I would think that any kind of drug use is an expression of wanting to adapt to this world. Addictions that are not related to substances but to other things, such as shopping, working, gambling, etc. are, in my eyes, also mechanisms of adaptation that serve to fit into this world that one would otherwise find unbearable. A form of overcompensation for what is suppressed in people by norms, social pressure, a fixed idea of how "one has to be". I think only very few people do not bow to some form of social pressure because they are free inside and do not need compensation. Sexual permissiveness, for example, or artistic expression that is not repressed but can be lived out, the experience of groups, families where there is goodwill instead of envy and violence, are probably environments where there are fewer drug or other dependency relationships.

All this nonsense about fighting drugs does not understand the deeper dimension of why people do what they do. Not to provoke others, to endanger others, but to find a way to not feel trapped and lost themselves in this world. But of course it is not a solution for a freer existence. The desire to become befuddled, to feel "high", to experience exhilaration, manifests itself in the abuse and exaggeration of the use of substances and actions. If we allowed ourselves to experience states of exhilaration as normal in everyday life and as directed towards a goal in certain situations, the chance would increase that outside of ritual or traditional actions, the drug would not be necessary, in my view.

I took various drugs in my youth and am happy that I did. They did not stick to me, to the contrary, they showed me a realm of existence which I otherwise would not have experienced. I got to know a side of me and others beyond every day. And I think, people need that once in a while.