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31 March 2008

What's your drug of choice and why? →[More:] Mine would be alcohol (with caffeine and nicotine just behind and marijuana an occasional visitor). I like it because I'm a very high-strung person and it makes me feel heavy and solid and relaxed; it ties me down when I feel like I'm floating away. Plus, it's made in hundreds of different ways (beer, wine, liquor) so there's always a new way to try it and since it's in the form of a beverage, it's more social seeming than just popping a pill.

The other drugs? LSD was fun, but it didn't live up to the hype, I didn't see Jesus surfing a wave of molten lava or anything. Cocaine? Too expensive and makes people jabbery and panicky.
Booze suits me just fine.

So, how about you? (Note: drug of choice need not be a drug. It could be food, exercise, even TV. what's your crutch?)
post by: jonmc at: 16:38 | 70 comments
Exercise.
Running = maintenance high.
Ocean = special occasions.
posted by small_ruminant 31 March | 16:43
- coffee
- legal and tasty. No hangovers.
posted by dabitch 31 March | 16:45
The internet, closely followed by diphen. And then food. And then booze. And then other substances.
posted by sperose 31 March | 16:50
MeFi/MeCha. If I have to tell you why, you wouldn't understand.

Coffee, for the same reasons.
posted by dg 31 March | 16:51
Caffeine, from coffee to diet soda. It's a sad, sad habit.

I recently admitted to MuddDude that I L.O.V.E. painkillers. I don't take them often, but I love that feeling when a headache or cramp or cricked neck just disappears.

Booze is real nice, although I'm getting sort of tired of that whole college "let's drink till we black out" mentality. I'm trying to at least remember the end of the night, when I go out with friends. And nothing's better than a cold margerita after work on a summer day.
posted by muddgirl 31 March | 16:51
Coffee and spin class.

And the internet.

posted by bunnyfire 31 March | 16:52
Diet coke. I have cut down considerably, but Diet Coke is my number one drug of choice. It calms me down. Have your heard of the old trick? If you're out of Ritalin, drink a Mt. Dew or an Orange Crush. The caffeine calms by brain and allows me to focus. Or, at least that's what I tell myself. I love the taste too. I walked to the store on my lunch break to pick up a salad, an orange, and a Diet Coke. They were out of Diet Coke in the cooler at the check out. No cold Diet Coke in the entire store! That is enough to cause major disappointment. I walked to another store to get my fix.

The Internet. Like a heroin addict, it allows me to escape and avoid.
posted by LoriFLA 31 March | 16:54
Yoga.
posted by Fuzzbean 31 March | 16:55
1. coffee - must have
2. beer, especially when I'm thirsty
3. bourbon, preferably really good bourbon
posted by theora55 31 March | 16:55
Drug of choice: Sunshine and green spaces
Drug of convenience: The internet
posted by occhiblu 31 March | 16:57
Novels.

and painkillers ARE pretty nice...
posted by small_ruminant 31 March | 16:57
Doritos. And the internet, for sure.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 31 March | 16:58
caffeine, and the internet.

to the extent that i get a rush of adrenaline, intercollegiate parliamentary debate (and policy when i was in high school).

I'm a tremendous nerd.
posted by dismas 31 March | 17:01
Coca-Cola, cheesecake and alcohol, in roughly that order.

And once - morphine. I was in severe pain and it hit me like a warm, pillowy freight-train. The feeling of letting the agony wash away and letting me relax for the first time in 16 hours far surpassed the amazing head-rush it also caused, although that was very pleasant too. It's a helluva drug.
posted by ninazer0 31 March | 17:03
Caffeine during work hours, alcohol after. Beer, mainly, of which I drink less now than I did three or four years ago (this mostly has to do with the band I was in at the time). Wife and I have been exploring other cocktails too, though -- I've been breaking down a long-standing college-born grudge against gin, and I really like sipping some scotch these days.

Nicotine is my illicit every-once-in-a-while thing. One a month or every couple weeks, depending (again -- aren't there PSAs for this sort of thing) on time spent around bandmates. Last group was lushes, this one is chimneys. Go figure. Being functionally a non-smoker means every cigarette actually feels like, you know, I'm ingesting a strange chemical stimulant, and it's a wobbly little high that I enjoy immensely now and then. I also enjoy the physical mechanics of smoking, so it's sort of a package deal.
posted by cortex 31 March | 17:07
Also, playing music in front of people. Mmm. Expensive and time-consuming, though, and requires a great deal more bullshit at times than the rest of those. Plus it keeps me up at night and I end up feeling exhausted the next day.
posted by cortex 31 March | 17:09
I have a friend who went to med school and now practices in... well, it's probably best not to specify where. Let's just say it's a small country in the Southern Hemispere. Anyway, due to the high mortality rate among children there, she's able to secure for me the finest adrenal glands available. Sure, it's ethically dodgy (and not inexpensive, either), but the high is so totally worth it: a couple of glands washed down with some apple juice and I'm unstoppable for 36 hours, sometimes longer. It's like being King Kong with godlike powers.

Other than that, the occasional beer.
posted by bmarkey 31 March | 17:10
Oh yeah, cortex just reminded me that I like to occasionaly (uh... twice in the last 3 months, if that's any indicator of frequency) smoke a cigarette, mostly when I'm drunk. It feels like really, really, really strong caffeine. I try not to do it to much, as it freaks MuddDude out a little bit.
posted by muddgirl 31 March | 17:11
Video games.
posted by iconomy 31 March | 17:14
pinky, you inspired me. I just went and got some Doritos Collisions (the kind with the Buffalo Wing flavor and Blue Cheese flavor in the same bag) and a sixer of Hairy Eyeball ale.
posted by jonmc 31 March | 17:14
I consume caffeine, alcohol and marijuana at least semi-regularly, some other things much more infrequently.
posted by box 31 March | 17:17
If I didn't have to be functional and hold down a job, I'd be a total acid-head. (ok, and kinda was, in the days of my misspent youth.) I love how it can turn anything into an adventure... roller coasters, concerts, going to a club... hell, just leaving the house is freaking hilarious. I wasn't looking for spiritual revelations, though I think it definitely shaped my view of the world.

Other than that, it's alcohol for me, too. Hell, I'm southern AND part Irish- I'm wired to function best after a Guinness or two. I love drinking outdoors the best: around a campfire, on the deck on a summer evening, at a baseball game... I love watching the day turn to twilight as I and the folks around me slowly get a little looser, a little slower-moving, relaxed and a bit silly. Alcohol is a generous buzz- it makes me want to hug somebody, maybe the whole world at once. (And that's when you should cut me off... heh!!)
posted by BoringPostcards 31 March | 17:23
Caffeine, alcohol. But working out is gaining, and I'm hoping it will knock the other two down a bit.

I also have a thing for chewing gum.
posted by JanetLand 31 March | 17:24
It feels like really, really, really strong caffeine.

Oooooh, makes me really want to try.

coffee+sugar+books+people-watching used to be my main drug. It only really worked if I could get the full package.

A nice meal eaten out in the sunshine.
posted by DarkForest 31 March | 17:28
Alcohol (beer) mainly because it's the only drug I've really ever been able to titrate effectively. I can maintain a nice long slow level of just-drunkenness, which keeps me going for hours (if I want to - I'm also perfectly capable of getting hammered in short order. this usually happens when I'm in a really good mood, or nervous.)

Pot, well, I have years of trying to get decently high with pot of all qualities, via smoking, spotting, eating. It either does nothing to me (in levels that have my daily pot-smoking friends blissed out) or turns me into a gibbering paranoid freak, so I've given up on that.

More than one cup of coffee a day makes my heart race and my brain weird, so I probably only have a cup of coffee 3 or 4 times a week. If I want to stay up late for a party, or New Year's Eve or something I'll have a giant coffee at about 8pm and still be awake at 6 the next morning.

Acid was nice the first few times and then I had a horrible experience and tried to clean myself in the shower with a pot-scrubber so I'm not going back there.

E doesn't do anything for me, unless it's the kind my friend in Baltimore gets, which is quite speedy, so it's probably cut with something very un-good for me, but nonetheless is a lot of fun.

Coke is nasty for me too, and I hate being around other people when they are on it.

And that's the tour of all the drugs I've taken! Oh, wait, painkillers. I love vicodin. But only the first couple of times I take it, then it only has painkilling effects for me, and not so much fun effects.
posted by gaspode 31 March | 17:29
You exercise-addicts make me sick. Fucking degenerate junkies.
posted by mullacc 31 March | 17:31
Oh yeah... I forgot about e. Lots of fun, but I only tried it a couple of times after reading about possible damage to serotonin receptors or something that could come from prolonged use. Also, the one time I tried coke I turned into such an asshole I couldn't even stand myself... argh. It was like having my finger stuck in a light socket. Never again.
posted by BoringPostcards 31 March | 17:38
oatmeal.raisin.cookies.
posted by netbros 31 March | 17:41
1. Volleyball - I am in a 3X per week group early mornings. . .a fairly high level game.
2. Caffiene - Need some first thing or the day has not started.
3. Wine - 3 or 4 times per week. . .
4. Internet - Just like you guys.
5. Sex - Either with partner or by self, for the endorphines among other things.

Retired list. . Pot (semi retirement), acid, hard liquor, acid, peyote, mushrooms, opiates.
posted by danf 31 March | 17:44
BP is my long lost twin, but we knew that. Yeah, I'm southern and Irish: I drink. Mostly beer and mostly in moderation these days - well, at least during the week. I'm not actually sure I'd be able to function socially at all without alcohol - I kind of doubt it. Every time I stop drinking altogether I get reclusive and misanthropic and weird and shy. I mean, more than usual.

And I smoke, love me my nicotine fix, steadies my nerves, and I drink strong thick black coffee, two or three cups a day so I can get those nerves up to the place where they need steadying. I drink coca cola every so often for hangovers. I'm an occasional social pot smoker and an occasional solitary creative pot smoker. After my late teens and early twenties spent as the Mescaline Queen, I haven't done hallucinogens in years although there's talk of organizing an acid camping trip this summer which I'm really looking forward to. Haven't done coke for years either; it would probably kill me now. Actually I never really liked it all that much and somehow, weirdly, given my thoroughly addictive personality, it was always a drug I could take or leave. I never much liked E either but I never did much. I also have some kind of weird fear of pills, so I never take painkillers stronger than ibuprofen and I hate taking any prescription drug. And I'm saving heroin for my 80s, when I fully intend to get completely hooked.

And then there are novels. I read addictively, obsessively and more or less continuously. So on a daily basis, it's coffee, cigarettes, books and the dread Mefi/Mecha/Flickr triad, which has its hooks into me heavy duty. And probably a beer or two later. I feel that one should drink coffee from 8 am to noon, water from noon to five and then beer for the rest of the evening. ;-)
posted by mygothlaundry 31 March | 17:46
mullacc- that's why I don't bring it up unless asked directly.
posted by small_ruminant 31 March | 17:46
chocolate and bike racing, in equal measures.

good single malt when I can get it.
posted by lonefrontranger 31 March | 17:47
Murder.
posted by Divine_Wino 31 March | 17:51
This thread made me want a cigarette, but that's just because they are here. It's not a crutch, it's just a sudden urge that's faded some. i like having the option of booze but partake on more of a monthly basis. A good range is not easily available so there's not the trying new things i use to enjoy.

If i could, i'd like the option of acid at least for major holidays and ceremonial reasons. It heads out my head and gives me perspective. All clean hallucenagins.

Coffee i don't like to have to much of anymore, so caffeine and vitamin drinks, ginseng and teas.

Lots of exercise doesn't suit a working temperment with me, because if i'm very active i can't be still for any period of time, and everything i do involves being pretty still for long periods of time.

Not into painkillers, they make me plunge to the depths of black depression afterwards and don't make the pain really go away. i'm pretty good with my own pain management so things that end in pam help me deal with pain and sleep.

Bright shiny things and dark arts keep things interesting.

The only thing i need to survive is a light.
posted by ethylene 31 March | 17:58
Hmmm: Coffee; wine; beer; certain foods (fatty-ish or slimey-ish, eww TMI); "quiet" romantic comedy movies; chocolate.
posted by Claudia_SF 31 March | 17:59
D_W, there's no point in listing the ones we ALL share.
posted by small_ruminant 31 March | 17:59
Making stuff, that's my crutch.
Bloody murder just on special occasions.
posted by ethylene 31 March | 18:04
In no particular order:

Open road cycling
Laphroaig 10 yo (Lagavulin at a pinch)
Fine, manicured sinsimella buds, expertly rolled and shared with friends
Hiking up through the high country in early spring
MDMA (not 'E', just the good stuff)
Carlton Draught
posted by Rembrandt Q. Einstein 31 March | 18:14
I like booze mainly. Depending on the season, it can be rye (a strong favourite) or beer, and lately cider. Friends seem to think it's an event when I have a few ciders. It's like a champagne drunk, more like a high than a drunk.

I'll smoke some weed sometimes, but I have mixed results. It seems to depend on WHO I smoke it with. I do like it though. Mushrooms too. Small amounts make the world sparkly and bright, and me tireless.

I've got some E upstairs. I am still not sure I'll ever take it but I really wanna try it. When I had a connoisseur living in town, I asked him to get me some that was good times, nothing cut with the nasty stuff. But, so far, the next day scares me. I'm too close to actual depression I guess, to risk that comedown.

I think it's really interesting how various things seem to affect various people in various ways. Makes you wonder about how those drug companies get off thinking they know how drugs affect people.

Oh, and one more. At various times in my life, only music has been able to affect me as profoundly as drugs. Man, I'm often amazed at the effect that certain songs can have.
posted by richat 31 March | 18:18
1. Caffeine
2. Chocolate
3. Bird watching (sounds silly, but it really calms me)
4. Alcohol (Amaretto and Orange Juice is my favorite, but margaritas are a very close second)
posted by redvixen 31 March | 18:25
Food - it, temporarily, fills the gaping whole that is my self.
posted by deborah 31 March | 18:27
Black tar heroin. Banged straight into my neck.

Just kidding.

Pot, of course. And rum and tobacco.

And Caffeine, the jealous bitch goddess who gives me headaches unless I appease her daily, but whom I love zealously.
posted by BitterOldPunk 31 March | 18:30
I have avoided all the good drugs- I know I'd fall in about 2 seconds flat. Genetic propensity and all that. But if I weren't worried about that sort of thing, I'd be trying the opiates in a big way, esp. H.
posted by small_ruminant 31 March | 18:34
Caffeine. (I'm ADHD, it calms me down. And keeps me out of depression. Man, the stuff is a wonder drug.)
posted by lleachie 31 March | 18:34
Sleep. Because I don't have to think of anything to say to anyone. Watching the sky. And alcohol. The last couple of times I smoked pot I felt like someone yanked out all my bones and encased me in concrete. and I couldn't get my teeth clean no matter how many times I brushed 'em.
posted by chewatadistance 31 March | 18:58
Coffee is the only reason for me to get up in the morning, but it's almost the only drug that I have left. I drink zero to one beers in the evening and the occasional glass of wine. I like drinking but just don't really have time very often. Any experimentation else beyond alcohol and caffeine was so far in the past that I barely remember it.
posted by octothorpe 31 March | 20:41
coumadin - or else I die.
posted by plinth 31 March | 20:58
Alcohol
Muscle Relaxers
Caffiene
Exercise
Nicotine
Internet/Sex
Xanax
Novels

Love the Ambien, but cannot have. Bad bad bad, blackout bad, but dag.

Pot

posted by rainbaby 31 March | 22:23
1. diet coke w/lime
2. cigarettes
3. food
4. vicodin or percocet (this is a recent discovery.)

I pretty much suck at drugs. Pot is okay but just not my thing. And I saw enough people doing harder drugs when I was younger that I just don't care about them.
posted by fluffy battle kitten 31 March | 22:45
Guilt. Guilt, Guilt and more Guilt.
posted by Lipstick Thespian 31 March | 22:56
Prayer and meditation.
Singing - of the open-throated, soul-channeling kind.
Strenuous exercise - either biking or weightlifting.
TJ's pomegranate white tea.

And, as far as "actual" drugs are concerned, I effin' adore - adore - MDMA, but don't allow myself to do it more than once a year. That's pretty much the only one I swear by. Although I enjoyed 2C-I as well.

I hated acid. Hated, hated, hated. I just felt disoriented and unable to focus on anything. And it went on far too long. I was bored with the hallucinations after about four hours, and woke up the next day feeling like the biggest roadkill ever. And pot makes me dumb as a rock. I can't finish sentences or thoughts on it. I get the most cottony, blurry feeling, and I hate it. Alcohol has too many calories, and I deplore the physical consequences of having too much.

I am also a massive romantic and enjoy intimate relationships as much for their own sake as for the person involved. Which can be dangerous, but so can MDMA.
posted by mykescipark 31 March | 22:58
Wow, I don't feel so alone here anymore!

Nowadays, it's caffeine and alcohol, and I'm experimenting with a bit of exercise. I can't handle much more.

In another life, a dream maybe, it was just about anything I could get my hands on to alter my reality and/or sense of what it meant to be. For a time, those alterations were always positive, euphoric, and bonding with whomever I happened to be around.

Ah, those were the days.
posted by treepour 31 March | 23:20
Caffeine, cigarettes, and alcohol.
My trifecta of do-it-yourself chemo.

More importantly, alone time (I'm an only child and need my solitude regularly), sketching/painting time, and cooking good food.

Oh, and sex. Good sex, regularly.

Other things may be thrown in as they become available.
Never tried cocaine, didn't like LSD that much, never tried E or MDMA.
posted by lilywing13 01 April | 00:59
Gave up cigarettes about 10 years back and lost the taste for coffee more than a year back. Alcohol, (beer, homemade wine, and the occasional Scotch) is a crutch and, "alone time (I'm an only child and need my solitude regularly)," OH HELL YES.
posted by arse_hat 01 April | 01:08
While winnowing this down to one should be hard, I'm actually a big sap for something nobody's mentioned:

N2O
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur 01 April | 01:10
Alcohol
Nicotine
Caffeine

(Jeez, I'm boring)
posted by seanyboy 01 April | 02:44
I'm lucky in that the mainstream legal drugs suit me very well. A glass of good whisky, for example, is a twofold pleasure, as I can savour the flavour while enjoying the intoxication. I am addicted to caffeine, but have latterly been able to reduce my intake of it. These days I take my nicotine in cigar form only, and then only sporadically. My experiences with other drugs have been discouraging and few, although I suspect I could too easily develop a taste for the stronger opiates, if I were ever to try them.
posted by misteraitch 01 April | 02:59
I can't believe no one else is a video game addict. I feel so all alone in the world right now.

Well, all alone with about 10 million 17 year old boys, but still.
posted by iconomy 01 April | 08:33
Hmm, I should have 'fessed up to video game addiction, too. (I've just discovered "Twisted Metal: Black," which is a million years old but I'd never played it, and now it's literally keeping me up at night. Heh.)
posted by BoringPostcards 01 April | 08:53
Twisted Metal! Whoa...is that the game where you can be an evil clown and drive around in an ice cream truck and shoot other vehicles? Holy crap. I forgot it even existed. My son was insane for that a while back. I remember it was a lot of fun though.

I confess to having to call in sick to work a few times to catch up on sleep (or continue playing....heh) after pulling a video game all-nighter. The last two games I played were Beyond Good and Evil for gamecube (great game) and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for gamecube (meh).
posted by iconomy 01 April | 09:28
I hate being around other people when they are on it.


My upstairs neighbors were moving out, and they had a coke party on their last night. All the blabbering at high volume was driving me nuts, no I decided to go outside and walk around at 2am. Somehow I ended up meeting my girlfriend of the next couple years.
posted by StickyCarpet 01 April | 09:58
Ambrosia: *sigh* Okay, you got me. I guess I have to add nitrous to my list too, but I really only like it in combination with other things.
posted by mykescipark 01 April | 13:51
1) Meat
2) Ice Cream
3) Liquor

Rarely at the same time, though.
posted by eamondaly 01 April | 18:28
Painkillers, muscle relaxers, and antianxiety pills. Those are just the drugs I take that I have prescriptions for.

I love alcohol but honestly it doesn't have much of an effect on me. I am a light-to-moderate drinker more out of frustration than anything; it takes so much for me to catch anything more than a tiny buzz that it's really not worth it, most of the time. I do enjoy the fancy beers, though (anyone else coming to the Chicago MeFi meetup this Friday?).

Now, pot, on the other hand... pot's great stuff. More enjoyable than booze, plus it mellows me out better than the doctor-prescribed anxiety pills. It never really makes me stupid, I don't think, or increase my depression, and it has quite a salutary effect on the old rheumatiz'. Wonderful for watching movies, especially long, slow, subtitled movies. Great for music and sex, too.

I smoked tobacco from the ages of 11 to 25. If I could figure out a way to smoke it once or twice a week without descending into a pack-a-day habit, I probably would. Unfortunately, I can't.

The other stuff I've had varying times with. Great times generally in the cases of MDMA and mushrooms, less so with acid. Opiates don't get me high at all; they just decrease my levels of pain and worry. Stimulants I enjoy probably a bit too much so I keep it to just coffee in that department. I will say that I read the experience reports on "research chemicals" over at erowid.org and wish I knew some people involved in that scene ;)
posted by jtron 02 April | 00:18
I always miss the good threads!

Scotch/whiskey. Beer.
I may smoke pot once in a blue moon, only if someone offers to smoke me up.

Caffeine does a number on me. Coffee gives me the shakes. It may have something to do with my ADD meds? Not sure. I shudder to think of what any other stimulants would do to my system. Tea is about as extreme as I get in that area.
posted by CitrusFreak12 02 April | 16:11
1- Beer
2- whiskey (usually Jameson)
3- pot (very occassionally now)
4- Acid (not for several years, i think i might be done)
5- Wiffle Ball
posted by Schyler523 07 April | 14:22
ibuprofin.
posted by quonsar 08 April | 11:30
Did i mention the medicinal uses of booze and herbs?
Did i mention pot? i bet it was high.
posted by ethylene 09 April | 16:18
Vehicular-combat is, in my view, one of the great lost video game genres (though I prefer Vigilante 8 to Twisted Metal. The closest things nowadays are kart-racing and Burnout.
posted by box 09 April | 16:32
Did I say something about self-medicating in Lori's chiropractor thread?
posted by box 09 April | 16:33
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