I would never do drugs! I'm not 21 yet, so doing drugs would be illegal, and I don't do illegal things. Don't get me misconstrued. When I say that I did a drug, it's just shorthand for doing a drug in Minecraft.

With that disclaimer out of the way, drugs are amazing. There's a reason why people do them. They are an experience like no other. All you do is drink some tangy drink and everything is so much funnier and blurrier and you remember how much you love your friends and you forget why you hold back. I think not considering alcohol a drug is stupid and simply reflects our social constructions around the acceptability of drugs.

Alcohol is a fun-time drug. I think it's worth it for people to experience, but it's chill. It simply enhances the experience. It separates you a little bit, emotionally. To be fair, I haven't gotten wasted yet so I can't say anything about that. It might be different, I can't say. I think it would be fun and also horrible, so I stick to not a lot. But I think people who are in despair often turn to alcohol because you're still living your life, it's just altered in ways. I haven't tried cigarettes or nicotine, but I would imagine it's very similar. The problem is that alcohol also makes the sadness more intense, so it doesn't really work.

I can't wait until I turn 21 and I get to buy my own alcohol. Leeching off of other people is tiresome and guilt ridden. Is that the right word? I don't know but you get what I mean I think. I don't think I'll be an alcoholic; it usually makes me sad even when I wasn't sad to begin with, so I don't view it as very effective.

Alcohol makes people go crazy. I think you have to be careful. The reason why is because alcohol lowers inhibitions. I think that that can serve a purpose. There's a reason why people make moves romantically or sexually while under the influence. It allows for flexibility. That's why I don't like the perspective that consent can never take place while intoxicated. Obviously if someone is significantly impaired then they aren't in a situation where they can think clearly, and thus they can't give consent. But there's a reason why alcohol is called “liquid courage”. I know that I've made moves while tipsy, or people have made moves on me (rare), and I wouldn't say that it was problematic.

Additionally, the act of drinking alcohol itself, not just the physiological effects, allows for new possibilities. It gives the social permission to be more affectionate, say things in a direct way, etc. I'm not saying that I fake being drunk (although sometimes I play into it, like many people do), but you can't ignore that alcohol creating possibilities is also a sociological phenomenon.

It's like how the pandemic influenced society— some of the changes were due to the disease itself, but others were due to the lockdowns and the abnormality of the time. It allowed for reflection, or changed the normal, or whatever. COVID, drugs — they're catalysts.

That's why I think a world without alcohol would be a worse one in many ways. However, there's a reason why we have inhibitions to begin with. Things can go wrong, and then you deal with the consequences. But I think a world where people do things for the plot, a more fluid world, is better than suppressing desires.

There's also such a risk for miscommunication while drunk or under the influence, which can screw up everything. Or you might not think something through and then it has greater social significance than you thought. I wish we would investigate the intent behind actions, and allow for forgiveness.

But alcohol isn't the star of the show this weekend. It's weed. Marijuana. Cannabis. 420 blazing. Why can't there be a standard name for it? Maybe cannabis is supposed to be that. Idk

I've done weed a handful of times, and it's a different beast. I don't think weed is a fun-time drug in the same way. You can definitely do activities while high, but it doesn't just enhance the experience—it's an entirely new one.

You think your experience of the universe is stable until you take a few hits of a blunt and suddenly you're puppeteering your own body. Every few seconds I alternate between being on autopilot and being hyper-aware of everything. It's an experience that I think everyone should have.

Everything feels profound when you're high, and that makes me super intellectual. I start philosophizing, and because I'm in a different mode of existence, I can come up with ideas I otherwise would have never thought of.

To me, doing weed is something of a spiritual experience. It's not that I'm getting closer to God or some shit like that, but it's that it alters your consciousness to the extent that you remember you're alive. Not to get weird but sometimes when I get really high I do feel like I'm in a different dimension or something. I feel like I'm seeing the three-dimensional universe from four-dimensional walls, in the same way you view a two-dimensional surface in a three-dimensional world. I feel more distant from my experience in a way that is difficult to explain. Like how you sort of feel farther from the real world when you're deep in thought or imagining something, but on steroids.

Getting high makes me remember how crazy living really is. I find more appreciation for the qualia that I experience. You feel things so much more vividly. It's not that you think something is funnier, it's that you feel more funny. I don't know how to describe it other than that it's not a change in quantity but in quality, and even that isn't exactly true. How about this: you can draw a line with a pencil, and the line can be thin or thick. Doing weed is like drawing the same line but with a black sharpie. It's the same line, same thickness, but more intense. I don't know, you just have to do it.

You also have really weird associations. “You're so raspberry right now dude.” “Bro everything is 5.” I feel an intense nostalgia and profundity, almost like going to a long lost home. I also hear that's what dying feels like. Sweet!

Metacognition goes hard while high. I feel the different currents of my thinking. I think about something and then I'm simultaneously thinking about associations with that thing to which I switch my primary thought pattern to.

I want to make sure that my brain doesn't go to shit, and so I don't do weed too often. Also “doing weed” is a weird phrase, but I want to be inclusive of all methods. There is a difference between smoking weed and doing edibles. Edibles almost feel smoother whereas smoking feels choppy. The first time I got high I felt like life turned into a choppy animation. I felt life in a framerate. I don't feel that with edibles, I just feel more removed. I like to do edibles more, just because I don't like smoking and I'm not good at it. No one teaches you these things!! But you can't really fuck up with edibles. We all know how to eat.

Anyway, I want to make sure that my brain doesn't go to shit, so I don't do weed too often. But people don't talk about how doing weed is mind-opening. Maybe they do, I don't know. Like alcohol, it opens up possibilities—but in this case, it's mentally. Hippies and weed are connected for a reason.

Doing weed is fun though. It's very relaxing. I have vivid dreams. I watched Cocaine Bear while high once and it was the funniest movie I've ever watched. Unsure if it would still be funny when sober, but I think being high is the intended method of watching Cocaine Bear. Everything is funny, but also weird. Things feel weird, and that's fun. You do get paranoid though, so I don't really go in public while high; I stay with trusted friends. If I've been high around you, consider that a compliment of the highest degree.

So, for 4/20 tomorrow, I will be high. I can't wait to smell the residential quad. And I encourage you to try alcohol or weed when you're in college. Not just because it's fun, but because I think it's a really incredible part of being alive. In Minecraft.