How Commonly Abused Substances Affect The Conscious

[ZX_man]

I'm speaking mostly about marijuana and alcohol. I feel like these two substances in particular are heavily used/abused in modern culture. Both substances are used for a multitude of things including social purposes, coping purposes, etc. They also have a wide range of effects on different people, both heavily positive and heavily negative effects. 

It would be really interesting and helpful, especially to a college student pursuing personal development who is constantly surrounded by such substances, to hear how they both effect the consciousness. Also, reasons why they can/can't and should/shouldn't be used as personal development tools similar to psychedelics.

Thanks for reading! I'm also open to anyone else if they want to input on the subject.

[Evilwave Heddy]

Good question.  I currently drink a bottle of wine a week and can't see it doing any harm to my consciousness.  But that's just me after all.  Usually I tend to be more conscious when drinking.  I only ever drink by myself though, so that might explain some things.

I also smoked marijuana for some time, but the more I became interested in personal development, the sooner I just stopped smoking it.  I didn't stop because it was having negative affects on my progress (which it didn't). I stopped because I just didn't need it anymore.  I also believe that if it wasn't for marijuana I wouldn't have stumbled upon all this personal development stuff and enlightenment...or maybe I would have.  Who knows.

My take on it all is that it's not the substance that is bad, it's the user.