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Comment by tryitnow | Hacker News Reader

Drug use is not a problem in my circle of friends - I have friends who have done LSD, molly, coke, and countless others. They're all productive and mostly well-adjusted. This is mostly a Burning Man, techie set, there are also a fair number of qualified mental health professionals.

Honestly, I don't think a book on white-collar drug use is a good idea - it's too broad a topic.

I would either focus it on unproblematic (and possibly beneficial) drug use or drug abuse - those are too radically different phenomenon, to conflate the two will definitely undermine your credibility.

Based on your past work it looks like you're targeting drug abuse, so I would just stay focused on that, especially what factors differentiate it from general drug use by responsible, informed people.

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It started out as a focus on drug abuse, but more than abuse or use, I'm trying to answer a question of why? If, for example, you don't abuse but just use psychoactive drugs in some way, regularly, why? Especially if you like your job or things seem pretty good in your life. I am not judging and don't know the answer. Maybe the query is too broad though, I guess I'm going into this open eyed and open minded and I'll see what patterns emerge.

One thing I don't like is that you seem to repeatedly be asking if people felt "pressured" to take drugs to catch up with their colleagues or what their "fear" is. If you want to know why, you should ask "why", and not push your own narrative with leading questions. I think a lot of people, including myself, would actually tell you that they take performance enhancing drugs simply to make themselves the best version of themselves, not to compete with others. The fact that these people are highly competitive is simply because they are over-achievers.

Thanks for clarifying. I don't have conclusions yet, but I do have ideas and didn't think my questions were leading. So apologize if they seem so. If you don't feel "pressured"--overtly or subvertly--to take a substance but just do it because you think it would be fun, then that's the answer, right? And I'll learn from that.

> If, for example, you don't abuse but just use psychoactive drugs in some way, regularly, why? Especially if you like your job or things seem pretty good in your life.

Given your history I can certainly understand why you frame the issue this way, but I'll point out that this reads to me very much like "Why would you ever ride a rollercoaster, or go on vacation, or watch a movie, if you already like your job? Isn't life good enough?"

Because it's fun, or a change of pace, or just as a break. It really can be just that simple; it doesn't have to be a bulwark against depression or the result of peer pressure or isolation or failure to keep up or Our Modern Dysfunctional Lifestyle or etc.

I'm sorry, but based on this and many of your other followup questions and comments throughout this page it'd be easy to think that you've already decided on your conclusions and are hunting for evidence to support them.

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