GETTING HIGH? THINK TWICE TO AVOID TRIPPING UP

Check it out. Just because a person can get high or drunk does not
necessarily mean they should.

College is a place for experimentation and self-exploration. It is
here at CU that many have been away from home for the first time in
their lives - out of the family home with the ever present parental
influence is a new found freedom. But with freedom comes
responsibility, and let's face it, responsibility sucks.

Wouldn't it be great if we could just do anything - like a utopia of
carefree frolicking in the world? Sadly, that world does not exist,
not even at CU.

I think it was Newton, the guy who was hit by an apple, who said that
for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction.

Now, I'm not much of a scientist but I certainly understand that what
goes up must come down. I also understand that if I drink 15 shots of
Yukon Jack I will most certainly be jacked up. In that same way I
know that if I dose a few hits of acid I will become very wide for
the next half day or so. I could go on but I think you get the point.

This brings us back to responsibility. As human beings we are all
responsible for our actions. When I take a few hits of LSD I do not
become another person.

Those outer-body floods of light, the tangible sounds that often
follow me around and the Troll dolls, professing their undying love,
might be miraculous, but they do not erase the fact that it is I who
is experiencing them. Taking that blotter onto my tongue does not
free me from being me.

Unlike Tim O'Leary, I do not advocate getting high. Let's face it --
some folks are not set up mentally or emotionally to trip out. In
fact I have been with people who have had horrible trips that landed
them in the hospital. Not good.

Even worse is when a person gets high and then hurts someone else.
I've heard of people who have killed their friends while high. That
may be an extreme example, but it illustrates the point that some
people just shouldn't be doing it.

So, I'm a prude right? Sure, why not. I don't get high anymore. Why,
well for one it got old; sort of like me.

It's insane to do the same thing expecting a different result. I
spent years chasing that first high, whether it was pot, LSD or
heroin. And -- surprise -- I was never able to get back to the
beginning. Sort of like trying to become a virgin again -- it just
can't happen.

I certainly don't want to sound like I'm preaching abstinence. That
is asinine. "Just say no" is the biggest joke there is. However, I do
believe in responsibility. Damn, that word again. But it is important
to "know thyself."

By all means, become educated about drugs and alcohol. If that means
for you experimentation, then do so in a way that is safe and informed.

What does that mean?

First, if you're going to use a hallucinogen, understand that someone
much less intelligent than yourself probably manufactured the drug.

Can you synthesize a complex compound requiring precise measurements,
expert techniques and a lab of sophisticated equipment? Well,
unfortunately, most of the people making the LSD, methamphetamine and
ecstasy don't either. How do I know? I have been in home labs and
have known bathtub chemists.

Secondly, don't trip for the first time away from a safe place.

I remember a girl who dosed for the first time at a Butthole Surfers
concert. She couldn't wrap her mind around the bright lights, noise
and mass of bodies. I remember watching her fall to the ground at the
feet of several hundred people slam dancing. Later, as the hall
emptied she was curled in a fetal position on the floor. Her gaze was
absent. This is not how to take LSD for the first time.

I believe that LSD and other hallucinogens can be okay. But the
bottom line is responsibility -- once again with that dang word. Find
the back of your mind, experience the flavors of sound and the colors
of thought. But do not hurt yourself, and by no means hurt others.
Out-of-body experiences do not free one of the realities that you are
you, and that in the end, jails, institutes and sometimes death can
be found at the end of a trip.