My Sins As A Saint

So if I'm such a saint, what about those sins?

I have plenty. I'm human, I mess up, it's what we do best and I am no exception. One of my recent sins, at least in the eyes of society, is that I've begun to experiment with psychoactive substances. Yes, I'm talking about drugs. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not ashamed of it either. It was a conscious decision, made without influence of others after months of contemplation. I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the world, that doesn't have an active War on Drugs going on. Though some of these substances are of questionable legality, I've never done anything that would actually end me up behind bars and never intend to.

No, I'm not a heroin-junkie, meth-addict or coke-head. In fact, I don't even drink soda, alcohol or coffee very often these days, I smoke neither cigarettes nor weed and I have no interest in any substances that aren't considered psychedelic. I don't live for drugs, I'm not addicted and they don't control me, but to me, life's simply too short to ignore an entire category of experiences. At best, I'm what one could call a psychonaut. I seek to expand and explore my mind in any way possible and include the use of chemicals to achieve these goals. I won't deny there's a recreational aspect to what I do. It's fun, but why shouldn't it be?

Conversely, I'm not the stereotypical kind of liberal hippie who seeks legalization of these substances either. I firmly believe that effectively everything in this world has both its uses and its dangers. Drugs are illegal because, in many cases, their dangers to the general public outweigh their benefits. I won't deny this; people tend to be ignorant, self-destructive and irresponsible. Even the best devised control systems can and will be exploited. Making these drugs legal would definitely be detrimental to society. This, however, does not mean they can't be beneficial in specific cases.

Exactly why and how drugs can be beneficial, however, is too long a story for now. I'll dedicate a post to this later.

- The Sinful Saint