A Trip Of One's Own

I was so glad to read this article that goes beyond the simplistic good/bad approach on drugs, and I’m looking forward to scientific studies *wink wink* to catch up on what many of us, regardless of whether we admit it openly or not, have already discovered: that we like drugs and that they can actually be helpful.

Claire Vaye Watkins gives a review of Ayelet Waldman’s book A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life. Waldman tells of her experience with microdosing – the microdose being “about a tenth of your typical trip-inducing tab, low enough to elicit no adverse side effects, yet high enough for a measurable cellular response".

The article touches on many important aspects concerning drugs. First off we get the historical approach of how and for what purposes LSD was discovered, how it was used in the years when it was still legal in the US, why it was declared illegal. It touches, of course, on the war on drugs and its many racist aspects. Then we get a glimpse of the revival that LSD is having among Silicon Valley people, who “are not looking to have a trip with their friends out in nature”, an anonymous doser recently explained to Wired. “They are looking at it as a tool.” This kind of thinking of using drugs in order to meet a deadline or focus better on work, I find kind of annoying. The thought of “pumping my body full of drugs”, any kind of drug, for the sake of work, is just such a huge turn off. I feel that the purpose of taking a drug should go beyond the mundane world of work. I guess, unlike anonymous there, I'm a hippie in my heart.

Another important point that the article makes – and I cannot stress enough how important this is – is about motherhood and drugs. “Everyone in pop culture gets to blaze with impunity, it would seem, except mothers. Call it the grass ceiling," Watkins says, and I sadly and completely agree.