I was once addicted to marijuana. It started as a recreational activity which I did with friends. It inspired me with visions that I could use in my art and ideas that I thought were very unique and astounding while I was high. Sometimes these ideas helped me when I sobered up to have a new understanding of an aspect of my life. Most of the time, however, the ideas that I wanted to apply after I had had them, were impractical. Also, at this time, I was hardly in the state of applying what I learned to life.
As it happens, I started to crave the visions I saw. I wanted to have more ideas. Consequently, I smoked more and I ended up having many thoughts about thoughts. The way I’ve described it to friends of mine is that when you are high, you think you are smart. You think you are coming up with some great thing that is ‘blowing your mind’ and then it usually comes back around to being amazing just because you’re high. Or the idea looks novel, but it is thinking about thought, and paralyzes the thinker into a roller coaster that is not anywhere near truth or a Dhamma-like change. It is a battle that you consistently lose, because it is based on craving and aversion. It may seem like genuine inspiration, but it lacks substance.
This, of course, is my personal experience. It has nothing to do with anyone else and what they’ve gotten or get from the use of cannabis or any other thing like it. I used it for recreational use and got addicted. I was addicted to the craving and aversion, and the plant was my gateway to get there quicker. It lead me straight onto the chain of ignorance and of chasing sensations. This was before I had practiced Vipassana, and naturally Vipassana is what began my observing of it and understanding that it was not beneficial to me anymore. It was also my strength to leave it behind and overcome the ‘need’ for it.
For about a year, it took over my life. I smoked daily. I got depressed and anti-social, and generally unintelligent and unresponsive. I simply wanted to hide away and smoke. It was really difficult to come to terms with the fact that I tortured myself like this. It was a dead life. I had to forgive my actions and find peace with which was, in one sense, a wasted year. In the other sense, it’s a year that propelled me onto the path of Dhamma with determination and a ‘smack to the face’ that it was absolutely the right path for me.
Presently, I don’t do any and I don’t think they are needed at all. I still sometimes have the idea come up that I would like to go smoke, but the moment the idea comes, it’s gone. I see how destructive and useless it would be to do, and simply move on. It’s not a ‘thing’ that sticks anymore. I see it and that’s all. These ‘drugs’ have a use, but when taken with an unclear mind, their use is easily misunderstood. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone who hasn’t done Vipassana. And to anyone who has, I also wouldn’t.
A metaphor: The elephant (our mind) isn’t trained to jump through the hoop. We sit to train it. Taking a substance is like setting the hoop on fire and pushing the elephant through. The trained mind will see the fire and be able to avoid it with a concentrated jump and the wisdom to see the danger. I pushed through the fire, with no wisdom. In hindsight, I see what I did and why it hurts. That had a purpose in my life, but it isn’t the way I would suggest.