Floodgates

Simplify.

 
The reason I begin this entry with this word is to draw attention to the idea that compounding complexity can cloud an understanding of the subject at hand. It references the endless scientific data that is being generated and sifted through with the intention of either promoting or demoting its acceptance. 

 

The concern here is the use of cannabis. I speak as a chronic user. The only factor currently limiting my use is money. I began using the substance after an intense semester of mathematical studies. I feel that I've been at a steady decline ever since.

 

The first image that comes to mind is a rave or concert, where there are thousands of attendees smoking the herb whilst being bathed in light and sound. 

 

Let us consider the basic effect of the use of cannabis.

 

Dopamine already exists in the brain, and its utility is to reinforce useful behavior or thoughts. When the drug is used, it forces this feeling - the feeling one would normally receive after achieving something that yielded results. Harvesting wood or crops, killing your food - the basics of survival.

 

The problem with the rave or concert example is that all of these people are reinforcing the behavior of celebration. It is understandable that a populace would be rewarded with festivities after a great challenge had been overcome, or a surplus acquired. 

 

But forcing open the floodgates of pleasure has consequences.

 

The individual becomes weaker, thinks less critically. They tend to look forward to a similar event, rather than building themselves stronger.

 

I myself am a victim of this. I have spent a great deal of time playing video games.

 

On one spectrum - the content I flooded my senses with had me maneuvering armies, making trades, and defeating my opponent by efficiently controlling my assets.

 

On another, I would be operating on a smaller scale as a soldier among many - lending my processing capacity to an understanding of positioning and formations and making my movements according to the will of others.

 

These behaviors may be constructive, but I was forcing myself past moderate use through the consumption of cannabis. I could live in my virtual worlds so long as I had food in my stomach, WiFi range, and pot in my pipe.

 

I now work a mindless occupation shipping boxes all day with the same group of people around me that I hardly speak to. Hours of isolation. At the end of the day I return to an empty house where my morale wavers and I think up ideas that I might begin but won't finish.