A stance on drug use
I need to think through a sensible stance on drugs for when my kids become teenagers. The simple solution is "just say no to drugs," but that isn't the safest one. They will not be in a bubble, they'll be surrounded by persuasive idiots who don't understand the drugs they're abusing. And so I think education, paired with both caution and openness, is probably the best approach. A draft:
- LD-50: To start simply, don’t take drugs that could possibly kill you. LD-50 is the dose that kills half the population. You want to consider the multiple between the lethal dose and the recreational dose. Maybe heroin is 3:1, cocaine 5:1, alcohol 15:1. Weed and psychedelics are less lethal than water.
- Set & setting: Even if psychoactive drugs aren't lethal, there are other risks. The first thing to know, aside from dosage, is that the experience is a reflection of your mind and surroundings. The drug is a mirror, and so don’t rip a bong around goons and watch brain rot; make a ritual where you only use it for creative projects (or some other mindful intention). There's a strong case for these drugs showing you new ways for your mind to work. Countless people, including Steve Jobs, said they couldn’t think the way they think if they weren't exposed to acid.
- Non-dependence: the crucial thing here is to not build a psychological dependency to the substance. Even if a substance isn't chemically addictive, it's easy to hold onto an assumption that you need it to do your best work. Instead, remember a drug is not something to continuously return to, but rather an occasional realm to find a lens that helps you through your sober, waking reality. Once it shows you something important, you can retain it without the drug, but it only sticks if you focus on that idea and take it seriously. This is why psychedelic therapy involves 10-20 sessions, before and after a single trip, because preparation and integration is where the results are. Worst case, if you endlessly bend your mind without internalizing any of the insights you find, it could lead to maladaptation or mental illness. As George Carlin said “get the message, and hang up the phone.”