I've read the letter to Cary and his response several times now, because this is something that I've put a lot of thought into regarding my own experiences in my short 30 years.

It was the comment regarding scaring the bejesus out of kids that really caught my attention. See, I was never interested in drugs until I was forced to learn about them. DARE came to my school (a weak replacement for McGruff), Just Say No buttons were handed out, but best of all was a day long discussion of each illegal drug and just how horrible it was. By the end of the day, I knew which ones I wanted to try and which ones I didn't. But I never would have known about them at all if not for the scare campaign. Descriptions of the "horrors" of seeing fantastic colors and getting visions while listening to music on LSD or mushrooms intrigued me; the paranoia associated with PCP turned me off.

The writer's idea that drug use is different than sex because it doesn't stem from an instinctive behavior is just plain wrong. The human instinct is for experience, and in our culture things that are tagged as verbotin obtain a certain appeal for some people. This is why more than half the people that sign abstinence pledges have sex within the first year. Also why some people feel drawn to meth because of all the press coverage. Teenagers are smart enough to discern that there must be some upside if so many people are doing it.

In my life I've done almost all the Schedule I drugs and several others. I've got a great career and a great relationship. I'm the worst person to have speak to someone curious about drug use, because I cherish and value what I've done. It's shaped who I am, introduced me to some of the most amazing people I've ever met, and I truly feel I'm a better person for it.

At the end of the day it's a personal choice - but to characterize all drug use as 'complic[ating] things unnecessarily and ha[ving] negative consequences for the user and all the people they interact with.' is just closed-minded and ignorant.

I hope that in the coming years that Ms. Clean and Concerned makes an effort to get off her pedestal and actually make good on some of her world-saving intentions, which were masked by her grandiose ignorant statements about the perils of drug use. I can't see all those lonely and pathetic drug users reacting well to your scary generalizations. Full points for getting an overcooked high school oratory competion speech in Salon though, and good luck to you.

Clean -

I feel like you mean well, but you made some statements that I can't begin to accept as fact. Such as -

"Unlike sex, recreational drug use does not stem from an instinctive behavior designed to further the good of the species."

I'll leave the "design" bugbear out of it - what about the drive for transcendence? Have you ever read what Jung, Maslow or William James have to say about peak experience? Have you ever known anything approaching transcendence yourself? Drugs aren't required, but in the right person at the right time, they can facilitate a life-changing experience.

When I was 19, I had a supremely joyous experience - a true satori - tripping on a Cape Cod beach; it was literally the best day of my life. I'm 50 now, and I still aspire to understand the meaning of that experience, and manifest it in my art and music. My life would be infinitely poorer - literally, a life spent asleep - if I hadn't had that afternoon in the sun.

No question about it, drug abuse can cause terrible damage; so can a lit match. But what kind of shape do you think civilization would be in if we hadn't learned to use fire responsibly?

Perhaps it would be as backwards a society in which church and state work together to forbid the use of entheogens; where peaceful individuals harming no one are thrown in jail to rot; where the most carcinogenic and poisonous substances are marketed globally for the profit of parasitic corporate entities, who in turn bribe lawmakers to assure that anything that could possibly diminish their market share is demonized and criminalized.

What's wrong with scaring the bejesus out of kids? Just this - when you paint an entire spectrum of substances with one broad brush, sooner or later those kids will realize they've been lied to. Warnings to stay away from genuine sources of harm will be ignored because you cried "wolf" far too often, and tragedy will result.

We need education and understanding, not more propaganda. We need to move away from the cobwebs of know-nothing puritanism, and learn more about why humans are naturally driven to alter their states of consciousness.

And by the way - I remember reading about Steve Jobs dropping acid, sitting in a field and "listening to the wheat play Bach"... he seems to have turned out all right.

The tricky thing about drug use is that until you give it a go, you don't really know what you're made of, genetically speaking. You may come from a double line of teetotalers and your first slug of Scotch might still be the top of your own slippery slope. Likewise, though nobody you know ever got addicted to marijuana, a couple joints for you might lay the foundation for decades of frittering. By the time you wake up, you're bald, divorced, underachieving and on Prozac.

I did them, but I don't advise them. I remember seeing sound and hearing light on acid. It was a wasted epiphany.

Anxiety attacks and untreated depression can push you to the edge of sanity too. What felt like I'm-SO-deep risk-taking when you were buying something illicit can be a genetic IED, waiting for you to Hum by.

Just skip it. Try falling in love with a cause. Ask your cosmic questions while you're sweating up some service. Want to be happy? Love something or somebody more than yourself. A child. A dog. A country.

Jeez. I STILLLLLLLLLL love Cary but am starting to find him elitist. Could we please, please have the struggling waitress letter, Cary? Somebody who has neither the time nor the spare cash to buy a high?