I wanted to make a small addition to the writing/video on drugs, which is that, there are cases where it isn’t about pain. There are actually times where people are brought into situations where they are exposed to drugs and it isn’t really for any particular reason that they do them. My focus was mostly on times where people used drugs in order to deal with pain, which is a real and relatively significant quality that I find in the majority of drug users, however, there are also many who are simply exposed to drugs through peers and that leads them to try the substance. Not only this, there are also those who intentionally do this, and they make the person being abused reliant on them to continually get their high.
I’m sure this is still the case in American high schools, but last I was there, there were a large number of students vaping. From my memory, they usually weren’t vaping nicotine, it tended to be weed, but nonetheless, that’s what they were doing—vaping. When I was in high school, it was incredibly prevalent, so I doubt things have changed, because quite honestly, it hasn’t been all that long since I graduated, but the point is, I think that a lot of students were either peer pressured into it or exposed to it to the point that they found themselves vaping without actually having a reason to do so.
If something feels good, you’ll probably keep on doing it, and nicotine is an addictive chemical, so if you start vaping nicotine, you’ll probably want more continually; many of your thoughts will be pertaining to nicotine and how nice it would be to hit a vape or get that substance in your body somehow. Like said, most were vaping weed, but many were also vaping nicotine pens, and I was offered it randomly, and I declined, but it goes to show that it could and will be offered to you randomly, and then you’ll be addicted to something before you even know it. Weed feels good to most, and while it isn’t technically addictive, I’ve noticed, at least anecdotally, that many are seemingly addicted, or get addicted, to the substance.
There was also a level of groupthink or sense of community felt with these individuals. It’s not like it was one person vaping alone each time I saw it; it was always two or more students vaping together. They wanted to be together as they vaped, and they must have felt something as a result of not being alone. They might have genuinely enjoyed it, even if it was something they were indoctrinated into by their friends, but now they wanted to stick with their friends, because they might be shunned or kicked out of the friend group as a result of stopping the inhalation of some burnt up chemicals.
Outside of my experience, there are also friends I have or have had who were introduced to substances from other events. One easy example is a party. Yes, most of the time all you’ll see is alcohol and weed, but that doesn’t mean other drugs can’t or won’t be present. It also depends on the nation you live in, apparently in the United Kingdom, there’s like, a big thing on speed, and it’s actually quite normalized in parties. Amphetamines are pretty popular over there right now, at least from what I understand, and have been for quite a bit. Obviously, it’s an addictive chemical, so that being normalized and then something you’re exposed to often, you can only imagine what’s going to happen. You’re going to get addicted, or at least, you’ll be a lot more likely to become addicted.
In these instances, the person wasn’t trying to deal with pain or anything; they were exposed to the substance, and from there, got addicted, or at least, exposed to a drug. It had entered their world, and what was once off limits was no longer; as they’ve already tried something that normally wouldn’t be acceptable in the past. People can rationalize a lot of things too. “Ah, if my friends are doing it, it might be okay!” or “It can’t be that harmful, can it?” In these cases, it wasn’t exactly done out of harm or because of malicious intent, it was just people sharing drugs because they like drugs, and they want their friends to like what they like. It might sound weird, but this is just like you sharing a book or movie you like with someone else, because you want them to enjoy something you enjoy. However, I want to mention the cases where someone intentionally introduces drugs to someone or multiple groups of people in order to harm them.
This could happen at an event, or something public, but it doesn’t have to. It could just as easily happen in private, with a few friends, a single friend, or a romantic partner. They could introduce a drug in order to get someone addicted to the substance, and they would actively choose someone that wouldn’t be able to, or wouldn’t be willing to, learn how to procure the substance themselves. Now, they can have someone addicted to a drug that only they can provide, which introduces a whole plethora of problems. They can manipulate this person into doing whatever they want, assuming the person will submit, and they can make money off of them, because that person will have to keep coming back to them for the drug.
Thankfully, I don’t have anyone in my life that’s been like this. The person I’ve mentioned before, as what the main video is about, tried to do something like this, but eventually gave me information so as to procure my own substances, instead of rely on him. In fact, I made a comment on this, and he said he liked the fact that I would have to rely on him. Anyway, I, at the very least, remember hearing a story of something just like this. There’s probably a tendency for it to happen in romantic relationships, and in this case, an abusive boyfriend got his girlfriend addicted to opioids, and then she had to rely on him to get her high, because she didn’t know where to go. This then introduced a whole new abuse cycle, where he could manipulate her into doing things she wouldn’t want to do in order to please him, and she would deal with it so that he wouldn’t take away her ability to get high.
There are times where something like this can happen but it isn’t intentionally out of harm, but actually just out of foolishness. With so many people in the world, there are bound to be one’s that are more intelligent, and just as equally, one’s that are more idiotic. Sure, things average out, we have the tippy-top of our bell curve, the median, but no matter where you might belong on this curve, you could end up acting foolishly without quite realizing it. Perhaps you were inhibited by substances that normally wouldn’t cause any harm, like alcohol, and then you were with people you would normally trust, and they want you to do a drug that’s much more intense and addictive than anything you’ve tried before.
This means that someone can share a substance with someone, they get addicted, and perhaps the one sharing isn’t actually the provider, but knows of the provider, and receives the goods from them. Now there’s a hierarchy, or you could call it a pipeline, where a drug is spreading down a line of people, all relying on one particular individual. Yes, the provider is the one who started it, and they did so with intention, but everyone afterwards has been sharing the drug just because they are addicted, and because it makes them feel good, and they think it’s the right thing to do; to share it with others. This can go on and on until someone who thinks this is not acceptable stops the spread. They might cut themselves off from their friends, or let some authority know, or some equivalent. It’s not like the harm was intentional, at least for most of the people involved, but the pain was spread nonetheless.
The difference between what I’ve described here and what the main video mostly focused on is that, in that video, the pain stemmed from other things. Whatever it might have been, that person using drugs started doing so because the world around them was so miserable, caused them so much pain, the best thing they could do, in their mind anyway, was to start taking drugs. Even if things did get better for them, and what once hurt them no longer does, then the substances are still present, and those are then what cause them pain. What’s been mostly described here is when people are exposed to drugs, and they aren’t even exactly interested in them, but by taking them, they are now stuck being addicted. It could have been intentional, a romantic partner or a drug dealer unleashing a substance on a single person or multiple people, in order for those people to then be reliant on that particular individual. There are also the cases where people merely share drugs because they like them, and think it’s the right thing to do, as in, share things they like with people they like, without realizing how what they share might be harmful to others. I’m sure there are many more situations where people are addicted to drugs without actually wanting to be; harmed by substances without even knowing how they got there, but I think enough ground has been covered to understand many circumstances. I hope that if you use substances to deal with pain, that will end, and if you were roped into it by someone else or a group of people, you’ll be able to exit that horrible place.