Okay, real talk.
I'm old. I've done more than my share of partying. I used to volunteer for a harm reduction organization that went to raves and music festivals, set up a tent and tested people's pills for them to tell them, on the spot, what was in the drugs they were about to consume. (We were usually able to do this with the blessing of local law enforcement because they were more interested in kids not dying than in busting low level users.) While a lot of you were in kindergarten, I was spending almost every weekend doing this. I won't pretend that I didn't spend the other weekends having a few adventures of my own.
But then, I started having more and more reasons to dial that back. My volunteering inspired me to go to nursing school. I worked hard to get a nursing license, and realized that one stupid mistake could cost me all that I worked for. As an OR nurse, I had access to pure, pharmaceutical ketamine, opiates, benzos, etc. It wouldn't have been hard to find ways to dip into that supply. Some people did give into those kinds of temptations, and were caught. I knew a promising resident whose career ended that way. I knew of nurses that died that way. I know a doctor who has been unable to work in medicine in over 10 years because of an addiction.
They told me in nursing school that 15% of health care providers have problems with substance abuse. I think that estimate is ridiculously low. We are intelligent, curious people... and intelligent, curious people are more likely to want to experiment with altering consciousness. It isn't just about getting high, about feeling good. There is a desire to explore what our minds can do when augmented, how we can see and experience things from different perspectives. I really, really understand that attraction.
But here is the thing: there are intrinsic and extrinsic dangers that make the risk to benefit ratio on drug use unfavorable for health care professionals. It puts us at risk of legal and professional sanctions that can be devastating and can undo all that we've worked to accomplish. You can argue about whether that should be the case, but it is the reality we face, and talking about how unfair it is won't save you when you lose everything. Imagine what it would feel like if you were to find out that you couldn't ever be a doctor over a decision to use an illegal substance. Really try to feel what that would like, how doors to your future would slam shut and your options would dwindle. It just isn't worth it.
And forgetting all the external consequences... even the more benign recreational substances carry risk of harm when they are used without respect. Set and setting, right? Dr. Timothy Leary was all about his hallucinogens, but he was also big on the idea that they had to be used responsibly. You are in or entering a phase of your life where you are going to be under significant mental and physical stresses. You won't possibly be in the kind of peaceful, reverent head space that might be expected to support a positive experience. Instead, you will be tinkering around with the underpinnings of your psyche at a time when those aren't going to be particularly well attached in the first place. That is poor psychedelic stewardship, for sure.
Speaking of stress... the temptation will be there to use substances as a coping mechanism. The more ease with which you can access them, the stronger that temptation is going to be. Can you just believe an old head when he tells you that never works out well? Or at least, not nearly as well as developing some healthier coping mechanisms that aren't reliant on substances?
Seriously, if you are talking about how 3 months might be too long to go without using anything, then you aren't just at risk of developing a problem with substance abuse. You have one. Right now. And it has the potential to get a lot worse. If you can't go 3 months without using any recreational substances, you need to get some help with that now. Because when the pressure is on during school, or residency, and beyond, you may find that you have a lot less control over your use than you'd like to think that you do. Your career is too valuable. Your life is too valuable, to risk it at a time like this, for so little gain.
Don't be another stupid smart person. I know this is a wall of text, but I've seen so many people screw up their lives and if I could go back in time and say something, do something to get them to make better choices, I'd do ANYTHING for that chance. The next best thing I can do is to try to grab one of you reading this by the shoulders and shake some sense into you. Please, please, don't be one more person who screws up their shot at their dreams, not over something so trivial and fleeting. It just isn't worth it.
