From the April 1994 issue of Mensa Bulletin, in a letter to the editor by David Jon Krohn entitled "Legalised Drugs":

The Amsterdam classification of drugs includes coffee, tea and chocolate in the "softest" group.  The active ingredient, caffeine, affects some users in a recognisable way.  These are often taken with sugar (which some believe is also a drug).  Caffeine changes behaviour (witness the office whose coffee machine is down); users seek it regularly; there are recognisable withdrawal symptoms.  The "soft" group also includes marijuana, LSD, peyote and fermented alcohol.

The "hard" group includes distilled alcohol; the highest "hard" category contains the drugs heroin and crack cocaine.

Fermented alcohol (beer, wine) is ranked lower than distilled alcohol (whiskey, aquavit).  Cocaine appears on three levels in different forms - it is made from a lower-level drug (coca); it falls in the middle; with further treatment (and possibly adulteration) it ranks as a higher drug - crack cocaine.  Heroin is made from opium and outranks it on the list.  Hashish is made from marijuana and ranks higher.

Better drug laws would enable governments to disseminate more accurate information (less biased by distorted legislation whose passage was prompted by special-interest groups).  People could be encouraged to learn that drug abuse in any form is an admission of failure to function optimally, that addiction need not be to a drug taken by mouth, nose or needle - anything (objective or subjective) causing pleasurable chemical changes in the brain, if the body comes to depend on it and hurts without it - ●including chocolate, tv, evangelical meetings, voluntarily working with AIDS patients, masturbating, or reading romance, adventure or science fiction novels● - is addictive in susceptible persons.

In the 23 July 1994 issue of The Economist (an article entitled "Lonely Pleasures"), I read that the pinball game known as pachinko is the single most popular recreation among Japanese white-collar workers - a mindlessly simple game to play: flip balls and hope they fall into holes.  If they do, you win more balls or a prize.  There once was an element of skill, but this is eliminated in modern games played on a computer.  It's a sad game, played alone.  Essayist Tsutomu Hayama writes:

The amount of space allocated to each player is extremely small but Japanese are accustomed to a confined space.  At the pachinko parlour they sit in front of a machine, absorbed and fascinated.  Movement and sound are diverting and enable players to experience a blank state of mind and enjoy a sense of detachment, completely heedless of surroundings.

Realising that experimentation with drugs (one of the many ways of achieving altered states of consciousness) is common enough to be called "normal" - at least during young adulthood - should the use of those drugs having the desired effect but with the lowest abuse potential be encouraged (or at least allowed)?  Progress comes from trial and error.  Should people, where possible, be allowed to shape their own lives?