Responses on: "Do you have any additional comments? Please feel free to write as much as you wish, as mentioned above the more information you give the better."

Informant #279475: I use almost every type of drug in almost every type of way(ROA), but I only use marijuana continuously.

Informant #279607: I think psychedelic drugs are the best. I have done LSD many times and have had no I'll effects.

Informant #279643: smoke some weeeeeeed

Informant #279835: To clarify: Heroin does not cause a 'trip', as stated in question 8. I stopped using because I chose to, not because it made me sick. Good luck on your research project and future endeavors. Please share with us the final data when it is available.

Informant #280040: Some of the question options were very limiting. I felt there was no way to show the difference between the amount I use drugs - for instance coffee, tobacco, and psychedelics are all used "sometimes" and not "often", but the rates are very different - perhaps once or twice a week for coffee, once or twice a month for tobacco, and one to three times a year for psychedelics. Also, these things change - right now I haven't used cannabis is several weeks, but at some point in the next year I might smoke it five times a week for a month. At other times, I might not use it for several months. Also, having no "other" option for the question on the legal minimum age for cannabis use doesn't seem the best - I didn't really like any of the options I was given. The question on "how do you usually use drugs" seems completely nonsensical - it of course depends on which drug is being consumed. I smoke tobacco; smoke or eat cannabis; eat, drink, or smoke psychedelics; drink coffee and tea; drink alcohol; eat, drink, inhale, or smoke opiates; eat chocolate; eat or inhale amphetamine, etc. I only selected "drinking" because I would say I drinking alcohol, tea, or coffee happens more often in my life than any other route. But possibly smoking happens more often, I couldn't really say.

Informant #280051: While smoking pot did not make me want to try other drugs, I concede that if I had not smoked pot, I most likely would never have randomly attempted another drug first. I also believe that if I had chosen another "crowd" or close friends rather than the ones I have, I may have easily either: never have tried any drug other than alcohol & tobacco OR, would have probably been using other drugs like cocaine, etc. Additionally, while my drug of choice is LSD, I use it maybe once a month.

Informant #280378: Well I think the word "drug" is a horrible one. It allows one to lump a whole plethora of chemicals that range a spectrum of effects together. It's hard to compare the effects of lsd used for the purpose of Exploration self with meth used just to get "really high". Well i dont wanna rant about my view on drugs. First thing i tryed was cigarette i stole from my parents at age seven. I hated it. A few years later I tryed em again but i never inhaled. So from then on i would steal a cigarette once in a blue moon but not inhale it. Then i tryed cannabis when I was 12. What was the reasoning around this? Curosity. I stole some from a friend's dad and smoked it by myself. I never tryed it again until i moved to the city(denver) when i was 14. Out there i tryed quite a few thing and I i would saying i was using substances for the purpose of bordom and angst agianst my situation. I was nearing twards the side of abuse Since then my substance use has decreased and is more of one of growth and pure recreation.

Informant #280573: Drug use is not a bad thing as long as you have control of your behavior. What I do in the privacy of my home or other private location with friends shouldn't be anyones concern other than my own.

Informant #280972: <3

Informant #281420: currently am off opiates. ive struggled with them since age 15, went to rehab for 3 months at a mental institute, then changed location when released. during high school i was fairly normal, would party and drink, do coke. started in with oxycodone around a year ago, used actively for around 8 months, and was placed on soboxone. tapered off that in about a month and a half, and was clean for several months. recently had about a month long relapse and its been almost two weeks since using any opiate.

Informant #283446: Hi, what's up? I hope you are really cute, I just bet you are!

Informant #284273: I smoke in the evening, but remain sober for the majority of the day. I only smoke when it's time to lay back and relax, and I don't smoke at all when I feel stressed out. I enjoy taking psychedelics. Use varies from once every weekend to a hand full of times a year. In the past I've used a wide range of drugs, but came to find marijuana and typical psychedelics a good place to settle down. I am an undergraduate college student, currently getting strait A's through all of my classes. I also work full time as a robotics/machine operator.

Informant #284601: Control is key. Believing people can't control themselves is only going to cause problems. While it's true that many people can't, the problem generally doesn't lie within the individual...

Informant #284950: I started smoking ciggarettes and then marijuana, followed by alcohol, which lead me to my pill addiciton which lasted a few years and is not fully over. The use of rollz and cocaine led me to stay away from the pills and then i moved into only pure MDMA and not 'rollz' and then i became sick of that high, now i only smoke my cigs with weed occasionally, and some weekends i go out and drink or get a few pills like benzo's or opoids and relax. I would deffinately say alcohol was my gateway drug, as opposed to marijuana.

Informant #285025: Just f***ing legalize it all. It would bring the country out of debt, but regulate it like alcohol and tobacco, our crime rate would go down, plants would open and unemployment would go down. There is no way the black market will go away. And as long as it stays illegal, there will be drug cartels, prisons over crowded, beatings, prostitution, more country deficit to fight a losing war, and people will keep dying in the streets to make that money. That's what it's all about, that money.

Informant #285053: bitches aint shit but hoes and tricks

Informant #285102: I'm an everyday user of weed, but believe I should cut down a little bit. There are certain other drugs that I believe should be legalized, or at least de-criminalized. I live in downtown Toronto if that helps the study at all.

Informant #285146: I smoke Marijuana daily. It does have a negative affect on my life. It is a depressant. Naturally, I have depression issues. I did not start smoking at all until I was 18 and was introduced to it through my mother, not friends or peers. Did not become a daily habit until 23, which means I did not find it addictive in a chemical sense. Now that I'm a daily smoker, it's a habit, not an addiction. I do other activities that I associate with smoking marijuana, primarily among them, gaming. The two go hand in hand for me. Makes for poorer performance in games I play more often than not, but it's still enjoyable. I have never, and will never, do anything harder than mushrooms. This has been easy for me to accomplish because I've seen the destruction that other drugs can bring. Even marijuana is bad enough. It makes you lazy, and it costs a fair amount as well.

Informant #285542: I'd just like to say that misinformation about drugs creates a far more serious situation than educating about them would. No one can argue that knowing what you're getting into when you pick up a drug is safer than having tons of misconceptions about them. Especially if those misconceptions were given to them by their teachers, parents, and police officers. People are going to do drugs, whether they're illegal or not. People like to feel good, they like to feel different. They have for thousands of years. Drugs can be bad, but they can also increase quality of life a lot if used responsibly. Education about them and dropping all the scare tactics is the first step to responsible use.

Informant #285984: I think its natural to want to experiment with the mind. Also i think people like to escape this crazy reality sometimes. It's Is a shame the only drug thats legal, alcohol, does nothing for you, but plants like mushrooms and cannabis, plants that make you see through all the BS in this world, they are illegal. its all about the money i guess

Informant #286195: Due to prohibition I rarely get the chance to use the drugs of choice. Therefor I've mostly been using substances I would other wise stay clear of. Not saying they are bad, but things almost always go in that direction for. I've had some very rough times with my drug use which has forced me into taking time of every now and then, but I still prefer to use some drugs at least. The bad thing about this is the fact that I believe illegal drugs are putting many users in a lot of danger due to things of this nature. People just need something and they will be using it, if drugs were legal the market would be safe and drug users in a much better place over all. Current drug prohibition is ruining loads of things for all society and I think this will need to be changed soon.

Informant #286352: Pills, lots of pills, stimulants opiates muscle relaxants tryptamines DMT GHB No2 sedatives tranqulizers..

Informant #289030: Marijuana is amazing and lsd is f***ing crazy hahaha in a good way

Informant #293344: Most drugs used other than pot were years ago. Now interested in RCs

Informant #310726: I F***ING LOVE COCAINE

Informant #358621: My drug use started out as a way to get out and party. But it moved into a more personal setting and became more introspective and less reckless. As I have gained more insite into substances the risks lower.

Informant #393227: i smoke snort and drink

Informant #402818: I often use Gamma Hydroxybutyrate/juuuuuiiiice! (full pulls) brb blowing out.

Informant #416753: love xanax but definitely had very bad effects from using them ...seizures mainly and the worst jugdment calls I've made were all made while on them, but I still love the high from them. The stealing is what I really don't get. Never do I do it sober and never have I done it on any other drug. I've even heard friends of mine say they would steal for some reason too after they tried them and some of these people don't do any drugs at all they've just experimented with a few. If someone has a logical reason for this behavior related to xanax abuse I'd love to hear it because I still can't wrap my head around it.

Informant #429512: As to the last question I smoke, eat, and drink some drugs every day.

Informant #449166: I love snorting adderall

Informant #449172: I'm more or less willing to try anything as long as I know a fair amount about the substance in question. Having learned as much as I have about heroin and methamphetamine I will most likely never touch them. I'll also never shoot anything, far too great a risk. San Francisco and the Bay Area, and down to Santa Cruz are areas where drugs of all types are readily available, which I think has definitely added to my stance on drugs and my usage in general.

Informant #450714: The first drug I ever tried was given to me by a doctor, it was Adderall for ADD. I was only ten years old and I am certain that adderall messed with my brain and had negative effects on my still growing brain. I've hated doctors ever since. How dare he give Amphetamine (which is what adderall is) to a child to take every single day. I used to be hooked on Benzodiazepines but have since quit and now I only use Cannabis and Kratom to combat my social anxiety. They do wonders.

Informant #452465: Besides marijuana, I also enjoy Hydrocodone/Oxycodone and Alprazolam. I do those two substances MAYBE once a week. I have not yet had any problems with tolerance being too high or addiction to anything except nicotine. I smoke cigarettes because I literally enjoy smoking them. Once I start smoking 10+ cigs a day and only smoke to maintain an addiction, I will quit. I am also prescribed and take daily (200mg) Sertraline and (10mg) Methylphenidate LA. I used to enjoy doing DXM but I had to stop because I am on an SSRI and that puts me at a risk of serotonin syndrome. Three times I have tripped on low doses of Diphenhydramine which I did not find as frightening as people make it out to be. I am quite high on marijuana right now and thoroughly enjoyed writing this. Now I am going to put some eyedrops in and go upstairs to play Scattergories with my family.

Informant #452469: Naturally occurring drugs are much more reputable in my book than anything man made.

Informant #453523: Inhalation, as in using a vaporizer for marijuana.

Informant #456255: Smoking for marijuana, insufflation for cocaine and MDMA

Informant #456321: As for #4 the individual drug is the deciding factor for the ROA. If its LSD I eat or hold it in my mouth, if it is weed i smoke it, if its an opiate I eat or IV it. the question is not very well thought out. just because people like to smoke doesnt mean that they can smoke all the diferent types of drugs. And for #2, my drug of choise is slowly switching from psychidelics to opiets as i have started to use opiets and have started to become addicted or atleast habituated to there use. I would like to make a statement to cover the overall question that was presented to me for this survey as a whole. "why do people use drugs?" Well I use them primarily to "feel good", secondly I use them to have insight into life, reality, and myself. It all started whith a desire to see all that could be seen and to understand more than was presented to us on a dayly basis. This however turned into purly seeking gratification and searching for euphoria instead of trying to find the answers. I started to "I just want to feel good" all the time. I think it was the opiets that started this behavior. when I hadnt tried them yet I had a vigor and lust for life. Now I "just want to feel good"! I am still intregued by the search for knowledge, but constantly find myself uncosiously seeking out the opiets instead.

Informant #473185: I find the term gateway drug very overly used everyone has self constraint and will set their mind to what they want their limits to be. If someone is going to try heroin from the use of marijuana i would find that complete and utter bullshit pardon my french but all my friends have set standards as to what drugs they will stick too even before the use of cannabis or alcohol. If anything i would call the legal alcohol the gateway drug because it is one of the most addictive and mind altering experiences you will have which will soon make you more curious as to trying other substances

Informant #484280: I put alcohol as my drug of choice only because I have always been an alcoholic. Since I tried meth a few months ago, I've been using it every weekend, and it has made me not want to drink, as on meth alcohol has no effect. Weed also doesn't have much effect on meth, so I've cut down on that too. I know I have an addictive personality, and am a little worried that I will let meth creep into my weekday use instead of keeping it on the weekends. Also, I'm worried it will give me a heartattack or stroke or something, and really--I don't want to die. But it feels so good, and lasts so long, and is so inexpensive. I know, as an overweight woman of almost 50, many people would think it insane that I start using meth. My mother died just 2 weeks before I started using, on my 49th birthday with my younger brother, who is a regular user. Thing is, I have a good job, and a home, and a teenager. I CANNOT let my drug use interfere with my life at all. And actually, since it keeps me away from booze, which causes me to black out, it's almost a GOOD thing. meth just makes me feel good, have no aches and pains, lots of energy, and slightly eufforic for 8-10 hours!!

Informant #490131: On the questions I answered used to until it made me sick should be until I was tired of the way that I felt the next day. The answers "I can't stop" should be "I don't want to" for marijuana, and, "I no longer suffer from migraines & I do not get upper respiratory infections that for 20 years straight I suffered every summer, since I started using methamphetamine on a regular basis. It also helps me to live without chronic back pain I have had since I was 28 years old when an accident ripped the muscles all the way down away from the left side of my spine. It now has a permanent 'S' curve, which has taken away almost 2" of height. I still wake up in so much pain that I need either a cane or to use a rope hanging from my ceiling with a horizontal handle that I installed over the bed.

Informant #509141: You completely left out stimulants, prescription pills, most depressants... why? Could have been a bigger survey.