Laws aside, 'no' is still the right answer on drugs

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It surprises many people to learn that cannabis use originated in ‎Arab cultures. As an Arab myself, I was surprised to learn this fact in a class at the University of Miami with a professor who argued that use of the drug first appeared in the Arab world. It is called hashish, a drug people use to calm down.

Consumption of drugs is largely ‎governed by social conditioning and programming. In the Arab world, smoking is very popular ‎and normalized; however, smoking today is highly stigmatized in the United States. Conversely, drinking ‎alcohol is religiously forbidden and culturally frowned upon in Arab cultures; however, drinking is highly ‎normalized in the United States.

Culture comes first; everything else comes second. We are hardwired to follow our social ‎conditioning. ‎The truth of the matter is that the laws governing cannabis, which are changing in Minnesota, come secondary to cultural ‎norms. We see legalization of cannabis in ‎many states largely because society has become increasingly accepting of its consumption.

A major reason why people consume cannabis is ‎social conditioning — peer pressure, cultural ‎norms. That is the external factor. ‎Another major reason people consume cannabis ‎is to cope with their internal emotional states.

Most people struggle ‎to cope with their emotions — and in the modern world, we are ‎socially conditioned to look for quick, external ‎fixes for our discomfort. We are discouraged from looking to inside sources for ‎solutions because they require hard work and patience to master the process of self-transformation.

When we want to alter our mental state (to ‎have fun), we often turn to external sources such as smoking cannabis or drinking alcohol. Regardless of the ‎cultural meaning we attach to that behavior, the fact that ‎we need drugs to change our emotional state ‎suggests a failure on our part to manage our own emotional state. By extension, this suggests that we fail at being ‎effective human beings, who are capable of managing their emotional ‎states from within.

‎I strongly believe that the most difficult task a human being faces is to learn how to have fun without relying on external aids.

The debate around drugs tends to miss the core point: The question is ‎not whether this or that drug should be regulated, but whether we need to prepare human beings to manage their emotional state internally. That is the ‎hallmark of an effective human being who has reached the enlightened phase of ‎conscious development.

Furthermore, the debate about purely physical effects of drug ‎consumption also misses the more important point. It focuses on ‎the biological effects of consuming this or that drug, while ‎ignoring the spiritual effects.

People consume ‎drugs to fill a spiritual void. When we ask why people consume this or that drug, all the answers can be categorized under one universal principle — to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. ‎

In modern society, we often tend to make the mistake of supposing ‎we do not need spirituality — that we somehow have evolved ‎beyond the need of engaging in personal transformations. ‎This proposition is clearly preposterous given the high rates of ‎misery in modern times, despite our astonishing ‎technological advancements. ‎

Human beings need spiritual ‎nourishment. Unless we take a holistic approach to our ‎challenges, we will miss the core of the matter: When discussing cannabis and its laws, we must remember the ‎fundamental need that drives people to its ‎consumption in the first place. ‎

Discussing the issue from a mere legal perspective is ‎incomplete. We are all on journeys in this life, all hoping to reach self-actualization. If we are consuming this drug or that drug as a shortcut to manage our low emotional state, we are failing to act on our best potential.

Abdulrahman Bindamnan is a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota.