Originally posted by MarlboroRedCowgirl
Re: The coffee and ciggerete debate.
Yes. These two substances are accepted "crutches." Although they are unhealthy, they do serve a purpose. If you want to get sober by any means necessarily, sometimes that means tackling one addiction at a time. For me, ciggeretes were around before, during, and after my time as an active addict. I am 22 years old, and I have been smoking for 5 years. Sometimes a smoke has been all there is keeping me from using, and its worth it for me. I am not a ciggerete fiend, I have never stolen or cheated for a pack of smokes. I don't have money for a pack, I do without or stick a patch on. I can only take my sobriety one day at a time. Do I have to have coffee to attend a meeting? Of course not.

These are creature comforts for the addled, not some plague affecting the addict community. There are many who smoke and drink coffee and are not addicts.

Oh i for sure have my cures or crutches! depends on how you look at it. Same with me smoker b4, during, and after. I just caught a lot of slack in meetings for still going to a bar here and there. Hey honesty got me almost stoned "thrown rocks at". I have never had withdrawal from cigarettes or alcohol. but herion is a hell and death to quit. And NA rubbed me the wrong way. AA too. they said a addict is an addict to everything. I don't believe that. I tried it all and was very picky drug addict. I'd sit and watch people do many different drugs and I'd say no. Many times people would offer me drugs if I'd snort it, I said no. I wanted it in my veins, not my nose, but that was coke and i didn't like it any other way and could do without. Anything is better than doing what you were addicted to and couldn't handle. Do what you can handle its legal and your cure, don't let anyone tell you different. I just wanted to point out these are drugs too. I think sugar's a drug, i think? but whatever. I am prescribed pills these are drugs. Aspirin and Anti-biotics are drugs but we need them to cure something else. I don't say caffeine is a crutch. you can have withdrawals from it. but if its keeping you sane. Its your cure. Everyone's is different.

I like the line from one of Yoko Ono's songs: "Save your sweet talk for when you score.." I translate this as a metaphor which describes a similarity between sexual relationships and opiate addiction. There are many instances in the writings of William Burroughs where the addict has developed or begins to develop a romantic type attachment to his/her supplier and can for example recognize him even at a great distance or pick him out of a crowd observing some poetic gesture that others do not see; a glamorization. Then there is the meet and later the consequent elation and/or relief. This process is identical to a sexual relationship or romantic love. And as has been noted several times throughout this thread, on the chemical level particular brain chemistry is being activated or manipulated. Now supposing the same pleasure centers are being activated whether "in love" or chasing substances of elation, what is the difference from a judgmental point of view?

Someone remarked earlier, "Someone who wanted a bottle of whiskey wouldn't rob their granny's handbag to get it" (but a heroin addict would). If the pursuit of pleasure (and the avoidance of suffering) is nought but the activation of brain chemistry, then how do we measure what is an acceptable process of activation, sociologically, and what is not?

For example during the 1800s Chinese "coolly" laborers were responsible for a great deal of the labor that contributed to the railroad and mining developments in the U.S. They were renowned for their ability to work hard for hours upon end. Many of these workers smoked opium after retiring for the day which didn't seem to affect their ability to contribute to the society. Also law and order of the day saw no reason to declare a war on drugs on these people, which they would have if their addiction was a disturbance to the community. However, once cities were developed and society became more organized, embracing different values then it became a cause for concern.

The most destructive element of the use of opiates is the economic attachment, which proceeds from it being illegal. Opium poppies are not really rare or difficult to grow, and addicts could easily manage the work necessary to cultivate them as well as other supportive food crops. They could then live in communes devoted to their preoccupation. Their would not be any over-population arising from these communes as the drug itself becomes a sex-substitute.

But herein lies the problem. This is society's conflict with substance abuse. Although it is written in the American constitution and accepted generally by all advanced societies, that a basic tenet of freedom
is the right to pursue happiness, realistically it is the right to pursue pleasure through accepted channels. These channels are through sex in a way which develops prosperity, i.e. money.

We cannot evaluate pleasure seeking through the use of brain chemistry-altering substances all the time they remain illegal and in the control of criminals.

The main difference between using sex to alter brain chemistry and using chemicals to alter chemistry is in the creation of wealth.

Those who fixate on a mate and raise a family, say like Elton John and David Furnish may create wealth and replacement organisms but there are other ways replacement organisms could be created or perhaps even emphasis diverted to longevity instead.