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James Han
Weekly Columnist
A Serious, Satirical, Whimsical,
Witty, Sardonic, Depends on Mood
Look at Life at the Brook for
Asian American Students
from a VIP Perspective, My Own |
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Are Drugs Right for Me? |
Caffeine.
Alcohol. Tobacco. Steroids. Marijuana. Cocaine. Heroin. Acid.
These are the majority of
drugs being used on campus in order of relative illegalness. Now, I myself have never used any drugs
beyond alcohol, but I’m not ignorant enough to concede that such drugs
are not used at this very university. I
do know in fact that people do use drugs, and if you’re reading this
article to inquire as to where to obtain such drugs, then don’t even
bother. It’s not too hard to find
and you’re probably going to hate me by the end of the article. My goal is to throw in my insight on drug
use, stave off popular opinions about such usage, and aid you in your
decision to allow drugs to influence your life or not. From this point on,
drugs will simply refer to illegal drugs, not your OTC drugs and their
ilk.
Before I continue, I’d like to
throw out my own personal opinion and say that I’m against the use of
all illegal, recreational drugs. This
goes from marijuana on. I believe
that it detracts from the myriad of useful things that a person could be
doing. Doing drugs offers no real
benefits; in fact, it probably decreases your abilities to do just about
anything. Unless you’re into
philosophy. I kid.
I
will, however, concede that it is very likely that I am a humongous
hypocrite and narrow-minded with respect the subject. We all know why we shouldn’t do drugs -
it’s been beaten into us (some literally) since we were kids. This, however, is a poor reason to do
anything and is probably the most ignorant viewpoint anyone could take. Just because you were told such things as
a child, do they really make an argument valid? Of course we get plenty of good advice,
but mixed around in there is advice with no good footing and sometimes
even fallacious advice. My parents
were not quite partial to races of color, to put it as euphemistic as
possible, which is funny because we’re
people of color! Anyway, I have
always been told to stay away from drugs, and I promised myself I would
never allow myself to steer down that road based on what I had to witness
growing up. Still, I told myself I
wouldn’t mess with girls or alcohol and look how accurately those
promises ended up. So what is it
about drugs that make me so wary about them?
First
of all, I’m what they would call a health freak. I eat well, exercise frequently, and
always look towards the future for a new, improved me. With this alone, drugs have no place in
my life. Even the most hardcore drug
enthusiast could not convince me against this point: drugs are in some way
malignant. Secondly, I’m crazy
enough without drugs to need to be even more crazy or mellow. It’s just not necessary. I have all the personality I need, in
fact, I have multiple ones. I
don’t need a fix to feel like a different person. Finally, I see myself as a role model in
many ways. I’ve been somewhat of a
good son, a trustworthy friend, and perhaps most importantly, an older
brother to my sister of eight years old. I
always believed in leading by example, and I simply have no intentions of
letting anybody down. Since I am a
very strong character, I have had no problems resisting the temptation to
join my peers in a casual blaze.
Despite my strong anti-drug feelings, I think that Americans are still too
conservative with their policies on drugs, at least in public. In specific, I don’t believe that most
drugs should be illegal. As long as
the substance is not a deadly toxin (I don’t think people should be
distributing chloroform), who is the government to tell us what we can put
into our bodies? I could easily
sniff, snort, or ingest a wide variety of chemicals that could make me go
bananas, so why limit things like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, et al.? Furthermore, I have no reason to look
down on people who use drugs recreationally.
Barring my moral discomfort of seeing someone debase their own
God-given body, doing drugs I think has become socially acceptable, and in
the process of maturing, I can accept others who don’t reason like me. I will, however, draw the line at drug
addicts, as with anyone who lets a single frivolous habit get the better
of them. These are just weak
people who need to make some use out of their lives.
So as far as drugs go on this campus, they’re there and if you
want to use them, it’s really up to you to decide. In an institution such as a university,
there generally tends to be a more intellectual, liberal view of things,
and overlooking the moral issue, is there really any reason for you to be
doing drugs? Let your
conscience be your guide.
James Han is VP of ASA, Asian Student Alliance, but his column is
all his own and is not the opinion of AA E-Zine, ASA, or anyone or
organization but James. This is his first column and others will
deal with all aspects of being a student at Stony Brook University. Feel
free to comment and he might reply - no, no, all reasonable comments will
be answered. Send to aaezine@ yahoo.com. Of course, reasonable is
subjective. You could reply by starting your own column too!
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