Search for answers leaves more questions
by Matt Skates, nw news editor

     Many people wonder why the war on drugs isn’t working.

     Elementary kids going through the D.A.R.E program wonder how anyone could use drugs, knowing that they can lead to death and misery.

     But year after year, more and more teens begin using all types of drugs from pot to heroin.

     These are the same kids who three years earlier were saying how stupid junkies are.

     So what happened? Why doesn’t the program work?

     Basically, the problem is misunderstanding.

     People who have never used drugs don’t really understand what the hook is and why people keep doing them. Usage is passed off as sheer stupidity or a lack of drug education on the user’s part.

     Timothy Leary, who studied the effects of all psychedelics, theorized that the nervous system consists of eight potential circuits or gears and that through devoted meditation, or the use of psychotropic substances, one can move about the brain's evolutionary ladder.

     Many people argue that pot is no different from beer and, therefore, should be legalized. But according to Leary’s theory, alcohol takes the brain back to level two or the emotional brain whereas marijuana triggers the fifth, or neurosomatic, circuit.

     When the neurosomatic circuit is triggered, the user loses sense of visual space and is able to conceptualize all encompassing sensory space.

     The same state of mind is found in astronauts when they view the Earth from space. Most astronauts would attest to the fact that the beauty of Earth cannot be captured on film.

     Leary speculated that this statement is true because the astronauts are viewing Earth with not only their eyes but the entire nervous system.

     And, of course, the farther up one goes on the drug ladder, the farther one advances in the eight circuits.

     Peyote, mushrooms and LSD drop their users on the doorstep of universal understanding; the problem is, there is no key.

     Avid drug users don’t care about they way they look, not because all they care about is getting more of their drug of choice, but because they realize looks are unimportant.

     When the day before a person was two inches from total cosmic understanding, all other activities seem trivial.

     What fuels the user is the unanswerable question “Are truths and reality concrete or tangible?” Is it possible to explore other variations and facets of reality?

     As of now, there is no method of proving or disproving a drug’s viability as a vehicle to another plane of reality.

     Mushroom users often experience the feeling of a great awakening as if these thought patterns could never be relinquished, but inevitably, the drug wears off and the user is thrust back to earth.

     Only now the residual mistrust of others and of truth itself remains within the subject.

     Do psychedelics truly inspire truth, or do they simply fool the user into believing it has? Is there even such thing as truth, or is it defined by our own preconceived notions? Is it really better to see the world as it is, or is ignorance bliss?

     The real side effects of drugs are the unanswered questions. Sure, there are various physical side effects, but they pale in comparison to the state of mental disarray that psychoactive substances leave in their victims.

     Ironically, people look to a substance for answers when questions are all that seem to come from them.

     But, of course, getting all the answers is the hook, and until drug awareness programs make teaching this information a priority, drug use will continue to grow worldwide.