On ethical use of drugs
Could drugs be used ethically and responsibly? Could drugs be used without harming oneself or others?
My answer to these questions is, yes. First let’s define drugs. By drugs I mean any behavior or substance that artificially makes you feel good. By artificial, I mean that good feeling is not intrinsic and it is a direct result of that drug. This is a broad definition. This includes a variety of drinks, substances, rituals, religious activities, meditation and so on. You may not agree with me for putting alcohol and meditation in the same category, but I see a similarity here and I would like to talk about what all these things have in common: the fact that they make you feel good artificially and temporarily. I believe if one is careful enough not to harm oneself or others, they should be free to use whatever drugs they want. How is this possible? There are several conditions that need to be met for this to be true:
1. The origin of the substance has be more or less ethical. Sales of cocaine, finances a lot of other crimes such as organized prostitution and human trafficking. That makes cocaine an unethical drug.
2. It should not harm oneself or others. By this token regular use of cigarettes due to all its health risks is unethical. Getting drunk and becoming abusive with others is also reprehensible.
3. Should not interfere with a healthy lifestyle. This rules out alcoholism and heroine addiction and using drugs that would lead one to miss appointments and deadlines.
4. Its side-effects should not outweigh its advantages. By this token getting extremely drunk is not right.
5. It should not put oneself in a position of doing wrong. By this one drunk dialing your exes could be wrong.
As you can see, I don’t consider addiction by itself unethical. A healthy daily dose of meditation or prayer could be very beneficial.
If you can add to the above list, or disagree with me please chime in.
| 2.5 |
June 30th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I partially agree that it is possible for one to respect oneself/others to a level that makes one use drugs ethically.
If drug is defined as any behavior or substance that artificially makes you feel good, exercise, sex, meeting people you love, smelling flowers or favorite smells, listening to favorite musics … can also be counted in?
By the way, why is meditation artificially making one feels good? isn’t it true that during the process all chemicals are produced naturally in body? or may be I am missing a step in my meditations.
About your 2nd question, as far as my basic biochemistry knowledge provides, artificial drugs can act as various dominoes running in different directions, outbalancing natural circles of hormones/chemicals in body. I am not sure if any synthetic drug can necessary be used without harming oneself in cellular level. May be very low dosage of these drugs allows body to gain its balance back quicker.
Good topic, it encouraged me to read.
Have a cloud free day.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:02 am
I don’t know if drugs necessarily makes you feel good. I see how it could alter moods and cure certain diseases. Perhaps you are speaking of recreational drugs are ones that make you feel good?
Besides this issue, I generally agree with your argument and conditions that you set.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I think your definition of ‘artificial happiness’ is so broad as to make the adjective ‘artificial’ almost meaningless. and what is ‘intrinsic’ happiness, anyway?
I think the word you wanna use is repeatable. ie a repeatable method (repeatable at will - more or less) to achieve temporary happiness.
However, i don’t understand the insistence on calling this broad category ‘drugs’. (btw, as khalid has pointed out the english word ‘drug’, without additional modifiers and out of context, primarily means ‘medicine’, and its meaning is much broader than the kind people (ab)use to feel good. this confuses your readers at least at the beginning of the post.)
i mean, i think only very few people will consider a repeatable-method-to-achieve-temporary-happiness that causes no harm to oneself and others as unethical. (maybe an ascetic will. but not, say, a typical (american) conservative). and i don’t think any serious (and non-ascetic) person has ever considered addicition to sex (normal levels, and within marital bounds), meditation and prayer as unethical.
recreational drugs (alcohol, narcotics and hallucinogens) on the other hand, are much more controversial, and by using the word ‘drugs’ for this very broad category, you give the wrong impression that you have some new (or at least somewhat uncommon) insight on how to approach the possibility of ethical recreational chemical substance use, but it seems like you don’t really.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Yashar,
I agree with you. Repeatable is a much better word.
And Khalid,
I think you are right too. I’m specifically talking about recreational drugs.
July 5th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
را در نظر گرفتwithdrawalو tolerance والبته باید مبحث
July 6th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Yashar,
If you happen to look up the meaning of drug you might find that ‘a drug, broadly speaking, is any chemical substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in medicine, government regulations, and colloquial usage.’ So I don’t agree with you that ‘without additional modifiers and out of context’ drug means medicine. I think ‘Drug’ is one of those words that is hard to get out of context.
I also don’t understand why you say ‘temporary-happiness’? Is there any thing such as permanent happiness. Is the word you are looking for ‘intense’?
since you asked ‘intrinsic’ happiness’, I think, is experienced when one’s perception of certain events lead to natural production of chemicals in body known as hormones (e.g. endorphine), to cause ‘intrinsic’ pleasure (one happen to run into a loved ones). One can control/trigger this circle of hormones production and yet no external chemical has entered body (e.g. go wild with your imagination). That is not intrinsic anymore.