Why drugs are good

For many people, the pleasure of using drugs is about social connection as much as it is about the physical effects. A new study aiming to understanding the social benefits of drug use may help us to improve responses to risky or harmful drug taking. Pleasure is an obvious part of drug use and the short-term physical benefits are well known. Read more: Weekly Dose: GHB, a party drug that's easy to overdose on but was once used in childbirth. The social benefits of drug use are more complex to quantify.

But there are now numerous studies showing people use alcohol or other drugs in social settings such as bars, clubs and parties to enhance their interactions with others through increased confidence, greater sociability and less anxiety.

For some people this leads to longer-term benefits such as stronger bonds with friends. This was shown in recent Australian studies where young people reported cultural gains from drug use, such as strengthening social ties and gaining access to social networks that offered a form of cultural capital. This set of drugs often includes MDMA ecstasy , cocaine, ketamine, gamma hydroxybutyrate GHB , methamphetamine speed or crystal methamphetamine crystal meth or ice.

Studies have shown people generally use party drugs to give them energy, help them socialise and have fun. At La Trobe University, we recently conducted a study which explored party drug use — including use of crystal meth — among Australian gay and bisexual men who are living with HIV. Consistent with what we know about party-drug use , we found the men in our study almost always used party drugs socially — at nightclubs and dance parties or to facilitate sexual pleasure.

Drugs excite the parts of the brain that make you feel good. But after you take a drug for a while, the feel-good parts of your brain get used to it. Then you need to take more of the drug to get the same good feeling. Soon, your brain and body must have the drug just to feel normal.

You feel sick, awful, anxious, and irritable without the drug. You no longer have the good feelings that you had when you first used the drug. This is true if you use illegal drugs or if you misuse prescription drugs. Drug use can start as a way to escape—but it can quickly make your life worse. Besides just not feeling well, different drugs can affect your brain and body in many different ways. Here are a few:.

Many drugs can also make driving a car unsafe. Marijuana can slow reaction time, make you judge time and distance poorly, and decrease coordination how you move your body.

Cocaine and methamphetamine can make a driver aggressive and reckless. Certain kinds of sedatives, called benzodiazepines, can make you dizzy or drowsy. These effects can lead to crashes that can cause injuries and even death. The urge is too strong to control, even if you know the drug is causing harm. The addiction can become more important than the need to eat or sleep. The urge to get and use the drug can fill every moment of your life. The addiction replaces all the things you used to enjoy.

A person who is addicted might do almost anything—lie, steal, or hurt people—to keep taking the drug. This can lead to problems with your family and friends, and can even lead to arrest and jail.

You can get addicted to illegal drugs as well as prescription drugs if you misuse them. She was deeply depressed, and no wonder. One of the three was her father. Listening to Allison recount the horrors of her young life, most of us feel great pity. But heroin? She could function. It would be wrong to deny that many heroin users suffer great harm as a result of the position their addiction places them in. And I would advise anyone who experiences debilitating depression to seek professional help.

In some parts of the world, people seem to be getting smarter about recreational drugs. And why not? These drugs help people relax, enjoy music and philosophize.

In fact, pot is far safer than booze in every respect. Some people do end up with a cannabis habit that hampers clear thinking and short-term memory, but these effects disappear when they cut down or stop. Then come the psychedelic drugs: LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline and the currently stylish in some circles ayahuasca. There is ongoing debate about whether psychedelics are good, bad, safe or unsafe.

But compare that dialogue to the tyrannical edicts of the 60s. When I was an year-old in Berkeley, California, in , my friends and I had wrenchingly beautiful interactions with forests, seascapes, music, and each other — on acid. Like Aldous Huxley and other intellectuals, we saw psychedelics as a gateway to a more inclusive, less self-centered sense of reality.