Drug lectures and two left feet

I learned several things today. No, wait, that's a lie. I just confirmed what I already knew. I already know I can't work a glowstick (or glowsticks on a string), and fortunately, I didn't actually whack myself in the head with a glowstick on a string today. I just watched other people manage to avoid head-glowstick contact. They made it look easy, but I know it's not.

I also try to avoid techno and raves altogether because I honestly can NOT dance to that stuff. I have tried. Four different people have tried to explain it to me at various occasions in my life. Go ahead, try again. But when you're completely exasperated, let me try and explain to you how to square dance. That won't work well either.

I can dance a bit. The chicken dance and the macarena are two that I will never be able to forget no matter how hard I try, after all the years of having to do them to pass gym class. I can do the cowboy two-step pretty good. I can square dance well enough to get away with it on a good day. Techno dancing is not on that list.

I also don't do MDMA, which unfortunately, is generally in integral part of most raves. It's been a long time since I was high (even a contact high at a concert. Wait no, make that contact HIIIIIGGHHH. They sure smoked up at CSNY). I'm not going to give anyone a drug lecture; that falls under the category of "it's your body, it's your mind, it's your life." Do it if you want. Just make sure you really want to. I'll admit, I've done a couple of things a couple of times. But if there's anything that really annoys me, it's pushers. You know the Steppenwolf song. He don't care how he hurts and who he kills. That's true of most of the dealers and pushers at my school.

Especially the kids that push things on other kids. If you go looking for it, by all means, do it. But don't actively recruit, especially if, like most of the dealers I'm acquainted with, you are a complete and utter IDIOT. Know your drug, know your source. If you don't know how pure it is, or even what it might be, don't do it. That takes most street drugs out of the equation. If you know where it came from and the person selling it is completely trustworthy, then go ahead. name a dealer who you trust with your life, health, safety, and mind. I'll let you think about it.

That's what I thought.

There's a kid at my school, sells shrooms, or at least tries to. Apparently shrooms are very popular around there, but y'know what else? I know what any hallucinogen can do to you. These people are not paying attention to set and setting. Almost every Monday, there's a story of a really bad trip at a party. Think about the worst nightmare you have ever had. Now make it ten times worse, and you can't wake up from it. That's a bad trip. Psilocybin trips last 4-6 hours. The average nightmare or dream only lasts up to an hour. LSD and LSA trips last 6-12 hours, with off-baseline feeling reported for up to a day.

Set and setting are very important. Don't just eat a magic mushroom pizza at a party. If you do and you get eaten by the couch, sucked into a black hole, and ripped to pieces by ethereal demons, don't come crying to me. That is an actual trip report. From a teacher at our school, back when he was in college. When used with the right intent, expectations, and environment, psychedelics can be an amazing experience. Unlike many drugs, they have the potential to go either way, though. They are what you make of them, and what you let them be.

Plus, I know the guy who grows and sells the mushrooms. Not well, but I know him well enough that I wouldn't trust him to cook a hamburger right, let alone do the entire mushroom-growing process correctly. Any small amount of contamination can be deadly. If you're growing them yourself, you will be more careful than if you're out for a quick buck. If you're out for a quick buck, you're likely to ignore or try and harvest around a yellow or green spot, or god help the people who eat them if he ever does ignore a black spot. If you wouldn't eat the mold that grows in the toilet, don't do shrooms from a source that you don't trust with your life. Just don't risk it.

If I ever decided to do magic mushrooms, I would not buy from this guy. It wouldn't be worth it. Even if you decide to do a different drug, be it cannabis, hash, peyote, LSD, morning glory, magic mushrooms, heroin, cocaine, speed, crystal, PCP, GHB, ketamine, or ecstasy, know your source. If it's just some random dude passing something out, don't do it. You have too much to lose, and the risk is too great. Some of those drugs are by definition dangerous, even if you do them once, get an uncontaminated dose, and dose "correctly." Others are safe if used responsibly. Ecstasy, or MDMA, will permanently alter your brain activity patterns, but it won't kill you in normal doses, and the potential for a horriffically bad trip is "low." I'm not going to say it will damage your brain, but is a distinct and very real possibility. Fact is, brains of people who used to roll light up differently on scans than brains of those who don't.

Know your body, know your mind, know your substance, know your source.

Never get high and drive. Never get in a vehicle with someone who is even slightly high, and don't let a high person drive, period. Do whatever the hell you want, as long as you know the risk you are taking, are prepared to accept the consequences if that risk goes bad, and don't put anyone else at risk.