by Robert Darmody

Created on: June 11, 2009   Last Updated: June 24, 2009

In Nogales Mexico, I once purchased some fruit juice from a huge, thick glass container on ice. The colorful, chilled liquid was poured from a ladle into an obviously used, dirt worn paper cup and extended it in my direction. In the midst of my surprise, I decided not to risk embarrassment by being seen as a squeamish 'Gringo sin cojones.' The cool splash of fruit juice relieved my thirst and fortunately, as it turns out, I'm still here four decades later to tell about it.

Where the cup had been, who knows? Divine protection from risky behavior intervened to save me from yet another stupidity in deference to ego. Use of an illegal drug opens one up to similar risks in that you don't know where they've been. There is no regulation of sanitation or accurate dosage. There is no labeling at all.

So, the question begs: Why? What kind of drives motivate one first to seek illegal substances and then on the word of strangers, perhaps in the midst of peer pressure or ego salvation, to risk life and health by ingesting or injecting something of unknown origin?

What kinds of cravings are they and from what depths in the human psyche that they should fuel such recklessness? We're discussing experimentation under this topic, not the inevitable addiction for some, destined to result from ignorant, willful behavior.

Forty years ago in Mexico, it was a day of tortuous heat and relentless Sun, without the cool caress of air conditioning to sooth a spoiled Norteno. The decision was driven by a benign, survival need for something hydrating and life sustaining. A risk was taken, albeit foolish. This somewhat comforting fact enables an old man in the 21st. Century to fashion a small fig leaf of justification to explain behavior that is remarkably similar to that of flirting with the threat of poisoned passage to the 'undiscovered country.'

How does one explain the hunger for something unknown, with no natural nutritive or survival cause? Instinctual exploration to satisfy primary needs of our creaturehood and to perpetuate life can account for our survival as a species since times beyond memory. Yet with forewarning and with the ability to witness, first-hand, the destruction of others who've sought out these substances, the addiction plague continues to expand and undermine the foundation upon which our civilization rests.

Use of substances that have addictive potential when they are considered to be conditionally legal might qualify as self-destructive if an addiction is

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