Getting drunk and getting high: is one really worse than the other?

Drugs can cause great harm in peoples lives, but for heavens’ sake alcohol creates just as many, if not more, problems

| UPDATED alcohol drugs opinion pre-drinks prinking

We’ve all been there. You’re on a night out. You hear a strange sniffing sound in the toilets. Or smell something a bit “skunky” in the smoking area. Or you’re at a house party and somebody whips out a bag of something that looks suspiciously like shake and vac.

These kinds of things often turn heads. But what about one of the last legal drugs that everyone is getting down their gullets?  Surely those people have no right to criticise how others get their kicks?

I’m just going to put it out there. I have tried a few different kinds of drugs in my time at university and I have enjoyed them.

These drugs include ecstasy, MDMA (Yes basically the same thing), LSD (wow!) and Cannabis. I haven’t really had a bad experience with any of them.

Of course I realise that people do have these experiences sometimes, and one only has to look at the recent Hardwell gig in the Odyssey to see that, but I’m going by my own experience here.  The absolute worst thing I have done under the influence of drugs was when I tried acid once and kept asking my friends was it raining outside…it wasn’t. I know, I know. How out of control was I!?

Maybe that’s enough drugs for one night.

I haven’t hurt anybody, I haven’t hurt myself, I haven’t blacked out, I haven’t started a fight with anybody and I have had a good time in the presence of people I know and trust.

So why then to people who like to proudly tell stories of their drunken antics still feel they can tar all drug users with the same brush. Terms like “druggy”, “junky” and “smack head” shouldn’t be thrown around so liberally.

We all know what kind of problems can crop up when alcohol is concerned. Whether it be that creepy guy in the club who has had a few too many and feels it within his rights to cop a feel, or the loutish bowsies who start fights at 2am on Botanic for the most trivial, or indeed unknown, of reasons.

Me + Alcohol = Creepy come hither stare

I myself have done some pretty stupid and embarrassing things “on the razz.” I’m sure we all have a few of those memories that crop up every now and then in our heads that send a small shiver down the spine and I would rather not relive mine on such a public forum as this.

I’ll just say this much; I have nearly burnt my house down from forgetting to turn the oven off, I have thrown a rock at my mothers window because I was too drunk to open the front door, and I have bored the tits off people with stories that make no sense, and that is to name but a few things. Ohh! I also know somebody who threw up on a baby at Oxegen. I swear it wasn’t me. 

And what about Prinking? God I hate that term. But in all seriousness, what is the purpose of having a pre before going “out out”?

You’re damn right it’s better to be slightly pissed on arrival  at whatever club or bar you are hitting up. Now, I have nothing against this. I love a pre-lash as much as the next man, but surely we should recognise that our drinking culture is just as harmful as taking a few pills or snorting a bit of Charlie.

Some would call this a few…

And then there’s the sober students. I’m sure we all know at least one person who chooses not to drink. And again I am sure that this friend is perfectly fine with you going out and getting quite merry whilst they tag along and endure everyone’s drunken bullshit for the night.

And yet if this friend was to all of a sudden strike a judgemental tone about your drinking how would you react? You’re damn right you would tell them to get the stick out of their ass! Surely this is a double standard?

I’m not crying out for a need to reform our drugs laws and I certainly am not saying that you should go out now and do “all the drugs.” I realise that drugs can cause great harm in peoples lives, but for heavens sake, alcohol creates just as many, if not more, problems.

However I would say that before you judge those people who like to drop the odd tab, or smoke a doob once in a while, maybe you should look at the drink in your hand and ask yourself, “Do I really have any right to criticise?”