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Drugs are one of the biggest scourges of modern society on a variety of levels.

Children are particularly vulnerable and susceptible to their effects.

We have taken every step we can think of to rid them from our schools and communities but the scourge grows ever larger with each passing year.

So, what can we do that will have a lasting and sustained reversal of this trend?

Albert Einstein has often been quoted as saying, ‘You can’t solve a problem using the same thinking that created it.

So, then, we need to change the way we think, process the information, and our perceptions, our consciousness,  about drugs.

I propose to do this in the following way:

And it starts with the questions: Why do humans want to get high?

And, why do humans want to alter their consciousness?

The immediate answer to this should be fairly obvious.

When life is experienced or perceived (in the mind) as painful, that is stressed, then the drive to feel good becomes stronger.

We often explain the use of drugs as forms of escapism or pain avoidance.

This is part of a natural, biological survival strategy driven by the lower, autonomic parts of the brain (Brainstem & Limbic System).

There are many ways to alter or change consciousness (states of mind) that range from more ‘ordinary’ ways that bring pleasure such as exercise, getting lost in a good movie/book or watching a favourite sport to using sex, drugs and/or alcohol.  

What stands behind this underlying drive to get ‘high’, to shift away from pain and toward pleasure?

‘High’ is an interesting use of the word because ‘Up’ is the direction that all spiritual traditions have looked in the quest to reconnect with ‘The Source of All’.

In modern terms, the Source of Everything is The Universe.

Science has recently confirmed that the composition of the Universe is but a mere 4.9% ‘ordinary’ matter – substances, compounds and molecules that are composed of atoms that are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons, and their composite particles.

The balance of 95.1% is known as Dark Energy (68.3%) and Dark Matter (26.8%) – dark because we cannot measure or see it, but, based on our observations of gravitational force and the expansion of the known Universe, we know that these 2 phenomena are present.

This stuff of the Universe, all 3 components that we ‘know’, is what composes us as human beings.

Ninety-five percent of it, we don’t even know what it is, and probably 95% of ‘ordinary’ matter we don’t really understand either.

And like TV and radio waves, these components flow through us and are around us all the time.

We can see some of their effects, but we can’t see them or experience them directly.

So, we can’t really say what all of this is, except that It Is.

However, what we can say is that this Source/Universe, is what gives rise to us as human beings.

In other words, life as we know it.

It is present inside of us and outside of us, whether we are conscious of it or not.

This is the origin of each of us. We come from and are of Source.

And as children grow up in this world, they (we) become increasingly materialized (4.9%) in our awareness and the connection with Source (the other 95.1%) becomes weakened.

As we get older, the natural tendency of joy, love and freedom so beautifully expressed in the young child, dissipates as burdens and responsibilities grow.

Yet, because Source is our very composition, we retain this connection.

We feel this deep inside us at subconscious levels.

This is the source of the drive to get ‘High’, to change consciousness, to feel good in the face of discomforts and pain.

When we feel good, we are getting closer to Source, the natural state of joy, love and freedom from which we originate.

High is Home, High is Source, High is our Origin.

But you don’t need to risk yourself, your family and your society by using drugs to get there.

There are ways that you can get high and maintain it without the use of substances.

Happiness, joy and positivity are natural states of consciousness available to every human being in every moment. It’s called “Getting High on Life”.

And this is accessible when we are free to be curious, to wonder, feel gratitude for and appreciate the miracle that Life is, and to bring our Consciousness into the present moment.

Pain and suffering exist in the past, worry and doubt in the future, both of which are mental states in which we dwell, most of our days and most of our lives, because that is the way we have learned to think.

When we understand this, we can learn and teach ourselves how to increase our own levels of ‘feel goodness’ and reconnection; that is Presence.

It takes a bit of practice but you can feel the effects almost immediately.

Then, teach our children and young people techniques and strategies that will allow them to reconnect (‘get high’) in natural ways. Meditation (quietening the busy mind); body strength & exercise; mental training, strength and exercise; mindfulness; a study in one of the arts; contemplation; balanced nutrition for body and brain; reduced or virtual elimination digital systems and screens, self-observation and ego-training and daily rituals are a composite of strategies that encourage balance, inner well-being and the ability to retain a consciousness of Source.

Drug highs are a hazardous and temporary way that a person tries to reconnect without being conscious of it.

The drug industry exploits this without even knowing why getting high is so popular.

Such organizations are based on a consciousness of absolute materialism (4.9% of Source!). This is unconsciousness, in the extreme.

But anytime we expose unconsciousness and bring it into the Light, Darkness becomes less dark and it loses power.

Could anything be more important?

There has been no more critical a time in human history than to shine light on such an issue that is at the foundation of our dysfunctional societies.

Our destiny on this planet depends on it.

Let us arm ourselves and our children with the knowledge and consciousness that is appropriate to their age so they grow into an awareness of what they are really seeking in ways that they can feel and experience as true for themselves as individuals.

Then, the world of drugs will lose its power over us, our children and societies.

There will be no more need for a ‘War on Drugs’. We cannot win by fighting anyway. Everyone loses.

So, let us disengage from ‘The War’ and engage a new strategy through practically empowering consciousness that will bring us closer to ‘Home’.

And when we do that, there, we will experience Peace.

In the words of American Architect & Philosopher, Buckminster Fuller:

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model, that makes the existing model obsolete.”

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About David Hesketh, MSc. Neuroscience & Education