide thanks to Final Fantasy 13 or some shit.
I've heard stories of people lost on frozen mountains, where an Articuno protected them from the cold and led them to safety.
Drugs are fun to take because they make you feel differently about things and give you different experiences.
You know, I suppose that is an honest explanation, as long as it's only an explanation and not a justification or encouragement.
Depending on the drug, you might as well bite the bullet and take the risk because you're going to die anyways and if you play life safely all the time you will never have any good times nor any dangerous experiences to learn from. That said I don't advocate things that will really fuck you up but for some things (marijuana, especially alcohol since some of you are "straight edge") just stop being a pussy, try them out, and see what you feel about them afterwords. If you like them they do them in moderation; if not, you now have an excuse as to why you don't take them other than "they're dangerous (I've never tried them though!)".
And this isn't right either. I certainly can't speak for everyone of my persuasion, but my reasons for not doing drugs or drinking alcohol extend far beyond any such claims of me being weak or afraid, as you suggest. I'm likewise convinced that many straight-edge types are so not out of sissification, but for appropriate reasons, general or personal.
More to the point, even if someone's reason for not doing "dangerous" drugs is a fear of addiction or health problems, does that warrant them being called derogatory names? Is concern for one's life really so laughable? There are joys and experiences available that are based in real interactions with the world and its people, and it is entirely legitimate that some people prefer these methods to any that simulate joyful experience with a drug.
I think the people in this topic need to keep in mind that pot is used as MEDICINE as well and can be prescribed by a doctor.
Didn't someone mention that cocaine used to be a common medicine? And aren't codeine, ritalin, morphine, and rohypnol prescription medecines? If we're going to remember that pot is also occasionally a prescribed medecine, let's also remember that medecines obtained by prescription are controlled substances due to the possible harmful effects they carry.