Doing Drugs

I wrote an essay when I was in grad school, which I now have my students read in my LGBTQ Studies class. In this essay, while describing one of my first adult love relationships, I mention that this relationship involved "lots of intellectual discourse, emotional baring of souls, and mind-altering drugs!" This often leads to my students asking about my recreational drug use. In response, I've penned this full confessional blog.

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I was indeed referring to LSD and mushrooms in my essay. I only did acid for about a two-year period in my 20's. I took it maybe 20 times total, and I too found it useful for "expanding my consciousness", to use a cliche. I did eventually have a "bad trip" which signaled to me that enough is enough. 

I still, on rare occasions, enjoy a mild dose of mushrooms. They make special events like Gay Pride even more "sparkly"!

I've never really enjoyed the physical effects of alcohol, and other than some peyote and cocaine in the 80's, that's pretty much it for my drug use. 

A lot of drugs came around in the 1990's (Extacy, GHB, MDA, etc.) but by then my recreational drug use had very much diminished as I was a full-time professor!

About five or so years ago, a friend of mine tempted me to take a pipe hit of Salvia Divinorum. It produced an extremely intense visionary state which was not exactly pleasant. Fortunately it was also very short-lived. Once was enough for THAT!

Pot has always been and remains my drug of choice.

Having said all this, let me also point out that while I did do drugs when I was in college, I was also always a very responsible student. I only did drugs when I'd have a reasonable recovery period -- no sooner than after my last class on Friday and no later than midnight on Saturday. Sundays were reserved for a drug-free day of "post-psychedelia melancholia" recovery, as I came to call it. 

When school was in session, I didn't even smoke pot during the week! I also made sure to do drugs in a ritualized, thoughtful manner, carefully selecting the time, place, and music, so that I'd not have to drive, move, or interact with anyone other than my drugmates.

While drugs do enhance your senses when you're on them, they also dull your thinking when you come down. Pot does make you lazy and stupid when smoked in excess, not good qualities for a student. Wait for school breaks to go on extended binges!

So, obviously, I'm not a DON'T DO DRUGS sort of guy. I'm more like DO DRUGS RESPONSIBLY! 

"That's So Gay" is NOT OK!

Whether intended or not, the term "gay" can not be used to mean “stupid” without being read as homophobic.

That usage reinforces negative connotations of the word, making it synonymous with something inferior and deficient, therefore suggesting that gay people are inferior and deficient.

I was already in my 30’s when “gay” began to be used to mean “stupid”, usually by young, homophobic, sexually-insecure teens who had never even met a gay person but had absorbed the reigning homophobia of their parents and society. It was ugly and mean-spirited then, and it still is.

To easily see how this usage is offensive, replace gay with a term you identify with. Imagine if people said, “Ewww . . . That’s so Mexican!” or “Ewww . . . That’s so Christian!”

When I was a little boy, the kids in my neighborhood used to use the word "jew" as verb. To "jew" someone meant to get the better end of a deal with someone. Such as, "Bobby jewed Freddy out of his Mickey Mantle baseball card for a penny!" I don't know where or how we picked up this usage. The anti-Semitism in this stereotype is atrocious, but if any adults ever heard us using it, they never corrected us. As a kid I went to Catholic school, and though my parents didn't have any Jewish friends or neighbors, they never said anything bad about the Jewish religion or Jewish people. And even though I knew about the Jewish people from Catholicism, I never even made the connection between "jew" as a verb and "Jew" as a person until I went to public school in 7th grade and made my first Jewish friend -- Robert Testa. I probably used "jew" as a verb with him, and I'm sure he went off on me as a result and set me straight (so to speak). I don't remember the details anymore, but 7th grade was when the light bulb finally went on for me with using "jew" as a verb.

Words have meaning, and your usage matters! The Dictionary is your friend!
It occurs to me that many of you probably don’t even know the primary definition of “lame” , and why many disabled people find the use of “lame” to mean “stupid” to be offensive.

Here’s the American Heritage Dictionary definition of lame:

1. Disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible: Lame from the accident, he walked with a cane. A lame wing kept the bird from flying.

2. Marked by pain or rigidness: a lame back.

3. Weak or ineffectual: a lame attempt to apologize.

4a. Informal Dull or unsatisfactory: That movie was so lame!

  b. Slang Socially inappropriate; foolish.

Notice that the way most of you use it is not listed till #4a, and even then it is noted as an informal usage.

Now let’s look at the American Heritage Dictionary definition of gay:

1. Of, relating to, or having a sexual orientation to persons of the same sex.

2. Showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.

3. Bright or lively, especially in color: a gay, sunny room.

4. Offensive Slang Socially inappropriate or foolish.

5. Given to social pleasures, especially at the expense of serious pursuits: "You know she is gay, and wild, loves company and mirth, and that it was her impatience of restraint in these things, that made the breach between her and her father" (Daniel Defoe).

6. Dissolute or licentious: "He and his wife led a gay life. He made money fast, and she spent it faster. Eventually, both were broken physically" (Robert Coleman).

Once again, notice that the offensive definition is not listed till #4, and even then it is noted an offensive usage.

There are multitudes of other words and expressions that can be used more effectively to mean “stupid”, and using “gay” in that context is rooted in homophobia. Don’t do it! It is always best to use precise language.  If something is stupid, SAY so, but more importantly, say WHY."