Just my limited world: the people that have been the most abusive have been the loudest, preaching of the straight and narrow road that must be followed to be good, to gain slavation. These people would never think to use drugsm not even cigarettes.
Then there's the people who have experimented, or regulary used, or terribly abused certain substances - I'm thinking of marijuana and ecstasy, primarily. Those are the ones that people I know have regularly used. Add in occasional use of psychedelics - mushrooms, LSD, ayahuasca, ketamine - and there's a somehwat larger group to survey.
In my life, the straight and narrow types have been...challenging. As I said, abusive, verbally, physically, emotionally. Sexually.
The "druggies" have been inquisitive, caring, mellow.
There have been bad trips in the substance using crowds - and sometimes that was clearly about seeing things about themselves that were hard to accept.
There has been mental illness and mind control in the straight and narrow crowd.
So, this in no way is meant to excuse bad behavior nor encourage drug use - or even stereotype one group versus another. It is merely some observations I have been in a position to make.
Anyone that has done traditional therapy will have come across dark parts of themselves as they struggle to find their way, if they have been working to any degree with honesty and a willingness to face their own whole selves.
If someone can reach a degree of honesty about seeing theose parts of ourselves that we tend to deny - they will only get my respect. Some may need altered states to see clearly when they come back, others may use therapy to work on themselves - for some few, perhaps seeing the world from the perspective of love realized is all that it takes.
Most of us cause harm to each other - hopefully it's usually a small slight, due to inattention or a lapse of conscientiousness. The more we are aware of our potentials - for good and for bad - the more we can make loving choices.
