Actually, I should thank you for asking. It is very difficult for me to understand how other people perceive the issue if they don't ask. For what it is worth, let me assure you that I see your questions as very respectful, if occasionally puzzling.
And I appreciate your answering the questions.
You see, for reasons difficult for me to pinpoint and not entirely healthy, personal responsibility is a value that is very close to the top in my worldview.
Sure, I'm with you here. Personal responsibility is very important.
Our existence is a limited period of time during which we receive and cause impressions from the environment, including other people. During that time we go through a lot of uncertain situations and end up doing a lot of things that are not always wise, often enough without a true choice.
The end result is that we will be unfair, unwise, destructive. All that is uncertain is to which degree, and how much we will try and manage to do to compensate that.
By this duty-oriented view of mine, the very idea of using psychoactives - substances that instead of allowing one to perceive reality as it is and adjusting or learning from it "get in the way" and force different perceptions, distorted or unrelated to the actual consensual reality - is by definition an obscenity.
I was shocked to (gradually) learn that not many people think so.
I guess I'm still getting hung up here. Let me put it this way to try to clarify:
I play poker with some friends about once a month. While we're playing, I usually drink a few beers. It's not enough to get me drunk, but enough to give me a buzz. There are two reasons I do it: one, because I like the taste of beer, and two, because I like having a bit of a buzz; it's a good feeling. The buzz doesn't interfere with my perception of the universe. If one night I decided not to drink alcohol while playing poker, the experience wouldn't be drastically different. My perception of the world wouldn't be any different, and I wouldn't learn anything new or different because I was completely sober. It doesn't cause me to make unwise or destructive decisions either.
So, what in your opinion is destructive about my drinking beer in a situation like this? I guess the disconnect is that it sounds like you're focusing on times when people get really drunk or really high and do stupid things, like drive and harm others. I'm focusing more on the usual experience of getting together with people, hanging out and having a few drinks or a few puffs.
