Ask Lemmy

Neither really.

It’s a personal choice. As long as they don’t drive or do anything stupid to others, I think they should have fun. Ii’s not cool as potential addiction is not cool, but it’s not a mental problem either as I both drink and eat junk, knowing very well neither does me any good at all.

Hope that was a decent answer

I don't think of it as 'cool' - I just view it the same as a preference.

Alcohol, weed, shrooms, and even some party drugs like ecstasy and such, are all fine in my book as long as they're done responsibly.

I think once you venture down the path of abuse, it's a problem. That goes for everything in this world - moderation is key.

Heroin, meth, and all the other hard drugs are a problem because they are so incredibly addicting that it's almost impossible for someone to use in moderation.

I suspect we all have mental problems. Most people are not assessed and are high-functioning, yet we're not meant to work forty hours a week and live in nuclear families, let alone struggle in precarity. Mental illness is and family dysfunction are intergenerational and have been through the twentieth century, if not through the common era.

While there are recreational uses for drugs, I suspect most drug users self medicate, which is to say the drugs they take unpresribed are used to cope with symptoms of stress and existential horror, the same way we take drugs to cope with migraines or allergies, or chronic symptoms.

Does that mean they're uncool? Not at all. Self aware people, deep thinkers, philosophers, artists, scientists and engineers all often drink, smoke, binge on edibles or engage in street chemistries in order to cope, and the ones who are self-aware are able to recognize it's a thing they need right now, and that others who are addicted are not to be blamed or judged by whatever gets them by, night after night.

I'm not the kind who give a fuck about what other people usually do unless it directly affect me but...

The thing a lot of people get backwards (fuck the war on drugs actually) is that hardcore addiction is virtually always predated by some type of undiagnosed and untreated mental health issue. To say that another way, mental health issues are not caused by taking drugs. When someone is very unwell and often poor (i.e. low or no access to medical and mental health professionals) they often find a way to self-treat the affliction(s) with street drugs. Those same underlying causes for a more affluent person will be dealt with alongside medical supervision (and often with the same class of drugs) without falling into the trap of addiction (because supervised, and supported).

Nothing cool about being a drug user by choice, nor an addict trying to cope. It's just reality.